Despite the increased frequency and scale of wildfire-related catastrophes, there has been little or no effective and coordinated international policy to address their highly negative impact. Possibly a generalized approach to respond to such major events could be modeled on existing international safety investigation policies and agreements that already have proved successful. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) outlines safety investigations after international fatal aviation accidents. Although this well-established safety investigation protocol cannot be directly applied in acute wildfire-related accidents, it can offer a useful framework for establishing international guidelines to reduce risk of future wildfire catastrophes. The co-operation between safety investigation authorities has been shown to be fruitful especially for those less developed countries that have limited resources and experience related to accident investigations. While primarily an adaptive measure that can set practices to reduce vulnerability and fragility of ecosystems and human societies, the same policies could be seen as a climate change mitigation measure, as wildfires can contribute significantly to global CO₂ emissions. Finally, the concept of independent and qualified safety investigations represents the principle of serendipity: disclosing by accident something that has not been foreseen. Feedback from reality compensates assumptions and limitations of feedforward analysis of complex systems that can only reveal their dynamics and performance in reality and over time.

The Bhopal pesticide accident triggered a number of responses from the companies involved from the Indian government as well as reforms in the United States. These initiatives reached a range of different conclusions that arguably failed to provide a coherent framework for action around the globe. In other domains, organisations such as the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), provide a common point of reference for the many different investigations that may be conducted in the aftermath of an accident. The early origin of the international aircraft safety investigation process can be traced back more than 70 years and has developed in the course of time to be useful in improving aviation safety. Despite these practices can't applied directly to other industry they may help to develop good practices. Even today, the international chemical industry lacks international guidelines for safety investigations. There are, however, initiatives to support investigations within individual nations. Without greater consistency, we argue that there is little prospect of ensuring international cooperation in mitigating the consequences or reducing the likelihood of future accidents across increasingly globalized chemical industries. This contribution elaborates on the engines for change, taking into account system inherent properties and safety management concepts that serve as barriers for implementation. Such barriers are of a methodological nature, originating from differences in goals and perspectives between accident investigation in aviation and risk management strategies in nuclear and chemical industries. We also identify opportunities to overcome these barriers through the exchange of good practice across these industries.