4.6. Climate and Economy

Climate research benefits the following industries:

♤ Insurance

♤ Tourism

♤ Construction

♤ Energy

♤ Transport

♤ Sport

♤ Retail Food

♤ Retail Clothing

The insurance industry offers financial protection against climate-related damage. This includes direct impacts from damage due to flood, frost, wind etc. Climate research can help reduce the costs to insurers by quantifying the probability of extreme events, providing year-ahead forecasts and identifying vulnerable regions. There is a peak time of tourists to a particular place. This peak time is directly related to the climate of that particular place. For instance, hilly cold areas’ peak time coincide with summer time.

Wind is a potential renewable source of energy in every country. Wind atlas of different region and at different altitude is a crucial input to decide the location and height of wind turbines. Similarly, hydro-electricity plants are established in areas which have continuous supply of water either through glacial or rain.

Transport sectors such as air, shipping etc. are directly impacted by the climate or weather. High altitude ports are frozen during winter season which makes them inaccessible for such period. Atmospheric disturbances, extreme weather conditions such as fog, cold waves etc. interrupts the flights’ schedule. Roads are specially designed for areas which faces extreme weather conditions.