The PCL Framework: A strategic approach to comprehensive risk management in response to climate change impacts

The PCL framework provides a comprehensive climate risk management approach grounded in the assessment of societal values of financial and non-financial loss tolerability. The framework optimizes response action across three main clusters, namely preemptive adaptation (P) or risk reduction, contingent arrangements (C), and loss acceptance (L); without a predetermined hierarchy across them. The PCL Framework aims at including the three clusters of outlay within a single continuum, and with the main policy outcome being a balanced portfolio of actions across the three clusters by way of an optimization module, such that the aggregate outlay is optimized in the long-term. It is proposed that the approach be applied separately for each hazard to which the target community is exposed. While it is currently applied to climate-related risk management, the methodology can be repurposed for use in other contexts where societal buy-in is central.