Demystifying climate risk and the TCFD recommendations
Understanding your organization’s climate-related risks and opportunities has never been more critical. The most recent report from the UN’s IPCC on Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability is a review of climate impacts and how much we can adapt to them.
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Taking a Proactive Approach to Managing Climate Crisis
A blow from increased novel coronavirus fears sent both financial market and stability into freefall. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, daily necessities are becoming scarce because of the fear of supply chain disruptions. We now confront a key question: Is this the new market trend?
Read more Why Decarbonization Strategies have the potential to transform the real estate market
The two central pieces of the Paris Climate Agreement, limiting the average global temperature rise to 1.5°C and becoming a carbon neutral economy by 2050, are starting to hit the real estate industry
Read more Flood Risk and Climate Change: England Flood Planners must prepare for the worst?
Developers and investors must consider the risk of flooding to the development design, planning and investment process at the earliest opportunity to help inform the decision-making process. Early engagement with the Environment Agency (EA), local authorities and environmental consultants (such as Delta-Simons who specialise in flood risk and climate change for developers, occupier and investors) will ensure that the masterplan design includes suitable, viable and cost beneficial mitigation measures. By not considering climate change during the early stages of design and during the planning process, from a flood risk perspective, the risk of the planning application being objected to or occupiers being unwilling to sign leases increases along with potential delays to timescales due to reworking and spiralling costs.
Read more Strengthening Urban Resilience through Managing Risks and Grasping Opportunities
Without doubt, climate change has posed a fundamental threat to urban development around the world. Frequent adverse weather events and intense typhoons happening in many countries have drawn the attention of sustainability and green building professionals to the need for identification of climate-related vulnerabilities in their cities. Apparently, it is high time for us to strengthen the cities’ resilience through design, construction and operation of green buildings as well as investment in climate-resilient infrastructure.
Read more Future Proofing our Built Environment
There are five global mega trends shaping the way that we are currently living, how we respond to them now determines how we are going to live into the future. These mega trends are affecting all aspects of our lives, from the food we eat to the technology running our cities, each carrying with them their own risks and opportunities.
Read more Resilience Trends in Real Estate
Due to the increased severity and frequency of climate disasters, real estate investors are showing urgent concern for the risks that climate change is posing to their assets, turning their attention to resilience planning for their real estate portfolios as a top priority. Rapid strides are being made within the resilience landscape, with increasing adoption of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) standards for financial disclosure in corporate climate reporting, along with the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) Resilience Module, recently updated in 2019 to align with TCFD’s recommendations.
Read more A practical approach to assessing and managing physical climate change risks in global portfolios
Every day it’s impossible to avoid learning about another catastrophic climate event in mainstream media. Extreme weather can destroy properties and valuables, threaten lives and cripple businesses. The Financial Stability Board has deemed climate change a risk to the global financial system and launched the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) to guide companies on how to disclose climate-related risks, opportunities and financial impacts.
Read more Why we should care about climate resilience
As the effects of climate change on economic activity become more significant, there is increasing demand from investors, trustees and other fiduciaries for consistent, comparable, actionable information in company reports. Investors increasingly expect Boards and Executives to actively assess and respond to climate risks.
Read more Tackling TCFD: Early Lessons in Climate Risk Disclosure
Recognizing the need to better understand and disclose risks associated with climate change, several industry initiatives have started to incorporate climate risk and resilience questions into reporting frameworks. In particular, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) seeks to stimulate market dialogue and increased transparency on climate-related risks by providing information to investors, lenders, insurers, and other stakeholders.
Read more 2019 will be the year of adaptation to climate change: the French perspective
Decreasing energy consumption (of buildings in particular) is one of the major priorities of energy and climate policy in France following the Paris Agreement in 2015. This decrease considers all activity areas, especially real estate, which accounts for a large share of French carbon emissions (27%). With its first “Low Carbon National Strategy”, France is […]
Read more Climate resilience and the search for ‘zero carbon’: Trends and expectations for sustainable real assets in 2019
The challenge of improving the sustainability of real estate portfolios is not new. However, the increasing pressure from investors, certification bodies and other industry drivers is creating a wave of change toward portfolios that can demonstrate increasingly resilient and efficient asset performance. Furthermore, a growing desire for occupants to have real time access to building […]
Read more What to expect from China’s real estate industry in 2019
ESG as a global vision has enhanced compliance and reporting standards Sustainability is not rocket science yet the rapid global sustainability demand has encouraged overwhelmingly stringent laws and regulations from governments and investment institutions in 2018. The bell rings again for companies to step up their ESG disclosures in 2019. According to the EY Global […]
Read more Trends and expectations for sustainable real assets in 2019: Taking Climate Resilience Mainstream
Climate resilience has emerged as a key field of practice; however, a concern is that thinking and knowledge of this topic, and most importantly actions are not progressing quickly or purposefully enough for real estate managers to adequately prepare their assets for the potentially perilous shocks and stresses caused by climate change. Resilience is becoming […]
Read more Towards zero – a targeted approach
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recent report gave a stark warning that current pledges from governments are not enough to avoid dangerous levels of climate change. In order to avoid this, we need to be aiming for a maximum of 1.5 degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels. Current INDCs (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions) to 2030 mean that […]
Read more Performance Targets and Climate Related Risks: KPIs Real Estate Companies Need to Track
There are growing concerns in the sustainability space over physical asset risk identification and mitigation, and transitional risks – not just due to policy and compliance, but reputational risk by not keeping up with the actions of peers. These concerns coupled with investor pressures (see TCFD), give the topic of climate-related financial risk two legs […]
Read more Leadership on Climate and Resilience – Join GRESB and Goby in San Francisco
Something big is about to happen in San Francisco. Leaders are converging from around the world talk about the future of the planet. They will make big commitments to greenhouse gas emissions reductions and talk about the big challenges posed by climate-related shocks and stressors. The focal point will be the first-ever Global Climate Action […]
Read more A New Focus on Water
Across the United States, and more broadly across the globe, water scarcity is expected to impact more than half the world’s population by 2030[1]. A 2014 study performed by the Government Accountability Office found that 40 out of 50 states in the United States are likely to experience a shortage of freshwater within the next […]
Read more Advancing Water Risk Assessment: Moving Beyond the Standard Tools
Water is undervalued in most markets. As a line item on a balance sheet, water is hardly noticeable. But as the saying goes, you don’t miss the water until the well runs dry. As more and more regions around the world are facing water risks including scarcity, pollution, and catastrophic weather events, companies are recognizing […]
Read more Natural Flood Management – “Myth or Masterstroke”?
What is NFM? Natural Flood Management (NFM) is currently a hot topic in the UK as there is debate as to what is included in NFM, whether NFM measures can solely be used in reducing flood risk or whether it is just a novel flood risk management option that has become a bandwagon that everyone […]
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