Extreme weather to be top business concern by 2030

For the first time, businesses are more concerned about extreme weather affecting their operations in 2030 than cyberattacks, according to a new survey from global risk management provider Healix.

The survey, which asked respondents to look at the risks they are most concerned about, identified extreme weather (43 per cent), cyberattacks (40 per cent), and interstate conflict (38 per cent) as the top three biggest concerns.

Not only are business operators concerned about extreme weather, almost three quarters (73 per cent) of businesses say they have already been directly affected by it. The highest impacted industry is manufacturing (86 per cent), where operations are widely dispersed among physical environments and geographies. The media industry also ranked highly (83 per cent), accounting for the risks involved in reporting on these extreme weather events at source. 

Of all the extreme weather events, businesses were most concerned about extreme heat affecting employees (41 per cent), followed by heavy rainfall and flooding (37 per cent) and wildfires (33 per cent).

Andrew Devereux , Risk Intelligence Manager at Healix, said: “It is concerning to see so many respondents with no plan in place to manage climate-related risk. What used to be latent and perceived as a longer-term risk must now become part of business continuity plans.

“The hard truth is that we’re experiencing more immediate physical and direct operational impact from changing climate patterns. It is crucial that businesses think about climate risk in the same short-term view they have for cultural or societal risk, such as political unrest.”