As such, mitigation is not enough, and we need to start thinking about adaptation. Making our organisations, buildings and infrastructures more resilient to storms and flooding is just the tip of the (melting) iceberg. Organisations engaged in fossil fuel intensive or other environmentally damaging activities should be reimagining their businesses using clean energy sources, with appropriate prices placed on environmental externalities when assessing new investments. Reputational damage is beginning to be felt by major polluters and this is sure to intensify in the coming years.
Organisations and people whose livelihoods depend on their use of the natural environment need to understand how climate change might affect their activities and adapt accordingly.
Then there are the many innovative opportunities suited to a climate changing world and organisations that think now and adapt will prosper as some traditional industries decline or are forced out of business as regulators step up the pace and prices shift.
According to Matt Ridley in a recent article for UK’s Spectator newspaper, former UK Chancellor Nigel Lawson, while a critic of attempts to reduce the level of global warming by curbing emissions, nevertheless embraced the concept of adaptation:
“Lawson pointed out that adaptation had six obvious benefits as a strategy, which mitigation did not share. It required no international treaty, but would work if adopted unilaterally; it could be applied locally; it would produce results quickly; it could capture any benefits of warming while avoiding risks; it addressed existing problems that were merely exacerbated by warming; and it would bring benefits even if global warming proves to have been exaggerated.”
Whatever your politics or stance on the causes of climate change, Lawson’s arguments for taking adaptive action are compelling. But there’s a limit to adaptive capacity (particularly that of the ecosystems on which we all depend). That’s why we must also accelerate our transition to an efficient low carbon economy by redoubling mitigation efforts in order to minimise the pace of climate change.
Talk to Adaptive Capability today to find out how we can help improve your adaptive capacity.