Climate Change and Sustainable Business Futures - Coursework Example

Name: University: Instructor: Date: Climate Change and Sustainable Business Futures 1.0 Key Advantages/Business Benefits of Climate Change Adaptation 1.1 Improves Performance Based on the core competencies that steer success in the business world, such as high adaptability levels to consumer demands and market forces that are rapidly changing as well as the ability to innovate in response to the changing conditions, business usefully contribute skills for climate change adaptation that results in high performance (CSR Asia 26). Furthermore, climate change adaptation can help the business understand the potential impacts and vulnerabilities and identify solutions that are suitable so as to remain competitive. Climate change adaptation can help business build adaptive capacity through leveraging its marketing skills, which is an additional core competency for improving performance. 1.2 Reduces Energy Costs Energy efficiency is a business benefit attributed to climate change adaptation, particularly through reduced utilisation of fossil fuels. Besides that, energy efficiency as well as associated demand management measures, may as well address a number of vulnerabilities in various industries; for instance, using energy-efficient technologies may help in counteracting the increased demand for power (Goldman, Ungar and Capanna 12). Moreover, demand efficiency programs and response programs may help businesses counteract the increasing demand of power energy, and help in managing uncertainties associated with generation and consumption of power because of extreme weather; hence, reducing the need for more power plants. 1.3 Increases Business Resilience Basically, effective climate change adaptation needs strengthening business resilience as well as sound risk management. The majority of companies are either indirectly or directly vulnerable to logistical or manufacturing interruptions, natural resource constraints, as well as economic or financial crises attributed to climate change (PwC UK 2). For this reason, the type and type of response relies heavily on the business exposure: responding to direct risks that affects the main business operations or indirect risks through dependencies such as via supply chain. New services, products, and markets can materialise from climate change adaptation. Therefore, business with the ability to change may be rewarded with continual competitive advantages. 1.4 Builds Corporate Reputation Corporations dedicated to improving their community social responsibility performance can attain value when they engage with innovative ecosystems-based and community-based adaptation. Undeniably, there are scores of opportunities for business to involve in community activities so as to make susceptible communities resilient to climate change (CSR Asia 30). The business that have invested financial as well as other resources in activities associated with community development can gain from climate change adaptation in making sure that future climate change do not affect project outcomes. Failure to adapt the business’ supply chains from climate change to emerging risks can as well risk reputation with stakeholders and investors. 2.0 Main Impacts of Climate Change 2.1 Infrastructure failure The distribution and frequency of failures in rail infrastructure due to adverse weather conditions has been reported globally. According to Koetse and Rietveld (207), weather results in almost 5 per cent of all failures in rail infrastructure, and even though it appears limited it is not negligible. Many of the infrastructure failures associated with weather are caused by lightning, icing, high temperatures and storm. Generally, in the transport sector climate change results in increased disruptions associated with heat, but a decrease in disruptions related to ice, making the overall impact region-specific and ambiguous (EPA 2010). 2.2 Delays and Cancellations In transport sector, especially the aviation sector the speeds of wind are crucial due to their safety impacts. Therefore, wind speeds at extreme level indicate that aircrafts cannot safely land at the designated airport and must look for alternatives, which as a result as has a high cost impact both for the travelers as well as the airlines. Besides that, climate system changes such as rising sea levels as well as temperatures and increasing intensity as well as frequency of extreme climatic events like flooding and heat waves have an effect on transport services and infrastructure across the globe (Koetse and Rietveld 212). Evidently, weather extremes bring about landslides or floods can result in interruptions and delays as well as detouring needs in case the infrastructure is destroyed. Rise in water levels may threaten transport infrastructure such as harbors (Kopp, Block and Iimi 45). 2.3 Accident Severity and Frequency Adverse weather conditions attributed to climate change, and particularly snow and rain, increase the severity and frequency of road accidents. Moreover, they result in traffic congestion, and consequently increase the intensity as well as the number of traffic jams, making road users to lose substantial time (Koetse and Rietveld 214). On the other hand, temperature increases reduce the snowfall probability, in so doing likely improving traffic safety as well as reducing congestion. Still, although average rainfall can reduce, climate change can increase extremes, eventually worsening the traffic jams, congestion, as well as the safety of road users. According to Leard and Roth (2), motor vehicle deaths are to a large extent caused by temperature. 