Businesses must now get serious about climate change disaster preparedness

By Will Bugler
By investing in climate resilience businesses can unlock a ‘triple dividend’ that can protect their workforce and save money, new research suggests. Despite this, the current level of investment in climate change related disaster risk reduction is very low, leading to a stockpile of unmanaged climate risk that threatens to undermine business competitiveness.

Last week a global cyber attack affected organisations from dozens of countries around the world. The attack used a hacking weapon that was developed by the US government’s National Security Agency (NSA). In effect criminals stole an NSA hacking weapon and used it against businesses, hospitals and other governments. It is little wonder then that by 2020 the International Data Corporation estimates that globally, businesses will spend over US$ 100 billion per year on cybersecurity software, services and new hardware.

Responsible companies know that a serious hacking event can cause potentially irreparable damage to their operations and reputation, they are adept at identifying risks to their operations and taking action to minimise them by putting in place defences, contingencies and recovery plans. Unless of course, we are talking about climate change. A huge stockpile of unmanaged climate risk is being accumulate and businesses are leaving themselves exposed by failing to prepare for climate-related disasters.

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