Businesses see climate change adaptation as an opportunity
Investing in climate change adaptation can help reduce the financial risks associated with extreme weather events, water scarcity, or declining agricultural productivity.
New York, June 20 2011 - According to a new UN report, adapting to climate change would offer many competitive advantages for companies around the world. This report, entitled "Adapting for a Green Economy: Companies, Communities and Climate Change", was published jointly by the United Nations Global Compact, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Oxfam and the World Resources Institute.
In response to a general survey of the business sector, 86 percent of them said that addressing climate risks or investing in adaptation was a business opportunity.
"Business can only thrive in a stable environment. Climate Change Adaptation opens a way to help communities that are already feeling the devastating effects of these changes. At the same time, it creates a multitude of new opportunities for the private sector," said Georg Kell, Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact.
Based on the results of an 2010 survey of companies participating in the Caring for Climate Initiative (a climate action platform managed by the United Nations Global Compact and UNEP), the study aim is to analyze the rate of return resulting from private sector adaptation to climate change that would strengthen the resilience of vulnerable populations in developing countries. Today, companies around the world are beginning to glimpse the risks and economic impacts of the consequences of global climate change.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNEP, said: "We live in a world where extreme weather events can drive up food and fuel prices from day to day. , affecting the poorest and most vulnerable communities and chain, as well as business supply chains.We also live in a world where the infrastructure built over the past decades will become less or less able to withstand extreme weather events, which risks threatening the viability of the economic models of the past (business as usual), and therefore the future profits or losses of companies. "
"There are several reasons for a rapid global transition to a green, low-carbon, low-resource natural economy; the most obvious being tackling climate change and adapting to its impacts. This report highlights the challenge of change climate is not only the responsibility of governments. It should, now more than ever, be at the center of the economic models of our societies, as well as at the heart of forward-looking business strategies, "he added. .
The study offers insights that companies and policymakers can follow to catalyze and intensify private sector engagement in the fight against climate change. It also confirms that the climate threats that many communities face also affect businesses. 83 percent of the companies surveyed admitted that the impacts of climate change pose a serious risk to their products and services.
"Businesses are facing growing challenges: the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, droughts, heat waves, or even floods," said Manish Bapna, Managing Director of the World Resources Institute. "In this rapidly changing environment, companies which anticipate the risks associated with these changes, and which tackle the problem by developing innovative adaptation strategies, are winners and acquire a significant competitive advantage."
The study recommends, among other things, that companies integrate climate adaptation at the heart of their strategic plans, and that they constitute a portfolio of products and services capable of withstanding the vagaries of climate change. Addressing policy makers, the authors call on policymakers to strengthen public policies and financial commitments on adaptation, create policies of financial incentives and risk reduction to stimulate the market, and finally create new forms of public / private partnerships.
“Communities around the world are already facing the impacts of climate change,” said Raymond C. Offenheiser, President of Oxfam America. “Businesses depend on the general public as suppliers, customers and employees, and they need reliable local services and infrastructure to be able to operate effectively. The well-being of communities, the fight against climate change and the viability of enterprises are therefore closely linked ".
Source: http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multiling ... =8785&l=fr
The report: https://www.econologie.info/share/partag ... Bas1tM.pdf
Source: http://unglobalcompact.org/docs/issues_ ... conomy.pdf