Manuel’s dream is simple yet profound: to live without the fear of floods; and it’s possible for him, alongside his communities, to achieve that. With support, communities can — and already are — coming together to build resilience to climate impacts. In Mexico, for example, alongside the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance, the Z Zurich Foundation, which I lead, supports local community brigades that help prepare villages in case of floods and aid recovery. Where these brigades are in place, flood impacts have significantly reduced . But today, deep in the Nicaraguan forest , Manuel’s dream is far from being achieved for most of those on the front lines. Investment in climate change adaptation and in resilience to increasingly frequent and more severe climate impacts — such as floods, wildfires and extreme heat — is currently unfulfilled. Impacts from a rapidly heating world are a growing economic burden, projected to cost $38 trillion annually to 2050 , even if we take bold steps to reduce future greenhouse gas emissions today. And the mental health toll on individuals and communities is often overlooked. Despair and depression following extreme events is real, long lasting and severe , hampering peoples’ capacities to respond proactively rather than reactively to a rapidly changing world. It’s time to wake up to the fact that when it comes to climate change adaptation, prevention is the best form of protection. It’s also cost effective. According to one cost-benefit analysis , which evaluated multiple adaptation projects across the world, every $1 invested in flood prevention saves, on average, $5 in future losses. We need far more financial resources in order to build our physical, natural, social and mental resilience so that Manuel and the billions like him who long for a better, safer future relating to climate impacts can […]