Climate Risk And Business

Climate change threatens the economy of the United States in myriad ways, including increased flooding and storm damage, altered crop yields, lost labor productivity, higher crime, reshaped public-health patterns, and strained energy systems, among many other effects. Combining the latest climate models, state-of-the-art econometric research on human responses to climate, and cutting-edge private-sector risk-assessment tools, Economic Risks of Climate Change: An American Prospectus crafts a game-changing profile of the economic risks of climate change in the United States. This prospectus is based on a critically acclaimed independent assessment of the economic risks posed by climate change commissioned by the Risky Business Project. With new contributions from Karen Fisher-Vanden, Michael Greenstone, Geoffrey Heal, Michael Oppenheimer, and Nicholas Stern and Bob Ward, as well as a foreword from Risky Business cochairs Michael Bloomberg, Henry Paulson, and Thomas Steyer, the book speaks to scientists, researchers, scholars, activists, and policy makers. It depicts the distribution of escalating climate-change risk across the country and assesses its effects on aspects of the economy as varied as hurricane damages and violent crime. Beautifully illustrated and accessibly written, this book is an essential tool for helping businesses and governments prepare for the future.

"The risks that climate change has created - and will continue to create - are appearing on multiple fronts in business. Climate risk is no longer just about extreme weather events but about a spectrum of systemic risk impacts on business - and no business is immune. Dowbiggin's unique approach in Climate Risk and Business takes a much-needed risk-based view of how risk mitigation through decarbonization will transform business organizations in unprecedented ways. I applaud Dowbiggin's foresight and approach to a very timely and important topic." -Blair Feltmate, Head, Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo, Canada "The risks posed by climate change are becoming increasingly evident with the continuous flow of extreme weather events hitting people and businesses across the world. This important book is among the first to provide an in-depth look into the nature of climate risk for business and explores the various strategies for its mitigation. It critically examines how business will have to change and adapt to become more resilient to the physical and societal impacts of climate change. Dowbiggin's book forms essential reading to get up to speed with this very important topic". -Jonatan Pinkse, Professor &, Executive Director, Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK Addressing the urgency of radical decarbonization as a mitigative response to climate risk, this book explores how business can respond to the challenges of climate risk, through various transformational processes. Those processes involve cognitive transformations, organizational changes, climate risk integration into risk management practices, shifts in corporate reporting and disclosure as well as futuristic scenario-based planning beyond normal business planning cycles. Though much has already been written on corporate sustainability efforts, there is a greater need now for building mitigative capacity at the firm level, in alignment with shifting policy and regulatory regimes. Theoretical and empirical work on these areas is addressed in the novel thought experiment approach of this book. A research agenda for future work is provided. Dr. Anna Dowbiggin is a Professor in the School of Business at the University of Guelph-Humber, Canada. .

Climate change poses a risk to business operations and to markets--but at the same time it can bring opportunities for some businesses. With chapters on the nature, science and politics of climate change risk, as well as how to assess, then how to cope with it, and recommendations for incorporating climate change risks into a Company Climate Risk System, this concise guide serves the needs of business students and practitioners across a wide range of sectors, public and private.

This publication serves as a roadmap for exploring and managing climate risk in the U.S. financial system. It is the first major climate publication by a U.S. financial regulator. The central message is that U.S. financial regulators must recognize that climate change poses serious emerging risks to the U.S. financial system, and they should move urgently and decisively to measure, understand, and address these risks. Achieving this goal calls for strengthening regulators’ capabilities, expertise, and data and tools to better monitor, analyze, and quantify climate risks. It calls for working closely with the private sector to ensure that financial institutions and market participants do the same. And it calls for policy and regulatory choices that are flexible, open-ended, and adaptable to new information about climate change and its risks, based on close and iterative dialogue with the private sector. At the same time, the financial community should not simply be reactive—it should provide solutions. Regulators should recognize that the financial system can itself be a catalyst for investments that accelerate economic resilience and the transition to a net-zero emissions economy. Financial innovations, in the form of new financial products, services, and technologies, can help the U.S. economy better manage climate risk and help channel more capital into technologies essential for the transition. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5247742

This book will help business executives to (1) rethink their perceptions of climate risk (2) evaluate whether their company is effectively positioned, and (3) make informed and prudent business decisions about climate change risk in an environment rife with policy uncertainty.Business risk associated with climate change is commonly assumed to be primarily policy driven. Many companies internalize the current stalemate over global climate policy into a perception that climate risk is no longer a critical issue. Business climate risks, however, include: Operational and Supply Chain (Physical) Risk, Brand Risk, Market-driven Structural Risk, Liability Risk.As national and global policy to materially reduce climate change is delayed, it is business-prudent to assume that the level of climate risk is increasing. Even if policy risk might seem lower today than a few years ago, political will can change quickly. Should physical impacts of climate change manifest in dramatic ways, for example, draconian climate policy is likely to follow quickly. These conditions create a complex and shifting business risk environment, and most companies either overlook or substantially underestimate key climate risks. How many companies, for example, are positioned for material climate change outcomes, whether physical or regulatory? Companies with little climate change exposure may not face much downside risk from taking a wait-and-see approach. For those with greater exposure, being "too late" to respond will mean costs and competitive impacts that could have been avoided. Being "too early," however, can mean being penalized later for actions that reduce a company’s emissions today, or competitive disadvantage from getting too far out in front of competitors.

Although the title of this volume and its major focus will be on one major aspect of global sustainability - climate change - this volume continues with the overall framing of the series: global sustainability is a multi-faceted, global, multi-generational, economic, social, environmental, and cultural phenomenon and challenge to our species.

Why aren’t we investing more in disaster resilience, despite the rising costs of disaster events? This book argues that decision-makers in governments, businesses, households, and development agencies tend to focus on avoiding losses from disasters, and perceive the return on investment as uncertain – only realised if a somewhat unlikely disaster event actually happens. This book develops a new business case for investment based on the multiple dividends of resilience. This looks beyond only avoided losses (the first dividend) to the wider benefits gained independently of whether or not the disaster event occurs. These include unleashing entrepreneurial activities and productive investments by lowering the looming threat of losses from disasters and enabling businesses, farmers and homeowners to take positive risks (the second dividend); and co-benefits of resilience measures beyond just disaster risk (the third dividend), such as flood embankments in Bangladesh that double as roads, or wetlands in Colombo that reduce urban heat extremes.

Summarizing the current state of knowledge on the links between business and climate change, this timely Handbook analyzes how businesses contribute to and are affected by climate change, looking closely at their centrality in developing and deploying solutions to address this problem. Contributions from a global collection of scholars and practitioners explore a broad range of key industries’ impacts and responses to climate change, examining corporate strategy and leadership in the climate economy, functional perspectives and corporate practice, and climate finance.

Climate change poses a risk to business operations and to markets, and a poor business response to this risk can lead to reputational damage, or worse. At the same time, climate change can bring opportunities for some businesses. In this addition to Gower’s series of Short Guides to Business Risk, Professor Arnell, one of the world’s leading experts in the field, reviews this critical area of risk posed to businesses and other organisations by climate change and considers how they can respond to this threat. A Short Guide to Climate Change Risk focuses on the impacts and consequences of climate change rather than on business use of energy or business and 'sustainability' issues. The author examines the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to addressing these risks, with international case study examples. With chapters on the nature, science and politics of climate change, on the assessment and management of climate change risks, and recommendations for incorporating climate change risks into a Company Risk Management System, this concise guide serves the needs of business students and practitioners across a wide range of sectors, public and private.