Firms fail to adapt to climate change

While more companies are committing to reduce their share of greenhouse gases, plans to adapt to changing weather patterns are further behind, said Chris West, UKCIP’s director: ‘It’s a second response for many people. Because the climate change signal is arising out of a sea of [statistical] noise people are slow to rise to the signal.’

Some organisations are beginning to adapt to climate change, including the Ministry of Defence, the Highways Agency, and the Environment Agency; but many businesses and public authorities seemed to be put off because mitigation is easier to measure and adaptation appears expensive, West said.
‘It’s not the response that everybody’s been bombarded with over the last few years,’ he told The Observer. ‘It’s a hard concept to grasp and I think business has been slow.’

Examples of the problem included new schools and other building designs not taking account of expected hotter temperatures, greater storms and rising seas he said. Taking the example of schools, he said, if temperatures become unbearable, there would be a risk that private builders could be penalised for poor conditions, and possibly sued by shareholders. Education authorities could be taken to court by pupils claiming their education was damaged. Such problems applied to much of Britain’s infrastructure, valued by the Treasury at