The report ‘The road to resilience: managing and financing cyber risks’, published by the Council in collaboration with Swiss Re Corporate Solutions and Marsh & McLennan companies, was launched at the Energy Day in Berlin, Germany, on 29 September. The report investigates how cyber risks can be managed taking into account the changing nature of the energy industry and energy infrastructure. ‘The road to resilience: managing cyber risks’ is the third in a series of reports that addresses the need for more investment and system change to increase resilience towards emerging risks, besides cyber threats, also including extreme weather and the energy-water-food nexus.
The ‘road to resilience – managing the risks of the energy-water-food nexus’, is the second risk dimension investigated as part of the “Financing Resilient Energy Infrastructure” initiative. The first report in the series, ‘The road to resilience – managing and financing extreme weather risk’, recommended moving towards a more systemic understanding of resilience, in order to best manage extreme weather risks.
This report takes a deep-dive approach to investigate the systemic risks of the energy-water-food nexus, and examines the integrated coordination that is needed for financing resilience. The report methodology is based on contributions from experts in 92 countries. Case studies have been submitted from the energy, insurance, financial, and academic communities to highlight the impact, obstacles and solutions that countries have taken to manage the impacts of the energy-water-food nexus.
The World Energy Council, Marsh and McLennan Companies, and Swiss Re Corporate Solutions have joined forces with the specialist support of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development,and over 175 global experts. New emerging risks are posing threats to the energy sector, impacting both the physical structures and the investment needed to evolve the energy system to a more sustainable future. This extreme weather report specially looked at the frequency, severity and exposure of the energy value chain to extreme weather events. It then proposes solutions on how to create systemic resilient energy infrastructures and how to finance it. The report finds that the number of extreme weather events increased more than 4 times from only 38 events in 1980 to 174 events in 2014. Although the energy sector has focused on transitioning in the long-term, the understanding of the vulnerability to risks now has been largely unaddressed, leaving energy systems exposed and the financial risk in energy investments increased.
