Our industry should be leading the charge on climate adaptation, not hiding behind it
Reality: climate impacts continue to reach unprecedented levels. Droughts, heatwaves, and floods are destroying livelihoods – not just in ‘other’, ‘emerging’ economies but here, in the West. Look at the US, where 2025 could see 19,000 repossessions due to climate risk, costing US mortgage lenders as much as $1.2bn this year – forecast to grow to $5.4bn by 2035.
Corporate action isn’t keeping up. A survey of companies by the European Investment Bank showed that while sixty-six per cent of EU businesses polled said they faced threats from the physical impacts of climate change, only 22 per cent had an adaptation strategy.
Here, “adaptation” translates to ‘accepting reality’.
There’s not enough of that happening in boardrooms and comms advisers need to step up and be a forcing function for the change that’s necessary.
The planet is on track to warm by well past 2 degrees. Who knows what aspects of BAU capitalist market economics will continue to exist as we shoot past these thresholds?
What will persist, however, are the messaging frameworks, carefully curated sustainability narratives, and elegantly designed strategic playbooks that say everything except what needs to be said.
The comms profession isn’t being honest enough about the fact that things are going to change and keep changing, and that sustainability plans and targets, while necessary and vitally important, are increasingly not credible unless they contain detail about adaptation. Wordsmithery is no substitute for action, or the sober, science-based counsel that incites that action.
Perhaps the comms industry isn’t informed enough to lead the charge on getting real about the climate situation? Well, we all need to get more informed because we have a duty to help clients communicate the truth. About what’s happening and what needs to happen next.
We’re entering a time of climate pragmatism where the corporate narrative that matters most is one that addresses reality as it is, not as we wished it was, and what we/our/your company is actually doing about it.
The role of companies in this truth-telling is crucial. Governments are not naturally predisposed to tell the whole truth to voters without sugar-coating it. Honest, scary reality-telling that is candid about the changes and compromises and sacrifices that are needed is not usually a vote-winning strategy after all (see the current contortions the govt is going through about defence spending).
But it is a smart strategy when speaking to long-term investors assessing value-at-risk. It is a smart strategy when communicating with employees. It is a smart strategy when engaging with regulators, policymakers, and customers.
When it comes to climate impacts, the line between people and planet is totally blurred. This means that corporate affairs are consumer affairs here, more than ever. And people – whether they are ‘corporate’ investors or ‘consumer’ audiences – will be drawn to businesses that tell the truth and have credible plans for how they are adapting to the facts on the ground.
That goes beyond trust and reputation. It speaks to being a (literally) sustainable commercial concern for the long term.
How can communication advisers help?
Firstly, understand that the problem is almost certainly a psychological one: humans tend to “herding behaviour”, meaning Boards are less likely to invest heavily in climate adaptation if peers aren’t. And humans also suffer from “optimism bias”, whereby belief in a risk doesn’t translate to belief that it will impact you.
Understanding this behaviour means that you are well placed to do what good comms can always do: drive behaviour change.
Secondly, ground your argument to your client in the financial case. Last month, the London Stock Exchange Group published “Investing in the green economy 2025”, which shows that “companies with exposure to adaptation solutions” generated total revenue of $1tn last year.
This sort of research is a solid sign that spending on climate adaptation is poised to accelerate as the market opportunity becomes clear. Companies that position themselves well now, and communicate that credibly, will reap the rewards.
So it’s time for comms to get real. Get on board with the age of climate pragmatism and start talking about climate adaptation, and the realities of a world that’s quickly going to look almost unrecognisable from the one we’ve grown up in.
By Stuart Lambert, co-founder