The New York Times reports that corporations are beginning to see the writing on the wall:
Brad Palmer reports:
WASHINGTON — Many of the world’s biggest companies, from Silicon Valley tech firms to large European banks, are bracing for the prospect that climate change could substantially affect their bottom lines within the next five years, according to a new analysis of corporate disclosures.
Under pressure from shareholders and regulators, companies are increasingly disclosing the specific financial impacts they could face as the planet warms, such as extreme weather that could disrupt their supply chains or stricter climate regulations that could hurt the value of coal, oil and gas investments. Early estimates suggest that trillions of dollars may ultimately be at stake.
Well duh. Note that one of the concerns is stricter climate regulations. You might be excused if you thought corporations see that as a bad thing. Certainly they’ve been trying to put off the day of reckoning as long as possible.
The cost of Climate Change affects more than corporate bottom lines.
Here is a summary of some numbers already available from:
• CENTRE FOR RESEARCH ON THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF DISASTERS (CRED)
• UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION (UNDRR)
This report evaluates total disaster-related economic losses and fatalities between 1998 and 2017. The report finds that between 1998 and 2017, climate-related and geophysical disasters killed 1.3 million people and left a further 4.4 billion injured, homeless, displaced or in need of emergency assistance. While the majority of fatalities were due to geophysical events, mostly earthquakes and tsunamis, 91% of all disasters were caused by floods, storms, droughts, heatwaves and other extreme weather events.
In 1998-2017, disaster-hit countries experienced direct economic losses valued at US$ 2,908 billion, of which climate-related disasters caused US$ 2,245 billion or 77% of the total. This is up from 68% (US$ 895 billion) of losses (US$ 1,313 billion) reported between 1978 and 1997. Overall, reported losses from extreme weather events rose by 151% between these two 20-year periods.
emphasis added
The Climate Crisis is Not Slowing Down
It should be noted that the increase in losses between the the two 20 year periods is bad enough — but the rate of change is accelerating. As the BBC reports from the World Meteorological Organization:
...The years between 2015 and 2018 were the four warmest on that record, the study says.
"This report makes it very clear that the impacts of climate change are accelerating," said Prof Samantha Hepburn who is director of the Centre for Energy and Natural Resource Law at Deakin University in Australia.
"We know that if the current trajectory for greenhouse gas concentrations continues, temperatures may increase by 3 - 5 degrees C compared to pre-industrial levels by the end of the century and we have already reached 1 degree."
While some of these figures were published in a preliminary release of the study from last November, the full version has data on many key climate indicators, that the WMO says break new ground.
emphasis added
The Business of Disaster
While the Trump administration is taking steps to suppress climate crisis science, the business world doesn’t have the luxury of ignoring it. In fact, tracking disruption from weather events can be used to gain advantages in the market in real time. Brian Aoaeh at Freight Waves comments on how the The democratization of data arrives for supply chain logistics is being made possible by the increasing ability to track weather and other events world-wide.
...I go to Google to see if I can find something that provides a simple to use and holistic source of data and information to enable all types of businesses to make preemptive decisions related to their supply chain operations.
The closest I have found is FreightWaves’ SONAR – specifically, for the particular issue I am thinking about, the Critical Events view….
...The ability to know where critical weather events may be developing so that a business can adapt its plans for moving goods around is quite important. Severe weather events simultaneously increase costs and decrease revenues.
As I write this article, FreightWaves SONAR is showing me:
● 591 Severe Weather Watches and Warnings around the world
● 5 Severe Thunderstorm Outlooks
● 2 Tropical Cyclones
● 40 Earthquakes
● 2 Wildfires
FreightWaves SONAR also allows me to drill down further; to get local data wherever there’s an asset providing data to the system. I drilled down to see more detail from data assets and sources in Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri – cities in Nigeria. It’s the beginning of the rainy season in West Africa so I may come back periodically to see what the data says.
Bad news is not bad, as long as somebody can make money from it, right?
The Bottom Line
Here’s some takeaways for your consideration:
- Things are not getting better — they’re getting worse and the rate of change is accelerating.
- Business is not ignoring or denying climate change when it looks to the impact on profits.
- Market forces will not save us — they will simply look for where the immediate profit is to be found. Disaster can be profitable.
- We have the technology to track global weather events in real time. Business is using it — there’s no reason government can’t as well — and plan accordingly.
- This is information individuals can increasingly access; knowledge is essential to make effective policy. We need government to do that because business is not the be all and end all of existence.
- It’s possible to know the cost of something without understanding its value; a livable world is not something that can be priced.
- The cost of doing nothing is rising and will rise faster.
- “Climate crisis” is not an exaggeration or fear-mongering.
- As a species we have one job: we must save the planet from us.
- We have the tools and knowledge we need; all we need is the resolution to see it through.
There’s a well known statement by the late economist John Maynard Keynes, often misinterpreted: “In the long run we are all dead”. The run isn’t looking so long these days.
Forward momentum.
UPDATE: Donald J. Trump has weighed in on the Climate Crisis during his visit to England.
..."I believe that there's a change in weather and I think it changes both ways," Mr Trump told Piers Morgan in an interview that aired on Wednesday.
..."Don't forget, it used to be called global warming, that wasn't working, then it was called climate change, now it's actually called extreme weather because with extreme weather you can't miss," the president said.
..."I don't remember tornados in the United States to this extent but then when you look back 40 years ago we had the worst tornado binge we ever had. In the 1890s we had our worst hurricanes."
As the BBC article concludes:
Mr Trump has continued to ignore warnings from his own government agencies, dismissing a 2018 report warning of devastating economic consequences from climate change, saying he did not believe it.
His administration has rolled back dozens of environmental and climate protections and proposed ending rules on oil drilling and coal plants.