Climate change is a very real, serious and devastating threat to society.
Natural disasters caused by heat waves are becoming more common and violent. This situation often forces communities to cope with devastating human and economic costs.
Over the past 12 months, global protests have taken the youngsters worried about millions to come to voice their opinions. As a result, the attention of both policy makers and responsible businesses began. A non-profit organization’s report states that the world’s top 500 companies may potentially face a $ 1 trillion financial risk in the short term due to the effects of climate change, such as higher operating costs, asset losses, and demand drops.
There are existential risks for entrepreneurs to do business, and companies need to act now to prepare.
Businesses need to understand how operations and supply chains are vulnerable to the physical risks of climate change. Equally important is the ability to assess the transition risks of companies, not only ensuring that their business models are relevant for a low carbon future, but also the opportunities to be offered.
Cyber attacks are a big threat. The digital world continues to evolve rapidly; more and more devices are connected to the internet and attacks are becoming more organized, meaning the threat of external cyber attacks is always increasing.
It is important that customers rely not only on the products and services they need, but also on the companies they do business with, to trade responsibly, ethically and personally.
This means that businesses must constantly invest in cyber security capabilities and allocate significant resources to bid development and artificial intelligence. This allows firms to better serve their customers and protect against ever-evolving cyber risks.
Factors such as macroeconomic and geopolitical risks, natural slowdown in the economic cycle, weak growth statistics, Brexit and the US-China trade war serve to increase economic imbalance.
In such a scenario, it is likely that central banks will further relax interest rates and increase asset purchases, further increase prices, dissatisfaction among those who think today’s asset bubble will swell more and be punished.
Economic, geopolitical and cyber risks undoubtedly pose a threat to doing business. However, we all need to assimilate that climate change is an existential risk for the world and realize what we do. Decisions need to be made early and urgent, because – if ignored – the damage will be large and irreversible.
