Business Leaders Urged to Include Climate Change in Plans

A call has been made for business leaders to factor climate change into their plans, with the same importance that they attach to investment returns.

Making the call, Minister of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change, Hon. Robert Pickersgill, said that given the intensity of natural emergencies, wise business operators must give due consideration for climate risks, which he said are many.

“While we continue along the path towards economic growth, we must seriously factor climate change and its continued impacts into all our business plans. If we care about and focus on our ‘bottom line,’ we must view climate change through the same lens,” the Minister emphasized.

Mr. Pickersgill was addressing a business forum on Climate Change, held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, in New Kingston, on Thursday, July 17.

Highlighting a study done by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ELAC), which estimates that by 2050, the cumulative losses due to the absence of marine ecosystems, storm damage and other factors may average as much as US$366 million per year, the Minister urged the business leaders to readily adopt changes that can mitigate climate risks.

“For any business activity you can think of, any business that finds itself operating in the physical world, climate change will have an effect in some way. The wise builder must therefore, be ready to adapt to its impacts,” he said, while emphasizing that the issues involved in climate change must be on everyone’s agenda.

The Minister implored the leaders to focus on long-term resilience and wealth building, and to be conscious of a changing world. He encouraged them to make energy and water efficiency part of their planning, as this will provide competitive advantage in the decades to come.

“This is an important shift, as well as an important opportunity. Climate change is upon us, but rather than thinking only in terms of impending doom, we have before us the chance to begin talking, thinking…and acting to seize the opportunities that climate change can bring us,” he told the audience.

The Minister informed that the Government is partnering with the private sector on solving critical issues, “and we must keep strengthening our partnerships to effectively adapt to climate change.”

The forum was held under the theme: ‘The Business Case for Climate Change’, with input from local and international resource persons, focusing on finance and investment for climate change.