Useful Decision Support Tools
It is hard to over-state the business uncertainties associated with the gap between today’s global GHG emissions trends, and the 70-90% reduction in emissions scientists are calling for. That gap inevitably creates a volatile risk management situation for societal decision-makers and then for business decision-makers. The wider the gap becomes (and it has been growing for the last 30 years), and the longer it persists, the greater the risks posed by climate change and potential climate responses. Not unlike the increase in earthquake risk as tectonic stresses grow over time.
That's why this module of Your Climate Change MBA points you to resources and tools that may be useful to you in communicating climate change risks and options within your organization, and how to utilize the Climate Web in implementing such tools. Options you may wish to consider include:
Climate Pre-Mortems an under-utilized tool for thinking about the future. Nobel Prize winning behavioral economist Richard Thaler has argued that “pre-mortems” are the single most underutilized tool in our decision-making toolbox.
Rapid Materiality Assessments (RMA) are a resource-effective way to assess the “materiality” of climate change to an organization’s goals and risk management objectives. The result of an RMA is a quick but comprehensive assessment of climate risks and actionable conclusions for decision-makers, which can inform resource-allocation and other climate-relevant decision-making. The RMA is carried out using the expertise of a company's own staff.
Climate Assumptions Audits help challenge out-of-date assumptions that will serve a company poorly when it comes to climate change risk assessment, scenario planning, and risk management. An Assumptions Audit is a relatively easy way to make sure decision-makers are incorporating the best information into developing climate strategies or engaging in climate scenario planning.
Climate Change Scenario Planning can take a variety of forms, from the TCFD’s 2o C scenario planning approach, to more conventional scenario planning that is customized to the decision-making context of a particular company. Climate change scenario planning, and resources that can support such planning, are included in Your Climate Change MBA.
This Your Climate Change MBA module helps you explore how the Climate Web can support these and other decision-making needs at the company level. The goal is not to recommend a particular response to climate change; there are no "one size fits all" business responses to climate change. But any company’s response to climate change can be informed by the 25,000 hours of knowledge curation available through the the Climate Web.