2.4 Economic Loss Because of Low Water Levels Low levels of water in rivers attributed to climate change can disrupt water transport in river basins such as the Rhine and the Mississippi where bulk freight are transported by barges. Besides that, low water levels make vessels in the inland waterway to utilise just a portion of their maximum capacity, and this in consequence, increases the cost of transportation considerably (Koetse and Rietveld 211). Western Europe Climate change scenarios project an increase in low water levels; thus, rendering inland shipping more ineffective as compared to rail or road transport. 2.5 The Potential Adaptation Actions to Address Them Transport system adaptation could need significant investments in the infrastructure; adaptation mainstreaming in infrastructure planning is required at this moment. Basically, the effective as well as smooth transport system operation, depends largely on extensive as well as hard infrastructures, such as rail tracks, roads, ports and bridges (EEA 5). Therefore, an anticipatory approach is required now for improvements or planning new infrastructure as well as for the development of niche. Taking the future climate trends into account now may reduce the cost of adaptation (Nemry and Demirel 5). Infrastructure components have dissimilar life cycles; therefore, adaptation at component renewal time may be achieved at marginal costs. Technological innovation can also be used for addressing the emerging needs associated with climate change both in the field of construction materials as well as in the design of innovative structures, 3.1.0 Building Related Initiatives That Will Mitigate Climate Change Impacts 3.1.1 Integrated Building Design Another building related initiative is the integrated design of buildings, whereby technological advancements are exploited, and both active and passive techniques are implemented so as to offer comfort to their occupants and lessen their energy consumption (Altomonte 104). Such demands can be realised by developing a new integrated design process that can possibly result in a progressive and innovative building, which can sustainably and easily respond to present and future contextual situations as well as climate conditions. 3.1.2 Sustainable Design Framework The sustainable design ‘framework’ should be developed and evaluated within the process of building design for mitigating the built structures’ environmental impacts. The purpose of sustainable design framework is for defining a progressive recipe that will be identically used in all contextual situations (Altomonte 106). Through this framework, all building components are considered in terms of site, climate, and different other factors that must also include cultural, social and economic values. 3.1.3 Adopting State-of-the-art technologies To successfully mitigate long-term impacts it is imperative to identify as well as successfully place the design methodologies into place through which sustainable technologies may be integrated with the present building models so as to ensure an incessant economic and social growth of human developments (Altomonte 104). At the same time reducing emissions as well as successfully responding to the future climate changes consequences. 3.2.0 Building Related Initiatives That Will Adapt and Improve the Urban Environment In The Face Of Climate Change 3.2.1 Insuring There is need for people leaving in urban environments to take insurance considering that significant underinsurance and non-insurance rates has resulted in declining affordability and availability of insurance in an urban environment that is continually changing (King, Ginger and Williams 2). In consequence, this has impacted low-income earners leaving them vulnerable to risks associated with climate change. Currently, insurance plays some role in encouraging adaptation of climate change measures, which includes risk mitigation. 3.2.2 Urban System Redesign The climate change impacts on urban infrastructure are progressively interrupting people’s lives. Even though vulnerable to continuous extreme weather events, infrastructures are important elements in the urban resilience to changing climate. Basically, engineered systems are vulnerable to different forms or risks attributed to climate change, so the best climate change adaptation strategy is redesigning the urban system (Adelman, Bhadra and Brand 24). It is imperative to assess cautiously the connections between engineered systems, climate change, and the urban environments. 3.2.3 Structural Adaptation Strategies Normally, buildings are integrated to complex systemic entities where every structural component (which includes internal partitions and load-bearing elements) is included in the entire architectural design (Altomonte 106). Therefore, the buildings’ structural adaptation implementation can be used in adaptive as well as flexible design methodologies while responsiveness to climatic conditions variation may be distributed and tolerated because of an interconnected cooperation among different building constituents. 4.0 Major impacts of climate change 4.1 Biodiversity of Species Climate change impacts on species biodiversity involving changes in abundance as well as distribution, the habitat use and seasonal events timing can consequently change composition of animal and plant communities (Procter, Crick and Mortimer 3). The climate change and habitat modification dual forces can lead to the decline of specialists, leaving fewer species in the biological communities and controlled by widespread and mobile habitat generalists (Thomas 2005). Climate change has resulted in mangroves intrusion into swamps, which were previously fresh water. 