The effects of extreme environmental events such as droughts, floods, heatwaves and violent storms go beyond the physical impacts, causing global economic losses that approach $500 billion each year. In this CMCC Lecture, Professor Gregory Characklis from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will examine how environmental extremes can affect the costs and revenues of both public and private-sector actors, generating financial instability that can be disruptive and influence decisionmaking in significant ways. Understanding the nature of these risks requires integrated modeling of natural (for example, hydrologic), engineered (like reservoirs) and economic and financial systems (like electricity markets). But characterizing the financial risks is just the first step: they also must be managed. This is often achieved with a combination of actions and tools that involve risk reduction (such as infrastructure), risk retention (for example, cash reserves) and risk transfer (like insurances). For the most severe events, risk transfer via more sophisticated financial instruments can be especially effective in enabling advanced risk management strategies that are both adaptable and cost-effective. Join the discussion as the Lecture explores approaches to characterising financial risk in coupled natural-engineered-economic systems, draws on recent studies at the forefront of the field and presents strategies for managing the financial risk of environmental extremes on economic sectors such as urban water utilities, electric power utilities, inland navigation and the housing market. This online event is organized by CMCC. The CMCC Foundation – Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) is an international, independent research center that provides state-of-the-art climate science for adaptation and mitigation strategies. Through a multidisciplinary approach that integrates climate modelling, Earth system science, economics, social sciences and impact analysis, CMCC delivers the knowledge, data and analyses that policymakers, businesses and communities need to make science-based decisions on climate change – from the global to the local scale. www.cmcc.it – Climate Insight for Global Impact