Climate Change Risks

Climate Risk = Business Risk 🌍 As climate impacts intensify, the connection between environmental risk and business risk is becoming more direct and more difficult to ignore. These risks are no longer theoretical. They are affecting assets, operations, and financial planning across industries and regions. Severe weather events such as storms and floods are damaging infrastructure, halting operations, and increasing the costs of repair, insurance, and downtime. Heatwaves are lowering workforce productivity and raising the incidence of heat related health issues, particularly in sectors dependent on physical labor or lacking adequate climate control systems. Droughts are limiting access to essential inputs like water, disrupting industrial processes and increasing operational costs for water intensive sectors. Sea level rise is placing facilities, warehouses, and offices in coastal areas at risk of flooding, requiring significant investments in adaptation or relocation. Wildfires are interrupting transportation networks and regional supply chains, resulting in logistical delays, inventory disruptions, and increased delivery costs. Increased climate variability is making business planning more uncertain. Fluctuating weather patterns complicate forecasts, investment decisions, and long term strategy development. Energy infrastructure is also affected. Extreme temperatures and natural disasters are disrupting electricity and fuel supply, creating additional risks and increasing energy expenditures. Insurance markets are responding. Coverage in climate exposed areas is becoming more expensive or unavailable, leaving businesses with greater financial exposure and limited risk transfer options. These risks highlight the need for companies to integrate climate considerations into core decision making processes, from operations and procurement to finance and long term strategy. Addressing climate impacts is not a secondary issue. It is essential to maintaining competitiveness and resilience. #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #risk

In this just published paper, we examine the impact of extreme heat on labor (#Jobs!) We develop a simple but informative theoretical framework where we derive ex-ante implications on household labor (men, women and children), hired labor, animal traction and their associated labor costs. Testing these on a rich panel data from Ghana, Nigeria and Mali, we observed context-specific differential labor patterns which could be explained by labor-demanding adaptation (more pesticide use, manual weeding, climate-resilient seeds and cropland expansion). A lot of interesting and meaningful insights in the paper for everyone (policymakers, scientific scholarship, development actors, donors)! Have a great read! Full paper here: https://lnkd.in/eeKpvKSj #ExtremeHeat #Climate #Agriculture #LaborMarkets #Jobs #Adaptation #Gender #Africa

Ok, renewables operators (and power traders), We have a structural risk that few people talk about. Over time, most European wind and solar operations (now ~30% of the energy mix) are increasingly dependent on a small set of weather data providers. We now have fewer fundamentally independent weather signals than before. Forecasts like ECMWF, ICON, and GFS became dominant for a reason. They’re good and accessible. This is not criticism of these providers. The problem is that when forecast diversity shrinks, market expectations become more correlated. Traders position in the same direction. When forecasts are wrong, they are wrong together. That leads to: • Market stress as everyone tries to rebalance the same way • Stronger and more sudden system imbalances Markets benefit from the wisdom of the crowd. Many independent views converging toward something reasonable. But when the crowd bases its view on the same underlying signal, the wisdom of the crowd turns into the wisdom of one. As weather-dependent production keeps rising, this effect matters more and more.

When climate finance 💰 overlooks women, resilience becomes an unfinished equation. Because the real question isn’t how much money is available. It’s who gets to use it, and for what ⁉️ Climate resilience is built on more than field-level adaptation. It’s about how institutions design, deliver, and govern access to finance. That was a key message in the FAO report “Empowering Women in Egypt’s Livestock and Dairy Subsectors: A Gender-Transformative Approach to Climate Resilience and Economic Inclusion.” One of the strongest recommendations? 👉 Expand tailored financial services and credit for women in agriculture. Here’s why that matters ⤵️ Climate finance is often imagined in billions 🤑 global pledges, large-scale projects, and infrastructure funds. But resilience often starts with smaller, local decisions: 👉 a woman farmer 👩🌾 taking a loan to buy solar-powered cooling, 👉 a cooperative accessing microcredit to reduce waste, 👉 a dairy producer investing in drought-resistant feed. Yet only 2% of rural women in Egypt have access to agricultural credit. That’s not a funding gap. It’s a systems gap. When finance mechanisms overlook women’s realities, they weaken the very resilience they aim to build. And this isn’t unique to Egypt. As the Gender and Climate Finance report shows, global funds still struggle to translate gender commitments into measurable results with limited data, scarce dedicated funding for women-led initiatives, and uneven accountability for outcomes. Working across government, development, and academia, I see this gap often the space between frameworks and lived experience. Designing finance that actually reaches women, and trusts them as economic actors, is where real transformation begins. Because climate finance that includes women isn’t just fairer. It’s more effective. It builds stronger markets, communities, and systems of resilience. 💡 The strength of any climate system depends on who it’s built to serve. (The timeline below, from the Gender and Climate Finance report, tracks how far international climate funds have come in integrating gender and how far there’s still to go.) #climatefinance #womenempoerment #womeninagriculture #financialinclusion #sustainability #genderequality #developmentfinance #climateaction ODI Global Climate Vision Consulting

