Clearer data needed on climate change risks

The CBI is calling for the creation of a public information bank that will detail the risks that climate change poses for critical infrastructure to enable businesses to plan for rising temperatures and extreme weather.

In a report published today entitled ’Whatever the weather: managing risks from a changing climate’, the Confederation of British Industry says that climate change projections should be published in a more accessible format and the government’s forthcoming national Climate Change Risk Assessment must shape a coherent approach to climate adaptation across regulated sectors, the planning process, and in public infrastructure procurement.

Severe flooding in the UK in 2007 resulted in insurance claims totalling over £3 billion and the CBI estimates that annual flood damages alone could cost as much as £22bn by 2020.

Dr Neil Bentley, the CBI’s director of business environment, said: “Many businesses aren’t ready for the changes that could be ahead. The impact of climate change needs to be made part of on-going risk management and we must also ensure that what we build today is resilient enough to withstand changes to the climate over the next century”.
He added that the government must help ensure that businesses have the information needed to take action. “Most of this data is already in the public domain, but needs to be made available in an easy-to-use format.”