A recent report produced for the Carbon Disclosure Project, Building Business Resilience to Inevitable Climate Change, focuses on the oil & gas industry response to climate change impacts. The report found that 76% of companies tend to manage only extreme events that are caused by climate change while only 19% reported considering the longer term impacts of climate change on business operations. This focus on “acute” events distracts from “chronic” impacts that can affect profitability, reputation and the integrity of productive assets over the long run.
Climate change impact research internationally and in Canada has revealed a unique set of challenges the oil and gas industry will face over the coming decade and beyond. Research often makes references to impacts on water availability, critical infrastructure (icy roads, pipelines, coastal facilities, airports), and remote resource based communities. With changing permafrost regimes in Canada’s north and landscape hazards that can be exacerbated by slight changes of climatic conditions, damage to critical hydrocarbon assets, such as pipelines, may become more unpredictable and frequent. Without a grasp of the potential impacts of climate change and the recommended adaptation measures to mitigate risk, an organization’s assets and productive capacity may be diminished.
By integrating climate change adaptation considerations into a long term risk management strategy, an organization can build internal resources that enable climate change impact risk to be effectively mitigated, monitored and managed ensuring stakeholders that assets will continue to produce safely, economically, and responsibly.
Most Recent Delphi Experience around Climate Change Impact and Adaptation
Project: Leveraging Investments in Climate Science and Impacts and Adaptation Research to Support Business Responses to Climate Change Today
This two-part webinar series for corporate adaptation practitioners, private sector experts, and prominent members of the adaptation research community was developed to: highlight data, information and guidance that’s available to help Canadian businesses adapt to future climate realities; identify lessons from experiences of companies and sectors in applying climate change information to planning and decision making; and explore approaches to increase the uptake of existing climate change information by business.
Project: Climate Change Impact and Adaptation Research Project
The Climate Change Impact and Adaptation Research Project was conducted for an integrated oil & gas company that wanted to understand the growing body of research on climate change impacts and adaptation in Canada for both current operations and expected future operations. Conducting research on specific thematic areas including Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Biodiversity and the Arctic, Delphi provided an overview of the relevant research nationally and internationally on climate change impact and adaptation and identified the key institutions, and multi-stakeholder groups engaged in relevant climate change adaptation work.
Project: Climate Change Adaptation Project: Canada
Delphi was selected as subject matter experts for five topics areas - Forestry, Airlines, Telecommunications, Human Health, and Canada’s Changing Demographics for the Climate Change Adaptation Project: Canada. After modeling the expected climate impacts across Canada, Delphi presented findings about the challenges climate change will create for these sectors distinguishing between broad impacts nationally and those that will occur on a regional scale. Based on research Delphi made recommendations about adaptation initiatives that would mitigate risks of climate change and enhance the adaptive capacity of these sectors.
- Client: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada
Project: Northwest Territories Climate Change Adaptation Gap Analysis
The NWT Climate Change Adaptation GAP Analysis provided insight to decision-makers at all levels both in the NWT and federally to direct further efforts in climate change adaptation. It does so through analysis of information gathered through a literature review and complemented by dialogue with various stakeholders involved in adaptation in the NWT. The vast amount of information gathered was analysed for: themes in adaptation initiatives and adaptation measures being employed, main players active in adaptation efforts, as well as an assessment of needs, gaps, and strengths in the system.
