Climate change

In response to the multifaceted challenges presented by climate change, the WEF calls for a ‘resilience imperative – an urgent necessity to find new avenues and more opportunities to mitigate, adapt to and build resilience against global risks and threats through collaboration among different stakeholders’.

The implications for society, and businesses that operate as key members within it, are significant. The ten hottest years on record have all occurred since 1998; and 2015 was the warmest yet. Scientists agree that this warming trend is extremely likely to be the result of human activity, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels. They also agree that limiting the increase in temperature to no more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels is necessary to avoid dangerous climate changes and knock-on impacts on food security, water scarcity and human health. Without action, average warming in the region of 3.7 to 4.8°C is expected by 2100, with severe, irreversible impacts on natural systems and society.

Issues you may be facing

There are several key drivers for assessing climate-related risk within your business:

Climate-related risk is likely to have a major impact on your value chain, be it from disruption to supply chain, increased costs, inability to operate or the market for your product or service changing.
Institutional investors have an increasing obligation to consider climate change risks and opportunities. This is driving action to maintain investment flows.
Industry groups such as the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) are backing the need for climate risk assessments. The TCFD recommendations will become mandatory for PRI signatories.

By responding to climate-related risk and opportunity, your organisation could:

proactively address the need to incorporate such information into business decision making. For example, where to invest, how to ensure continued/sustained return on investment, or improved profitability despite increasing or changing insurance claim patterns;
improve access to capital by increasing investors’ and lenders’ confidence that the company’s climate-related risks are appropriately assessed and managed; and
more effectively meet existing requirements to report material information in financial disclosures.

How we can help you

Strategy and Transformation
Reporting and Assurance

Strategy and Transformation

Analyse gaps: Understand your current disclosures and how they compare to the TCFD ask. Our TCFD Readiness Assessment Tool helps companies quickly establish readiness to comply with TCFD compared to peers.
Define ambition: Understand where you want to be positioned and obtain senior buy-in for this ambition. We have helped companies prepare briefing papers and facilitate workshops to help determine this ambition. This can include steps toward a Net Zero carbon strategy.
Plan: Develop an implementation plan and create the right governance structures around delivery of this plan. We have helped companies develop implementation plans while ensuring broad internal buy-in to the plan.
Implement (tactical): Start with tactical responses such as governance reviews and materiality assessments which are essential to successful implementation. These will help define your strategy and approach towards climate risk management.
Implement (strategic): Initiate more strategic responses such as scenario analyses and quantifying risk maps. Start to integrate climate risks into your company’s existing risk management framework.
Train: Ensure that staff are trained on new policies and processes. Communicate the shift in thinking on climate risk.

Reporting and Assurance

Report: Disclose the progress of your company’s journey towards meeting TCFD recommendations or net zero commitments.
Assurance: Ensure credible and robust data on performance for internal and external decision-makers.