Honoured to see our op-ed, “Rights, justice, action for India’s women farmers,” in The Hindu for #International #Women’s #Day 2026, co-authored with Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chairperson, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation and Elisabeth Faure, Representative and Country Director, World Food Programme in India. As farming in #India feminises, women farmers are feeding the nation but remain largely invisible in our laws, data and decision-making. When women have land, resources and a voice, they drive #climate-resilient, biodiversity-rich and #nutrition-sensitive #agriculture. ✨ Key actions we call for: 🌾 Recognise women as farmers – count them in official data, value their roles across the agri-food system, not just through land ownership. 📜 Secure land and tenure rights – implement equal inheritance, promote joint land titles, and make registration truly gender-responsive. 🤝 Strengthen women’s collectives – support self-help groups and producer organisations so women can access credit, inputs and markets with stronger bargaining power. 📊 Make women visible in policy – generate and use gender-disaggregated data to design programmes that actually reach women on the ground. 🌱 Align food systems with nutrition – use public procurement, kitchen gardens and women’s seed banks to promote diverse, nutritious crops. ⚙️ Invest in technology and services – ensure access to labour‑saving tools, climate-smart technologies and equitable extension services. Pradnya Paithankar shariqua yunus khan

By 2050, climate change may push 158 million more women and girls into poverty. While women handle 50% of global food production, only 15 countries include gender in agricultural climate planning. Despite often being hit the hardest by climate impacts, women and girls are powerful agents of change. From indigenous women protecting vital carbon sinks in the Amazon to female-led disaster committees reducing community vulnerability in flood-prone regions, to leaders and activists transforming international climate policy by championing gender-responsive approaches, their leadership drives effective solutions.    This #WorldEnvironmentDay, let's commit to gender-responsive climate action by centering women in policy development, directing climate financing to women-led programs and achieving gender parity in decision-making. Read more in my latest article:

For risk managers: How to integrate adaptation into your planning: 5 important considerations. As climate disasters mount and consensus on adaptation needs builds, I’m frequently asked by risk managers, how do we think about both physical and transition risks together? I try to guide them to an effective framework for translating both types of risks into financial impacts as a starting point. However, we need to go farther than that and actively consider how future strategies are influenced by the need for adaptation. In a recent workshop for risk managers, I took the new report from the NGFS about integrating adaptation into transition plans and showed how the 5 pillar framework of the ISSB and TPT can be leveraged to ensure adaptation is well considered. Here’s what that looks like for each pillar: 1. Governance- Existing governance mechanisms used for climate mitigation should also oversee adaptation objectives and monitor progress against adaptation targets once they are set. 2. Foundations- Institutions should set clear adaptation objectives focused on managing exposure to physical climate risks and, where appropriate, identifying business opportunities that enhance resilience. 3. Implementation Strategy- Based on physical risk and opportunity assessments, institutions should determine their risk and investment appetite and embed responses (e.g. avoid, accept, reduce, transfer, or invest) into business strategy and operations. 4. Engagement Strategy- Build on existing mitigation-related engagement to support a cohesive approach while fostering an internal and external environment conducive to increased climate resilience. 5. Metrics and Targets- Develop metrics starting with data stocktakes and baseline measures, then advancing to output-based metrics that assess the effectiveness of adaptation in managing physical risk. Drop me a message or comment to learn how we are helping risk managers tackle both adaptation and transition challenges! #climaterisk #adaptation #transitionplans #climateregulation #risk

