ABSTRACT
Over the last few years the phrase ‘climate change’ has hardly been out of the media. A succession of extreme weather events around the world – including Tropical Storm Sandy causing widespread damage in New York in 2012, Typhoon Haiyan hitting the Philippines in 2013 and several bouts of extreme wet and hot weather in Europe – have illustrated how vulnerable both developed and developing economies are to extreme weather. Politicians have devoted time and effort to try to negotiate an international climate change treaty. Campaign groups urge them to do more to avert major catastrophe, but others suggest that the threats posed by climate change are overstated. Governments have tried several – controversial – ways of encouraging us to use energy more efficiently and to increase the use of renewable energy sources. Increasingly, climate change is becoming relevant for many organisations in both the private and public sectors. It affects both how they use energy and its price, it affects the risks to which an organisation is exposed, and can also open up new opportunities.
