IJW Climate STrategy

Helping you understand climate risk - and to develop your response to the greatest challenge of our time

IJW Climate STrategy

Helping you understand climate risk - and to develop your response to the greatest challenge of our time

ARTICLES/INSIGHTS

In amongst the justifiable concern about what a Trump presidency will mean for US emissions in the years to come, here’s a highly-caveated silver lining: the pretence that our incremental, COP-driven, business-as-usual-with-a-few-tweaks approach to climate is aligned with keeping us under 1.5C will surely – surely!? – have to be binned. Desperately Seeking Silver Linings | LinkedIn

This new podcast series will explore the world of corporate action on climate change, picking apart, critiquing and (hopefully) celebrating where business is leading the charge. In the first episode, Iain Watt and Ian Welsh talk about the COP26 meetings in Glasgow and what good outcomes might look like. They also discuss the latest net-zero pledges from Mars, McDonald’s, Marks & Spencer and the BBC, plus the good and the bad from the UK’s national net zero strategy. Among the discussion is the renewables energy mix, and why even the most progressive corporate targets will still need to be ratcheted forwards if a 1.5C pathway is to be achieved. https://t.co/H8LDfw59rm?amp=1

“Our collective nervousness about offering up bad news means we’ve soft-balled the potential risks of climate change for decades. Yet we also seem bewildered as to why governments, investors and CEOs have carried on largely as normal. It seems we’re inhabiting a strange twilight world in which panic stations have been called, yet those in the institutions where it matters aren’t panicking. Where wake-up calls don’t seem to require any actual waking-up..." https://www.forumforthefuture.org/Blog/despair-hope-and-what-will-be-needed-for-deep-transformation-reflections-on-the-ipcc-report

“We’ve recognised the coming disruption to some degree – there’s no shortage of declarations that we’re in a climate emergency, for starters. Yet the climate emergency is a curious beast. To paraphrase Inigo Montaya, while we keep using those words, we don’t seem to understand what they mean… " https://www.thefuturescentre.org/the-big-emergency-that-isnt-registering/

“Offsetting should be an acceleration option for the ambitious, rather than an escape clause for the stuck." https://www.naturalcapitalpartners.com/news-resources/post/climate-leadership-series-iain-watt-on-internalising-risk-and-avoiding-comp

“If we cross the 1.5°C or 2°C thresholds, then the resulting geophysical change will put huge stress on the global economy. Alternatively, avoiding 2°C – never mind 1.5°C – will require the rapid and complete transformation of the global energy, transportation and agricultural systems. Either way, climate change, and the societal response to climate change, are going to transform the competitive context in which all companies operate.” https://www.forumforthefuture.org/blog/8-simple-rules-for-grappling-with-climate-risk

“The idea that the impacts of a 2°C-or-beyond world on specific crops in specific regions can be predicted within single percentage point is tenuous at best… And attempting to do this for, say, a 4°C world is ludicrous. A 4°C world is civilisation-threatening! It’s not a place where a well-thought-through resilience strategy will provide commercial opportunity.” https://www.forumforthefuture.org/blog/in-defence-of-a-bit-of-doom-and-gloom

“The urgency and magnitude of the climate challenge also requires companies to become vocal and effective advocates for — and agents of — widespread, societal decarbonization (in addition to embracing radical targets for their own emissions). By keeping the focus on operational and supply-chain emissions, rather than the role companies could and should play in driving a rapid global transition to a zero-carbon society, the science-based targets process misses a key component of corporate leadership.” https://www.greenbiz.com/article/limits-science-based-targets

Corporate Leadership in the Climate Emergency

[The following is a quick update of the four essential characteristics of a credible corporate climate strategy that I developed whilst working for Forum for the Future]

1) Understand your exposure to climate risk. In all its forms - whether from the physical impacts of climate change or from the societal response; and across your entire value chain (including the public infrastructure upon which your company relies). Any serious consideration of these risks *should* serve as the wake-up call as to the strategic importance of climate change to all businesses.

2) Embrace targets that are fit for purpose. Which, for any company with aspirations to leadership, now means aiming for zero emissions (or better!) by 2030. The remaining carbon budget to have a half-decent chance of remaining under 1.5C is now so small that any company aspiring to leadership must seek to decarbonize well in advance of 2050.

3) Align the fundamentals of your business. Yes, this means your business model – and the products and services your company sells – must be fit-for-purpose. Having an ultra-efficient supply chain won’t cut it if your supply chain is producing something that’s part of the problem…

4) Engage, advocate, and influence ! It’s no longer sufficient for a corporate leader to simply tackle their own value chain – leaders must now become effective advocates for – and agents of – wide, societal decarbonisation. After all, even if you get your own emissions to zero, your company remains exposed to climate risk if societal emissions remain…

IJW Climate STrategy

IJW Climate STrategy

About Iain

ARTICLES/INSIGHTS

Podcast

Corporate Leadership in the Climate Emergency