Adapting to Climate Change
2.0 Enterprise Risk Management
Mark Trexler, Laura Kosloff
- 79 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Adapting to Climate Change
2.0 Enterprise Risk Management
Mark Trexler, Laura Kosloff
About This Book
Most companies do not yet recognize what it means to adapt to future climate change, and do not yet see it as a business priority. Adapting to Climate Change tackles two key questions facing decision makers: 1) Is adaptation worth it to me? and 2) If it is worth it, can I really tackle it?
If a company has reason to worry about the potential impacts of weather on its operations and supply chains, it probably has cause to worry about climate change. However, "adapting to the weather" is not the same as incorporating climate change adaptation into corporate planning. In the former a company is managing conditions they are already experiencing. The latter involves preparing for forecasted impacts of climate change. Focusing on today's weather and not tomorrow's climate leaves a lot of risk on the table, especially if the climate continues to change faster than many climate models have projected.
The uncertainties associated with forecasting climate change on a timeframe and at a scale that is relevant to corporate decision making can appear daunting. It is not necessary, however, to have perfect information to advance corporate preparedness for and resilience to climate change. Companies can improve their ability to make robust decisions under conditions of uncertainty without perfect information. A Bayesian approach to reducing uncertainty over time can cost-effectively support companies in understanding and managing many potential climate risks and can avoid the need to depend on future predictions. Instead, initial effort can focus on where a company will have confidence in its analysis and the ability to influence its level of risk, namely in assessing its exposure and vulnerability to climate hazards. As the hazards themselves become more clear, risk management strategies can be quickly adapted.
Frequently asked questions
Information
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
- Is it worth it to me as a corporate decision-maker to tackle this topic?
- If it is worth it, do I have the ability to achieve my stated objectives, risk reduction or otherwise?
- Physical risks, including direct impacts of climate change on company operations, supply chains, and financial performance, among many other variables. Physical risk is based on existing and forecasted climate change; this DĆShort focuses on physical risk.
- Brand risks, including the impact of consumer and stakeholder perceptions on corporate competitiveness. Brand risk (and perceived branding opportunities) has been a primary driver of corporate mitigation efforts to date.
- Policy risks, e.g. the impacts of climate policies and regulatory mandates on corporate competitiveness, and the susceptibility of business models to policy-driven variables like a price on carbon.
- Structural market risks, including changing supply and demand for company products and services in a carbon-constrained world, and responses to changing rates of technology innovation.
- Liability risks, including for retroactive or future greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We consider liability risks separately from policy risk because liability could also arise through litigation as well as from policy measures.
- Scenario 1: Issue collapse. The pressure for policy action, and the need to materially adapt to climate change, could come to an end if the current understanding of climate change science were to reverse course. The best available science suggests this is a very low probability scenario.
- Scenario 2: Stay the (policy) course. This scenario involves pursuing a wide range of policies and measures, but at a level too low to stabilize greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere. As a result, CO2 concentrations continue to rise, reaching 700â900 parts per million (ppm) by the end of this century. The past 25 years of climate policy efforts suggest that this scenario constitutes the most likely âBusiness as usualâ scenario. Adaptation needs are high and grow dramatically over time.
- Scenario 3: Technology-led transition to a low carbon economy. In this scenario, we avoid dramatic climate change through accelerated rates of technology development and deployment, even in the absence of aggressive public policy (including material carbon pricing). Even technology optimists, however, emphasize the need for a supportive technology policy framework, including internalization of a material carbon price to support technology deployment decision-making. Thus, this is a low probability scenario, but it would substantially reduce needed adaptation as compared to the âStay the policy courseâ scenario.
- Scenario 4: Policy-driven atmospheric stabilization. In this scenario, we stabilize atmospheric CO2 concentrations between 450 and 650 ppm (they are at 400 ppm today). The necessary political will would most likely result from public outrage associated with extreme climatic events, and triggering of a Climate Response Tipping Point (CRTP).3 The probability of this scenario seems likely to increase over time as climate change manifestations become more obvious. The longer it takes to get to the CRTP however, the greater the anticipated adaptation needs.
- Scenario 5: Policy-driven return to 350 ppm CO2. This scenario sees CO2 concentrations reaching 450â550 ppm in the atmosphere, but we are then able to return concentration to 350 ppm through aggressive policy and technology interventions (350 ppm often being characterized as the level needed to protect the worldâs oceans from excessive acidification). Todayâs best available information suggests this is a very low probability scenario, with complicated implications for adaptation needs since itâs hard to know how the climate would respond to this scenario.
- An overview of climate change risk and the adaptation response.
- Framing adaptation from a business perspective.
- The needs and barriers of an adaptation response.
- Developing an âadaptiveâ enterprise risk management strategy.