The Systemic Risk Assessment Tool (SRAT) refers to ground-breaking technology that was developed to assist countries that are most vulnerable to extreme weather events associated with climate change, to build their resilience. The SRAT was launched in Jamaica on May 3, 2022 by the global Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment (CCRI).

Jamaica is the first country to complete the development of the Systemic Risk Assessment Tool (J-SRAT), which was designed by Oxford University in collaboration with the Jamaican Government and support from the CCRI, as well as the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.

Jamaica’s population, infrastructure and economic assets are highly exposed to extreme weather, such as hurricanes, tropical storms and flooding events that are expected to become more intense and frequent, given the impacts of climate change. Adaptation is therefore key to building the resilience of the country’s major infrastructure assets.

J-SRAT has been developed to help identify ‘hotspots’ across the country’s major infrastructure networks including energy, water and transport that are most vulnerable to climate risk. This ensures the effective and efficient investment of public and private resources.

Key features of the Jamaica Systemic Risk Assessment Tool

These include:-

• The delivery of high resolution and visual analysis in accurately identifying hotspots of vulnerability across critical infrastructure.
• The cutting-edge capabilities of J-SRAT allow Jamaica to assess practical impacts of increasingly severe weather events on specific services, such as more frequent water or power shortages caused by infrastructure damage.
• The government will have full control of J-SRAT, with CCRI and its partners also committed to ensuring the innovative methodology is freely available worldwide, which will accelerate global efforts to invest in climate-resilient infrastructure.
• J-SRAT’s ability to accurately calculate the damage and economic losses from future climate risks gives decision-makers and private sector investors the confidence to prioritize infrastructure that will be more resilient and capable of withstanding future climate impacts.

The innovative predictive technology underpinning the tool is based on proven analytical methods developed by Oxford University.

About the J-SRAT Project

In addition to building capabilities for the assessment and management of climate risks, the J-SRAT will support the generation of several investment needs in Jamaica, aimed at attracting both private and public sources.

The pilot, co-developed and scoped in partnership with the Government of Jamaica, started developing and testing the J-SRAT tool early in 2021.

In developing the J-SRAT there was collaboration with public and private sector stakeholders to obtain national key input data and to work towards developing models to identify points of network climate

vulnerability. Results from the initial network assessment were used in an input-output model of the Jamaican economy to measure the macro-economic impacts of the simulated disruptions.

This was then used to estimate the total macro-economic impacts, in terms of reduced Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The team of modellers, led by Oxford University, developed a country case to share with national stakeholders, providing perspective and clarity on the uses of the tool and the benefits of obtaining such analysis for investment decision-making.

The next phase of the project seeks to utilize and build on the opportunities presented by the implementation of the J-SRAT to inform more effective and climate resilient policy and decision-making. Ultimately, the J-SRAT will contribute to the design of projects that will accelerate investment in climate resilient infrastructure in Jamaica.

About the Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment

The Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment is a broad-based, global coalition which aims to ‘mainstream’ climate risks in investment decision-making. It was launched formally at the UN Climate Action Summit in 2019. The Coalition currently comprises 123 institutions, including institutional investors, banks, rating agencies, engineering firms and insurance companies, representing US$25tn of financial assets.