ABSTRACT
Climate change can translate into business risks in a number of ways: Physical risk, Brand risk, Policy risk, Structural risk, and Liability risk. Several of these risks can manifest themselves at both ends of the corporate risk management time-line, i.e. through measures undertaken too early and too aggressively, or too little and too late. Corporate first-movers undertaking aggressive mitigation strategies can find themselves under pressure from shareholders due to short-term impacts on the bottom line, face competitive disadvantage if competitors do not pursue the same initiatives, and even incur brand risk for their efforts if public attention to those efforts leads to 'greenwashing' charges. In interpreting the continuing scientific debates over the aspects of climate change, we have to remember that there's virtually nothing that scientists agree upon universally. Companies evaluating climate risks may wish to assign relative probabilities to the five scenarios introduced as part of their risk management strategies.
