Taking Stock of Business Efforts to Adapt to Climate Change

The report finds that while many large global businesses are conducting climate risk assessments, few treat adaptation as a high priority compared to mitigation. Businesses are more likely to pursue adaptation-related market opportunities than to invest in their own resilience or community projects. Key barriers include a lack of technical expertise, difficulty in making a financial investment case for adaptation, and a perceived reliance on risk transfer mechanisms like insurance. The document recommends that governments enhance climate risk knowledge, standardise disclosures, foster public-private collaborations, and engage in dialogue to create a more conducive regulatory environment for adaptation investments.

• A majority of surveyed global businesses have conducted risk assessments for existing operations, but only about half of those assessments extend to upstream value chain activities.
• Less than half of the surveyed businesses consider the physical climate risks they identified to be 'material', meaning they lack significant financial or strategic impact.
• Only one-third of respondents are actively working to address physical climate risks, and all of these businesses utilize risk transfer measures such as insurance or derivatives.
• Businesses are more focused on capitalizing on adaptation opportunities than on building resilience; 67% have identified opportunities, and over 80% of those who found opportunities are acting on them.
• While 87% of businesses acknowledge a role in protecting communities and ecosystems, only 13% have committed financial resources to such initiatives for the next five years.
• Adaptation is generally not prioritized as highly as mitigation; 60% of respondents rate mitigation as a 'very high' priority, compared to only 27% for adaptation.
• Significant barriers to business action include a lack of technical expertise (cited by 31%) and insufficient human resources (cited by 34%).
• Half of the surveyed businesses identify the lack of a supportive policy and regulatory landscape as a major barrier to making adaptation investments.
• Businesses struggle to make a financial case for adaptation because it is difficult to quantify costs and benefits, and many perceive risks as only manifesting in the long term (over 10 years).
• Some businesses are engaging in maladaptation by relocating operations or supply chains away from high-risk geographies, which can negatively impact local economies.

APA

World Economic Forum (2023). Taking Stock of Business Efforts to Adapt to Climate Change. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Taking_Stock_of_Business_Efforts_to_Adapt_to_Climate_Change_2023.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Taking Stock of Business Efforts to Adapt to Climate Change. 2023. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Taking_Stock_of_Business_Efforts_to_Adapt_to_Climate_Change_2023.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Taking Stock of Business Efforts to Adapt to Climate Change |date=December 2023 |url=https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Taking_Stock_of_Business_Efforts_to_Adapt_to_Climate_Change_2023.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2023taking, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Taking Stock of Business Efforts to Adapt to Climate Change}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2023}, month = dec, url = {https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Taking_Stock_of_Business_Efforts_to_Adapt_to_Climate_Change_2023.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }