The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, a nonprofit working to advance policy and action to address climate and energy challenges, partnered with Bank of America on a report exploring how the world’s largest companies perceive and manage climate risks. The 70-page report of S&P Global 100 companies is based on information garnered via a collection of company public sustainability records, individual company interviews and a review of financial filings.
The report, Weathering the Next Storm: A Closer Look at Business Resilience explores how these companies perceive these climate change risks and highlights the actions being taken by large companies to manage the risks. One of the key findings is that water supply and quality are often the primary lens through which an organization considers future climate risk. Among the other key findings are similar trends that have been observed in the water sector. For example, companies are conducting vulnerability assessments, yet they do not necessarily manage climate change as a stand-alone risk, but rather as a threat multiplier of existing risks. Across companies there is no one size fits all approach to managing climate change risks.
Similarly, many barriers for building climate resilience reported by these companies are similar to those reported in the water sector. These barriers include inadequate or outdated engineering standards, uncertainty about impacts, and data and tools that are not of sufficient granularity for decision-making.
The report makes several recommendations for companies to take to address climate risk, such as, urging companies to discuss and facilitate communication about climate issues across all departments. The authors advocate for companies to explore partnerships with outside entities at a local level, such as governments, NGOs and climate experts.
An infographic illustrating key findings and recommendations is also available online.