⚡ 𝗔𝗜’𝘀 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗛𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗮 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 + 𝗦𝗢𝗙𝗖 By 2030, data centers could emit up to 425 million tons of CO₂ annually – more than the entire UK. Why? Exploding demand, limited grid access, and fossil backup systems keep growing in parallel. Efficiency is no longer enough. We need clean molecules – not just clever software. A new path is emerging: ▶️ Methane Plasmalysis – to produce clean hydrogen and solid carbon directly on-site ▶️ Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) – to convert H₂ into 24/7 electricity and high-temperature waste heat ▶️ Solid carbon as a tradable, storable by-product ✅ No combustion. ✅ No flaring. ✅ No CO₂ pipeline. 📉 Without decarbonization, data infrastructure will face: – Carbon compliance risk (ETS, CBAM, Scope 2/3) – Permitting barriers (NOₓ, CO₂, noise) – ESG exclusion (EU Taxonomy, Article 9 constraints) 👉 Unlike conventional systems, this architecture generates clean electricity from methane without emitting CO₂ – and without relying on intermittent renewables. Instead of releasing carbon into the atmosphere, it produces solid carbon, which can be stored, sold, or credited as a permanent CO₂ sink. This enables a dual revenue and compliance path: low-carbon hydrogen and verified carbon removal – from a single, modular asset. Operators & Investor takeaway: Digital infrastructure is no longer just a data play – it’s an energy and emissions asset class. Those investing in AI data centers must now measure in tons of CO₂ per MWh, not just €/TFLOPS – and prioritize architectures that are permit-ready, carbon-resilient, and 24/7 capable. #DigitalInfrastructure #NetZero #AI #DataCenters #SOFC #Plasmalysis #CarbonRemoval #SustainableInvesting #GreenTech #EnergyTransition #InfrastructureEquity #LowCarbonHydrogen #ESG #Graforce

On International Women's Day, we should recognize something fundamental: Women are one of the most powerful forces in global agrifood systems. Across rural economies, women produce food, manage farms, run businesses, and sustain families and communities. In many countries, agrifood systems are a more important source of livelihoods for women than for men. When women thrive, entire agrifood systems become stronger. And yet, women still face persistent barriers with: - Less access to land, finance, technology and services - Lower wages and productivity - A disproportionate burden of unpaid care work Climate change is making these inequalities even worse. Extreme weather events already cause rural women to lose more income than men, while rising temperatures disproportionately reduce the earnings of female-headed households. This means closing gender gaps is one of the largest untapped opportunities for global development. It’s also about unlocking the full potential of agrifood systems. If women had the same opportunities as men in agrifood systems: - Global GDP could increase by nearly $1 trillion - 45 million people could escape food insecurity Women are not just beneficiaries of change; they are drivers of transformation, resilience and innovation. Investing in rural women means investing in food security, climate resilience and sustainable development. #InternationalWomensDay

When you think of a farmer you think of a man. However, in Indian agriculture 80% of farm work is undertaken by women. But support for farmers still has gender barriers. The Food and Agriculture Organisation notes that on average, women-run farms produce 20% - 30% less than farms run by men resulting in a crop gap. Addressing these gender specific barriers in farming is crucial to leverage the vast potential that women farmers hold of contributing to economic growth. Women can be agents of change in ushering in climate smart agriculture. Capitalising on women’s role in agriculture and within their households can be a gamechanger in ensuring the uptake of sustainable agriculture. If you look at a farming household in rural India, women are involved from planting the seeds to the harvesting. It makes sense then to engage with the women farmers on adopting practices like drip irrigation, intercropping and mulching. This is exactly what we did at our farmer training programmes Godrej Agrovet Limited. We work in close quarters with the women in the community on training them in adopting sustainable agricultural practices through the implementation of initiatives like forming SHG’s, and farmer field groups among others. With women farmers we can shift our lens towards making agriculture as a profit-making sustainable sector that can build a robust and resilient food system.