By:

Arthur W. Rolle

What is Climate Change?

Climate Change according to the IPCC is anychange in climate over time whether due tonatural variability or as a result of humanactivity. It is considered by many scientists to bethe most serious threat facing the world today.

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel onClimate Change (IPCC) concludes that globalwarming is "unequivocal" and that humanactivity is the main driver of this warming.

Definitions Climate mitigation

any action taken to permanently eliminate or reduce the long-term risk and hazards of climate change to human life, property.

Climate adaptation refers to the ability of a system to adjust to climate change

(including climate variability and extremes) to moderate potential damage, to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with the consequences.

(Global Greenhouse Warming)

Other Definitions

Climate neutrality

living in a way which produces no net greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions. This should be achieved by reducingyour own GHG emissions as much as possible and usingcarbon offsets to neutralize the remaining emissions.

(Kick the Habit: A UN Guide to Climate Neutrality)

Other Definitions

Carbon neutral

It is a term used to describe the practice of carbonoffsetting, by paying others to remove or sequester 100%of the carbon dioxide emitted from the atmosphere– forexample by planting trees – or by funding 'carbonprojects' that should lead to the prevention of futuregreenhouse gas emissions, or by buying carbon creditsto remove them through carbon trading. These practicesare often used in parallel, together with energyconservation measures to minimize energy use.

Other definitions

Carbon Footprint

is a measure of the impact human activities have on theenvironment in terms of the amount of greenhousegases produced, measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Entreprise Tunisienne d'Activités Pétrolières (ETAP 2007)

Other definitions Carbon offsetting

the use of carbon credits to enable businesses to compensate for their emissions, meet their carbon reduction goals and support the move to a low carbon economy. Carbon offsetting works by purchasing carbon credits which are sold in metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tonnes CO 2e). Projects which sell carbon credits include wind farms which displace fossil fuel, forest protection from illegal logging, methane capture from landfill gas and agriculture, reforestation for small-hold farmers

Overview of the Paris Outcomes

1. Legally binding agreement of limiting global temperatureincrease well below 2 degrees Celsius, while urging effortsto limit the increase to 1.5 degrees;

2. A new nationally determined contribution must becommunicated every five years;

3. Pledges of $100 billion per year, through the GreenClimate Fund, will predominantly be provided fortechnology demonstration and capacity building withindeveloping countries;

4. Addresses adaptation by requiring all parties, “asappropriate,” to plan and implement adaptation efforts;

Overview of the Paris Outcomes

5. The explicit mention of the role of risk insurancefacilities, climate risk pooling and other insurancesolutions laid out in Article 8 of the Paris agreement.(eg. by offering insurance coverage tailored todisasters and refusing to insure parts of cities notbeing developed with an eye toward mitigating theeffect of natural disasters, which could encouragerevised building codes and discourage riskydevelopment;

6. Encouraged public-private sector partnership

Why should business take

actions on Climate Change?

Business decisions are driven by: government policy, changes in consumer demand and technology innovation

National adaptation strategies will be most successful if they bring together partners from government (national and local), civil society organizations, and the private sector. Stakeholder engagement processes therefore need to be wide ranging and include both large and small business.

New Investment Opportunities (renewable energy assets-solar, wind and ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC))

The Government of The Bahamas has committed to reduced its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by a minimum of 30% by 2030 and require help of the private sector

PHYSICAL RISKS OF

CLIMATE CHANGE

Global temperature anomaly for 2015 compared to the 1951-1980 average. Earth’s temperature is clearly more than 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1850-1900 average, and halfway to world leaders' climate target of limiting global warming to under 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above average.

Studies undertaken have shownthat extreme high temperaturesare increasing more quickly, forexample, in January at a rate of6.80F per hundred years. We arenow experiencing fewer cold daysand nights, and warmer and morefrequent hot days and nights.

increased frequency of flash floods.

Other climate-related risks faced by Businesses

Regulation risks are of two types and are considered aspowerful tools of change.

Traditional legislation includes permits and energy-efficiency requirements for products and processes

Market-based regulation includes carbon taxes,emissions-trading schemes and fuel tariffs.

Businesses and sectors that fail to adjust to a changingbusiness environment by the creation of new laws andregulations face competitive disadvantages.

Other climate-related risks faced by Businesses (cont’d)

Reputation is also at stake. Over time, the public,stakeholders and consumers will make businesses paymore attention to the environment and impacts ofclimate change.

Increased legislations undoubtedly lead to anincreased risk of litigation.

Businesses perceived as heavy emitters will be targetedpossible increased scrutiny of greenhouse-gasdisclosure.

Types of Businesses that are most at risk for climate change

Businesses dependent on climate or weather-sensitive resources Agriculture, forestry, agro-forestry, fishing, and tourism

sectors in The Bahamas are already experiencing impactsfrom increased climatevariability.

Businesses that make long-term investments andoperate long-life assets These include utilities such as energy or transport, industrial

facilities, and ports with a long operational life. Futureclimate change impacts pose risks to the efficiency andservice delivery of these systems and will challenge theirrobustnessand resilience.

Types of Businesses that are most at risk for climate change

Businesses that are labor intensive and highly dependent on local workers

Local climatic disruptions may affect worker’s abilities towork or even to stay resident in a particular location.

Small, medium, and microenterprises

The impact of a natural hazard can put these types ofenterprises out of business since they do not have thecapacity or resources to cope with and recover frommajor business disruptions.

The insurance industry

What Role can Businesses play?

1. Partnerships on risk mitigation and financing through innovative insurance solutions

Pre-event financing solutions such as coupon insurance for farmers, localized flooding, and mitigate the risks of low rainfall.

2. Partnerships to reduce risks from natural disasters For companies operating in affected regions, there is a clear need to

look at exposure to risk and to identify appropriate ways of reducing this exposure through investments in hazard monitoring, risk mitigation, and business continuity planning. Insurance companies can offer insurance coverage tailored to disasters and refuse to insure parts of cities not being developed with an eye toward mitigating the effect of natural disasters, which could encourage revised building codes and discourage risky development. Rating Agency Standard & Poor's recently published a report warning that a country's disaster preparedness could be linked to its credit rating going forward.

What Role can Businesses play?

3. Further promote risks awareness education4. Public-private partnerships to safeguard critical

infrastructure Critical infrastructures are those infrastructures that would

produce serious impacts on social and economic well-being and national security if they were disrupted or destroyed, eg. Water and Electricity

5. Implement a Carbon strategy To measure, monitor and reduce the footprint (e.g. the

company may care for trees and other plants lining the motorway, which it estimates to absorb more carbon dioxide than the emissions of the company); support children and youths in honoring their pledge made at the Rio+20 Summit to participate in the planting of 100 million trees by 2017

What Role can Businesses play?

6. Strive to become more resource efficient (eco-efficiency)

through the lesser use of energy, material, and water, more recycling, and elimination of hazardous emissions or by-products.

7. Advocate for a carbon tax The purpose of a carbon tax is to create an incentive to

increase the efficiency of fuel use, and thereby reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fuel and the associated contribution to climate change; help government to develop feed-in tariffs support schemes

8. Partnership to design a tourism crisis communication Insurance

Climate change will only be addressed if individuals,

businesses and government organizations all take

responsible steps to REDUCE our CO2 emissions as much as

possible

IS IT NOT TIME TO MAKE CLIMATE CHANGE YOUR

BUSINESS?

I THANK YOU

FOR YOUR

ATTENTION!!!!