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Size and sector impact preparedness and risk awareness

Smaller businesses feel the least well-equipped to mitigate the potential impacts of climate change. A quarter of businesses (25%) globally feel unprepared for the impact of climate change with small and medium-sized businesses feeling the least resilient (28% versus 22% with revenue over 100m). This picture is the same across every region with at least three in ten SMEs in every region citing a lack of preparedness for climate change.

Those sectors most exposed feel the strain

Healthcare and the transportation sector, from marine to aviation, are the industries which feel the least well-equipped (31%) for the effects of more extreme weather patterns and catastrophic events. Those expecting that governments will provide the solution to climate change may be disappointed to learn that the executives working in the public sector feel almost as exposed, with 30% citing a lack of preparedness. 

 

Indeed, those working in the civil sector feel, comparatively, ill equipped for almost every environmental risk, with at least three in every ten public sector and education executives stating that their organisation is not prepared to anticipate and respond to these environmental risks (except for pandemic risk - 27%).

In the commercial property, real estate and construction sector, 25% feel ill equipped for climate change and associated catastrophic risks. The physical damage caused by increasingly severe weather patterns means this figure may be put to the test more quickly than for other, less visibly exposed, with the sustainability of the built environment in the spotlight as well as the part which the property and construction industry can play in mitigating the worst impacts of climate change.