4.2 Coastal Systems The sea level rise around the world has resulted in increased coastal erosion, inundation, as well as losses of the ecosystem (EPA 2012). Increasing temperatures have resulted in melting of the sea ice, permafrost thawing as well as related coastal retreat, and consequently coral mortality and bleaching. Higher temperatures at sea surface as well as acidification of the oceans, have increased risks of coral bleaching, which has resulted in critical habitat loss. 4.3 Food and water security Climate change result in the melting of polar ice into the sea, whereby fresh water is turned into sea water, and thus, creating water insecurity. Climate change has interrupted progress made toward a hunger free world. A coherent as well as robust pattern in the world is noticeable of the climate change impacts on crop productivity that has led to food inaccessibility to poor people (Wheeler and von Braun 508). Climate change has increased the risk of low crop productivity attributed to drought and heat stress. 4.4 Health Climate change has resulted in longer and frequent heat waves and hotter days, which consequently increase the number of deaths as well as illness associated with heat. Temperature changes, extreme events and precipitation patterns have enhanced the spread of various diseases (EPA 2011). Heat waves may result in dehydration and heat stroke, and normally leads to climate-related deaths. 4.5 Political stability Change in climate patterns as well as the ensuing competition for existing resources, results in a geo-political landscape. Climate change brings about a ‘soft risk’ that normally kindle the civil unrest touch-paper due to increasing food prices (Van den Born 2012) Agricultural productivity decline result in conflict and violence where people struggle for declining resources, normally emphasised by large-scale displacement of people. 5.0 The IPCC Recommended Level of Global Carbon Emissions (ppm) According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it is imperative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through radiative forcing stabilisation. Basically, atmospheric CO2 concentrations stabilization at 450 ppm would need a drop in anthropogenic CO2 emissions globally below the 1990 levels, and the steady decrease should be maintained afterwards (IPCC 2001). According to IPCC, emissions will reach 450 ppm in the coming two decades and 1,000 ppm in almost a century from now. In due course, the greenhouse emissions will have to decline to an exceedingly small fraction of present emissions. So as to maintain a warming below 2°C (3.6°F) threshold that was approved in 2009 by world’s governments in Copenhagen, Thompson (2014) posits that greenhouse gas emissions levels in 2050 should be 40 to 70 per cent lower as compared to 2010 levels. By 2100, they emissions level should be lower and if need be CO2 should be removed from the atmosphere, in what appears to be a controversial suggestion. IPCC recommend that concentrations stabilisation below 400 ppm would offer us almost 80 per cent chance of remaining below the 2ºC/3.5ºF threshold (Hassol 1). Presently, the global carbon emissions have passed the 400 ppm mark and the increase is around 2 ppm annually, but this varies to some extent from year to year. Work Cited Adelman, David, et al. Innovation in the Built Environment for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation. White Paper. Austin, Texas : National Science Foundation Workshop, 2012. Altomonte, Sergio. 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Adaptation of the built environment to climate change induced increased intensity of natural hazards . Gold Coast, Queensland: National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, 2013. Koetse, Mark J. and Piet Rietveld. "The impact of climate change and weather on transport: An overview of empirical findings." Transportation Research 14 (2009): 205–221. Kopp, Andreas, Rachel I. Block and Atsushi Iimi. Turning the Right Corner: Ensuring Development Through a Low-Carbon Transport Sector. Washington DC: World Bank Publications, 2013. Leard, Benjamin and Kevin Roth. Weather, Traffic Accidents, and Climate Change. Discussion paper. Washington, DC: University of California,, 2015. Nemry, Françoise and Hande Demirel. Impacts of Climate Change on Transport: A focus on road and rail transport infrastructures. JRC Scientific and Policy Reports. Sevilla, Spain: European Commission, 2012. Procter, D.A., Baxter, J.M., et al. Biodiversity and Climate Change - a summary of impacts in the UK. Peterborough: Inter-Agency Climate Change Forum, 2010. PwC UK. Business leadership on climate change adaptation Encouraging engagement and action. Research Paper. Aberdeen: PWC UK, 2010. Thomas, J.A. Monitoring change in the abundance and distribution of insects using butterflies and other indicator groups. 28 February 2005. 15 September 2015. . Thompson, Andrea. Major Greenhouse Gas Reductions Needed by 2050: IPCC. 13 April 2014. 15 September 2015. . Van den Born, Andrew. Adapting to Climate Change: Political Instability. 22 April 2012. 15 September 2015. . Wheeler, Tim and Joachim von Braun. "Climate Change Impacts on Global Food Security." SCIENCE 341.2 (2013): 508 -513. Read More