By FARRAH JOHNSON

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

CLIMATE change is an "existential threat" to the environment, the economy and "life itself", a former minister of state for finance has said.

Zhivargo Laing, executive director of the University of The Bahamas' Government and Public Policy Institute, made the sobering statement while giving a presentation at a climate change panel discussion.

The UB panel on Risk Management and Climate Change in Coastal Areas and the Environment highlighted the importance of adaptation and mitigation efforts for national development and preservation.

Presenting in the Harry C Moore Library yesterday, three panelists discussed the implications of climate change from an economic, environmental and sustainable development standpoint.

Acknowledging the amount of "economic transactions" that are driven by the country's "coastal aesthetics", Mr Laing said that a healthy economy "requires an enabling environment".

"Our dominant tourism trade and the many economic activities it induces is driven by the archipelagic... clear-watered fishing wonders of our land, matched in sheer physical beauty by few other territories that can be seen by land or space," he said.

"Natural disasters can pose substantial threats to this body of economic activity as they can devastate environments. (This is) something we have seen in the wake of the passage of Hurricane Dorian and other storms in the past."

Mr Laing added: "When you look at the devastation in Abaco caused by Dorian, you see this physical leveling of things.

"Then you go to Grand Bahama and quite frankly, if you look at the physicality of Grand Bahama, you really don't see as much devastation unless you go out east.

"What people (don't realise) is that the devastation (affected) the commerce of the place where flooding literally closed 80 percent of businesses. This is what these storms are able to do."

Mr Laing insisted that since hurricanes are seasonal, businesses must consider mitigating against their potential impact annually.

He said as devastating as Hurricane Dorian was, if it had been just "a little more forceful", the "viability" of the entire country would have been threatened.

"Economies and populations that benefit directly or indirectly from activity on the coast have to take into consideration risk mitigation and resiliency issues," he insisted.

"Policies must now incorporate those kind of planning benchmarks for use in assessing the potential impacts of these projected sea level rises in coastal areas, including flood risks and coastal hazard assessments."

Dr Adelle Thomas, UB's director of climate change adaptation and resilience research, also said climate change is something everyone in the nation should make an effort to become knowledgeable about.

She said the risk of climate change is determined by the interaction between hazard, exposure and vulnerability.

"Hazard refers to any event on trends in the physical environment that are affected by climate change," she explained.

"These can be divided into two categories. We have extreme events which are hazards that occur in a short period of time…and we also have slow onset events that materialise over longer time frames."

Dr Thomas said hazards are affected by climate change because when global temperatures rise, hazards tend to intensify.

She added that exposure includes people, infrastructure, ecosystems and other valuable things that could be negatively affected by climate change.

According to Dr Thomas, vulnerability - the final component that affects risk to climate change - is the most complex factor of the three.

"Vulnerability refers to the predisposition of being negatively affected by a hazard and includes the capacity to cope or adapt to that hazard," she explained.

"It is measured differently depending on whose vulnerability it is you are assessing."

Marcus Laing, a partner of TDG Architects Ltd, was the final panelist. He said he believed the country is in trouble and that the nation must take action.

"In design and planning, true professionals automatically consider our geographic location, size of the country, environment and economic factors in what they do," he said.

"The problem is what they do is controlled by clients and budgets, so… the advice we give sometimes never comes to fruition. This happens a lot on a governmental level but it also happens in the private sector as well."

Mr Laing said sustainable development begins firstly with planning and placement.

"We have crown land that's given as farm land in areas where you can't farm," he said.

"A lot of these areas that we are allowed to build on are actually natural buffers. (But) over the years - and not necessarily 100 percent our fault - the global climate change and the elements of global warming and not protecting our environment are now coming back to bite us.

"So knowing the nature of our climate (and) knowing our exposure to the elements...should impact the way that we plan, the way that we design the way that we build."