Global temperatures are already more than 1°C above the pre-industrial average, disrupting climatic patterns, damaging ecosystems, causing sea level rise, and extending the range of many diseases.
In ever greater numbers, people, businesses, and governments are suffering from disruption and financial loss resulting from climate change.
Even with reductions in global emissions that align with Paris Agreement goals, the global average temperature will continue to rise for decades to come, with worsening physical impacts. Climate change is not uniform. Different countries, regions, and sectors are already being hit in very different ways, with the most vulnerable in society at greatest risk.
This is why governments, cities, businesses, and other organizations must adapt and build resilience to the impacts of climate change. Starting with governance, strategy, and investment decisions, and flowing through to the delivery and management of projects and assets, adapting to climate change must become part of “business as usual.”
We can help you manage uncertainty and build long-term resilience to the physical impacts of climate change.
Ways we can help
- Interpret climate change projections. Apply climate science, understand uncertainty, and develop models based on climate change projections to examine likely impacts on you.
- Assess physical climate risks. Understand your exposure to climate risks, from organizational scale down to individual assets. Our approach to climate change risk assessment is tailored to your requirements, including environmental and social impact assessments, the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures, the Equator Principles and International Finance Corporation Performance Standards, lenders’ climate risk and vulnerability assessments, and national and industry assessment models.
- Make robust decisions. Develop scenarios and use decision support systems to plan for a range of possible future climate scenarios.
- Develop adaptive capacity. Develop adaptation pathways and action plans that target priority risks and allow for investment in planned stages rather than all at once. Build adaptive capacity at national, city, organizational, and supply chain levels through effective governance, strategy, and support for investment decisions.
- Employ nature-based solutions. Develop ways to manage climate change risks through nature-based solutions such as habitat restoration and afforestation, maximizing co-benefits including emissions reduction.
- Develop shared solutions and achieve co-benefits. Draw together stakeholders to co-create adaptation plans, strengthening buy-in, achieving best value from investment, and improving the chances of successful implementation.
- Measure and monitor effectiveness. Identify the right metrics for measuring your exposure to risk and progress in reducing it — as required by the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. Use dashboards to communicate results, track performance, and identify when the next steps of your adaptation plan need to be implemented.
- Make effective business cases for resilience. Articulate the costs and benefits of investing in resilience, taking account of developments in global and national climate change policy, and public, private, multilateral, and bilateral financing mechanisms.