Contingency planning and risk management are important to any
business, but have you thought about including climate change among
the risks to consider in those plans? A group including business
leaders and former government officials released an analysis of the
possible impacts that climate change may have on business in the
United States, titled Risky Business: The Economic Risks of
Climate Change in the United States.
The report does not debate evidence about climate change or
question causation. Instead, it takes a risk management approach to
evaluate the potential economic impacts of a variety of climatic
changes predicted from peer-reviewed studies.
Risky Business
identifies three primary areas of risk: (1) losses of coastal
property and infrastructure; (2) higher temperatures, especially in
the South and Midwest, that reduce productivity, threaten human
health, and increase demand for energy; and (3) changes in
agricultural production that favor northern
