Business and Climate Change
50+ Years of Growing Scientific Concern, and 30+ Years of Mitigation Efforts by the IPCC, the UNFCCC, the Montreal and Kyoto Protocols, the Paris Agreement, and by Governments, Companies, and Individuals, May be Making a Difference, but Not Enough to Materially Reduce Business Risk
The Bad News? Emissions + Temperature Trends + Growing Global Urgency Could Spawn a Perfect Storm of Physical, Regulatory, Legal, Branding, and Market Transformation Risks for Many Business Sectors
The Good News? The Information Companies Need to Anticipate, Assess, and Manage Climate Risks (and Opportunities) Exists, Even Much of It Is Hard to Find
If You’ve Tried Digging Into Business-Related Topics and Questions Like Those Below, You May Have Felt Overwhelmed by an Information Deluge:
The known unknowns and unknown unknowns of business risk
How good a proxy for business risks are GHG emissions?
How likely is an “Inevitable Policy Response”?
What carbon pricing levels could businesses need to adapt to?
What to do about the business risk elephant in the room, systemic risk?
* What is climate warming’s worst case by 2030?
* What’s the best estimate of the Social Cost of Carbon?
* Are we under-estimating societal and/or business climate risks?
* Could companies ultimately be held liable for their GHG emissions?
* What will “net zero by 2050” commitments deliver?
* Will nature-based solutions work?
* Are carbon offsets a good business strategy?
How Can You Access the Best Available Information Your Company Needs for Evidence-Based Decision-Making?
With the Climate Web
The Climate Web Uses Knowledge Management to Help Explore Almost Any Business-Related Climate Topic or Question, Support Evidence-Based Decision-Making, and (Hopefully) Slow Climate Warming
The Pages at Top Right Introduce the Climate Web Through the Lens of Business Content and Capabilities
* TheBrain - Explore the uniquely powerful but simple to use software platform used for the Climate Web
* Climate Content - Visualize and explore the scope and depth of the Climate Web
* Climate LEGOs - See how 150,000+ climate knowledge building blocks in the Climate Web are mixed and matched (like LEGOs!) into actionable business climate knowledge
* Take a Tour - Videos and Topical Roadmaps for exploring the Climate Web
* Business Pre-Mortems - How the Climate Web can help you take advantage of this critical risk management tool
* Business Briefings - How you can leverage the Climate Web across a wide range of topics you may want or need to explore
* Advisory Services - Products and services the Climate Web can deliver or help deliver, from Materiality Assessments to Scenario Planning
* Getting Access - Your options for using the Climate Web to advance climate needs and goals
Who Are the Climatographers?
The Climatographers, developers of the Climate Web, have spent more than 30 years working with organizations and companies around the world on climate warming, and more than 10 years exploring the use of knowledge management tools to help tackle the problem.
Dr. Mark C. Trexler LinkedIn Profile and Laura H. Kosloff LinkedIn Profile have a combined total of more than 50 years of experience. Mark and Laura founded the first U.S. climate change business risk consultancy in 1991, working with many of the first companies to respond to climate change. Since then they have worked with agencies, NGOs, and companies around the world, ranging from PacifiCorp and Nike to Stonyfield Farm and United Technologies in the U.S. Mark was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change when it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, and most recently was Director of Climate Risk for the global risk firm of DNV GL based in Oslo, Norway. In addition to directing the Climatographers, Mark is currently a Visiting Scholar teaching Business and Climate Change at George Washington University in Washington, DC. Laura is an environmental lawyer with extensive research, litigation, and in-house counsel experience relating to climate change.
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The Climatographers have carried out many climate change “firsts,” including the first carbon offset (1989), the first carbon footprints (1991), building the first carbon pricing model (1995), taking the first company “climate neutral” (1996), and winning the first contested power plant facility siting proceeding based on net CO2 emissions (1996). You can learn more through the Climatographers’ website link at right.
Eleven years ago, when Simon Dietz of the London School of Economics was preparing to teach a climate change course for business executives, he could not find a textbook for the course. The Climatographers were asked to write that textbook, which was then published in 2012 under the title The Changing Profile of Corporate Climate Change Risk. It was followed in 2013 by Adapting to Climate Change– 2.0 Enterprise Risk Management.
No individual book today can be comprehensive enough or remain current long enough to successfully play the same roles. That’s why, around the same time the book was published, the Climatographers started building the Climate Web. It’s the closest thing today to a collective business and climate change intelligence! We hope you’ll explore it!