Climate change is already disrupting economies, industries, and communities, with extreme weather events becoming more frequent. Developing large-scale climate resilience requires leveraging technology and digital tools to coordinate actions across industries, sectors, and regions.
A report from the World Economic Forum, titled “Climate Adaptation: Unlocking Value Chains with the Power of Technology,” along with the Adaptation Toolkit, highlights how technology can turn risk into opportunity by strengthening adaptation in value chains. By 2030, the frequency of extreme weather events could exceed 560 per year, and companies may see annual profit declines of 5% to 25% by 2050 if current trends persist.
Addressing these pressures requires going beyond isolated actions. Large-scale resilience involves using technology to coordinate efforts among businesses, startups, governments, and civil society. Sharing data, digital tools, and technical resources can help stakeholders collaborate to identify risks and scale solutions. Advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), early warning systems, satellite data, and digital infrastructure can protect operations, communities, and ecosystems while fostering innovation and sustainable growth.
The report outlines six key steps to establish climate resilience across value chains:
1. Collaborate by joining pre-competitive spaces involving all value chain actors.
2. Align under a common goal, defining collective value and creating a business case for adaptation.
3. Establish clear standards with shared metrics and data governance protocols.
4. Open and share critical data, treating some climate data as public goods.
5. Invest in technological foundations, such as open AI climate models and public digital infrastructure.
6. Implement locally and scale innovations across value chains.
The path to climate resilience is complex but begins with collaboration. Existing solutions in sectors like energy and agriculture demonstrate that collective action can transform fragmented pilot projects into impactful, large-scale change.
— new from El Foro Económico Mundial