Less than half of UK businesses plan for climate change adaptation

Environmental Leader: More than 80 percent of U.K. businesses say climate change is a substantial risk to them, citing a range of risk factors including change in precipitation extremes and droughts, change in temperature extremes or induced changes in natural resources. However, only 46 percent of surveyed FTSE 100 companies say they have climate adaptation plans in their business strategies, according to research commissioned by the U.K.’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The report Insights into Climate Change Adaptation by UK Companies, carried out by the Carbon Disclosure Project, found that among those that have a strategy, the main focus is on assets, followed by logistics and finance.

The report found that companies were not distinguishing adaptation practices from their overall climate change responses. The CDP defines adaptation as creating a response that will reduce vulnerability to the unavoidable impacts of climate change.

For example, the report cites data from the Association of British Insurers, showing that an inevitable 2-degree C temperature change will increase the average annual insured loss in Great Britain from inland flooding by £47 million ($75 million) to £600 million....