Despite the escalating threats and costs of extreme weather events, just 37% of risk leaders acknowledge physical climate risk as a significant threat to their operations, according to a corporate risk management survey from research firm Verdantix. Additionally, two-fifths (40%) feel they face minimal to no threat from physical climate risk.

When these survey findings were discussed at the Verdantix roundtable at NYC Climate Week, some attendees weren’t surprised, noting that firms have always had to deal with the weather. To clarify, these experts in climate risk were not confusing climate and weather – they were simply noting that many organizations already have plans in place to deal with extreme weather events such as floods or hurricanes. While true, firms’ existing plans are not predicated on what the science tells us is coming.

In 2005, the one-two punch of Hurricane Katrina and Rita in the Gulf of Mexico caused billions of dollars of damage to pipelines and platforms. The storms were so strong that existing design standards for offshore structures had to be revised. If we think about our built environment in the context of climate change, it’s safe to assume that most of it is designed to withstand the climate of the past – and existing plans will only go so far to protect firms from costly damages.

In this situation, organizations have a few options. They can:

• Rely on insurance in the instance of damage from an extreme weather event.
  
  
• Modify existing assets to new design standards in hopes of protecting them.
  
  
• Move locations, attempting to avoid the risk completely.
  
  
  

All these options cost time and resources, and insurance cannot be the only fail-safe. We’ve already seen insurance firms pull out of residential markets in California and Florida in part due to climate-related risks – and policies are likely to get more costly for businesses. These options also do little to mitigate the costly risks to supply chains or employees, particularly if either of these are based in vulnerable areas.

The two-fifths of risk leaders who think they face minimal to no threat from physical climate risk now need to reconsider. While it would be nice to be wrong about their exposure to physical climate risk, it’s not something they should gamble their organization’s future on.

For help in assessing your firm’s physical climate risk and to benchmark your progress against competitors, see the Verdantix Green Quadrant: Climate Change Consulting 2023 and Verdantix Climate Benchmark, respectively.