Adapting to climate change
Is your organization prepared for rising temperatures and other
anticipated changes to our climate?
“Adaptation is something that every
Climate change adaptation can be defined
business needs to be thinking about,” says
as making adjustments in planning and
Bob Oliver, executive director of Pollution
business decisions to prepare for expected
Probe, a national not-for-profit
changes in weather patterns and climate.
environmental organization. “Climate
Rising temperatures, an increase in
change is real. It’s happening now. And
frequency and/or intensity of storms, and
business needs to start factoring the
greater potential for drought conditions
implications of operating in a new climate
and sea level rise are all climatic events that
paradigm into the planning process.”
could impact your operations. Knowing the
Where there is challenge, there is also
observed and expected changes in regional
opportunity. Oliver notes that those
businesses that are proactive in assessing
and addressing their organization’s
exposures to climate change impacts
will be in a better position to maintain
productivity during periods of supply chain
weather patterns and climate should be
considered in an organization’s business
decisions. Adaptation is different from
“mitigation,” which refers to activities
that seek to reduce the greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions that are contributing to
disruption — a competitive advantage.
climate change.
The key is acting at an early stage.
A new business climate
“Adaption to climate change is all about
The best science available tells us that
climate change risks are real and relevant
to every sector of Canadian business. For
example, From Impacts to Adaptation:
Canada in a Changing Climate 2007 — a
report produced by Natural Resources
Canada and available to download from
their website — provides a detailed
assessment of current and future risks and
opportunities that climate change
risk management,” says Oliver. “Many
businesses already conduct risk
management in a traditional sense, but
most have yet to identify the risks of
climate change, or internalize them as part
of the decision-making process.”
presents. According to Oliver, this
publication should be required reading
for every Canadian business.
“The report goes region by region,
covering issues from floods to drought
to rising sea levels to extreme weather
events that are predicted to become
more frequent in the coming years,”
says Oliver. “It then assesses the impact
climate change will have on every sector.”
For example, industries that rely heavily
on water as a resource input — such
as agriculture, manufacturing and
electricity generation — need to
consider changes in precipitation
patterns that could manifest in
prolonged water shortages in some
provinces and severe flooding in others.
Rising temperatures of surface water
used for cooling could also limit
industrial productivity.
Warmer temperatures may extend the
growing season — an opportunity — but
will also give rise to new pest infestations
with implications for agriculture and
forest industries in Western Canada, as
well as affect cold weather operations
that rely on the use of winter roads.
Risk management
“Ultimately, climate change adaptation is another dimension of basic risk
management,” says Pollution Probe’s Bob Oliver. “It’s what well-run companies do now
and what every business needs to do — understand the issues involved, undertake a
vulnerability assessment, and then take steps to reduce the risk through proper planning.”
In Adapting to Climate Change: A Business Approach, The Pew Center on Global Climate
Change in Arlington, Virginia sets out a three-step assessment process:
1. Determine whether climate change is an important factor;
2. Decide if the threat is immediate or longer term; and
3. Calculate the cost of a wrong decision.
Like the Pew Center, Oliver suggests that the assessment start with core operations, but
it needs to go beyond that. “You also need to examine the vulnerability of your supply
chain and your value chain,” he says. “For example, what is the potential for disruption
to distribution networks, the suppliers that feed your business or access to key inputs.
And it’s not just the quantity of resource availability; climate change can also impact the
quality of resources like water.” Depending on the nature of a specific business, it may
even be necessary to project shifts in consumer demand that might result from long-term
changes in climate, says Oliver.
“If you’re reliant on water or
energy, and you develop ways
for your processes to require less
of those resources, you’ll be less
exposed to changes in supply.”
— Bob Oliver, Pollution Probe
In Eastern Canada, changing climate is
predicted to result in more storm events,
rising sea levels, coastal erosion and
flooding, with consequent impacts on
infrastructure and industry.
Across the country, prolonged heat
waves will strain the electrical grid,
stress factory workers, add to health
care load and, like other climate-related
changes, have cumulative impacts on
the economy.
“Commerce has come to rely on
stable systems — predictable climate,
ready access to resources and energy
supply, and accessible transportation
infrastructure,” says Oliver. “Now
business needs to start planning based
on predictable changes that can
propagate some very unpredictable
disruptions.”
Long-term view
If the assessment reveals that operations
are vulnerable to a degree that poses a
risk, the next step is to identify potential
responses.
“A short-term response is essentially a
contingency plan,” says Oliver. “If this
event happens tomorrow, what can we
do to ensure that the business can carry
on? That’s a necessary exercise. But
climate change will evolve over the long
term, and change ecosystems for the
long term, so an adaption plan needs
to take a long-term view.”
For example, predictions on rising sea
levels could lead a company to change its
thinking on facility design and location.
For Oliver, one of the most important
responses is to find ways to utilize
resources more efficiently. “If you’re
reliant on water or energy, and you
develop ways for your process to require
less of those resources, you’ll be less
exposed to changes in supply.” Another
key point Oliver makes is that adaptation
planning should not replace current
measures to reduce GHG emissions. Both
activities, he stresses, are necessary and
should complement each other.
There are, of course, costs associated
with adapting to climate change. With
many businesses still focused on
regulatory implications of GHG
emissions, additional investments may
be hard to justify. However, as the Pew
Center notes in Adapting to Climate
Change: A Business Approach, necessary
investments may become more
expensive in the future as climaterelated events and impacts happen
faster and on a larger scale.
“Commerce has come to rely on stable
systems — predictable climate, ready
access to resources and energy, and
accessible transportation. Now
business needs to start planning based
on predictable changes that can
propagate some very unpredictable
disruptions.”
— Bob Oliver, Pollution Probe
The report also points out that climate
change will bring climate-related
opportunities. Examples include
extended tourist seasons, biotechnology
to create drought resistant seed crops
and the development of more energyand resource-efficient technologies.
While many view climate change as
more an issue for large business than
small, Oliver sees it the other way
around. “Small business is always most
at risk,” he says. “They generally don’t
have the resources to put into place
things like risk management or to
make the necessary investments in
upgrading equipment. And, in times
of trouble, they don’t always command
the same level of attention as do larger
enterprises.”
Oliver believes that governments need to
start playing a larger role in helping all
Canadian businesses understand the
issues and impacts of climate change,
and assisting them in developing
adaptation action plans. He also says
Pollution Probe can be a key resource for
organizations of all sizes. “We see this as
a priority issue,” he says. “We want to
see cleaner, healthier, more livable cities,
and I want the business community to
know that we are here to help them
respond to these issues.”
Here and now
The impacts of climate change
on business operations are not
a matter of prediction, they are
already happening.
“Think of the ice storm a few years
back,” says Oliver. “We all remember
the images of downed power lines.
What was less reported at the time
was the impact on businesses cut
off from the electrical grid.
Another example is the pine beetle
infestation in British Columbia, a
result of warmer winters, which fail
to keep beetle populations in check.
Or think of the heat wave that
swept across Europe in 2006. In
France, the water became so warm
there were concerns about whether
the rivers could provide sufficient
cooling services to nuclear facilities;
some reactors had to be shut down.”
Adaptation means making
adjustments in planning,
decisions and actions that take
into account expected changes
in climate in order to reduce risk,
mitigate impacts and even take
advantage of new opportunities.
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