Climate crisis business impact

Peter du ToitI'm the founder of FutureWork IQ where I spend my time assisting businesses to improve their climate literacy so as to understand the projected impacts from the expanding climate crisis and how to adapt their workplaces in the face of these impacts.

The climate crisis will affect ALL businesses in two ways.

First: Climate change events themselves – rising sea levels, extreme storms, heatwaves, water shortages etc. – these directly threaten company assets.

Second: Government action to reduce emissions and mitigate against the effects of climate change, will dramatically impact the value of company assets which are exposed to fossil fuels.

In light of the above EVERY business must do the work to get a clear picture of the following:

1. Its direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions
2. The total amount of fossil-fuel related assets that it owns or manages
3. How its valuation would be affected if climate change continues on its current trajectory or if policymakers successfully restrict GHG’s to meet emission goals; and
4. Its adaptation strategies related to the physical risks and transition risks posed by climate change.

This data is crucial to being able to make informed climate crisis adaptation decisions.

Here is an example of one organisation doing this work, in this case the Commonwealth Bank of Australia

Answering Point 2 above they found that :

⚠️$31 billion of their home loans are in areas exposed to increasing extreme weather events

⚠️$14 billion of their home loans are in communities economically reliant on demand for coal.

What are your numbers?