White paper on European climate risk and trade in Europe

This Adaptation Without Borders white paper explores the main barriers that currently hinder business actions on adaptation and the role of public policies in creating an enabling environment to accelerate investments in adaptation solutions. Climate change is expected to increase the costs of international trade by disrupting production and supply chains, with significant social and economic spillover effects on other businesses. It will be costly and complex to adapt supply chains and strengthen trade policies in preparation for climate risks and variability. 

The key messages of the publication include: 

• Strengthen climate risk assessment and scenario analyses to map current and future climate risks against supply chains in critical sectors, considering compound effects. This data can be used to inform government climate and trade policies, and to help accelerate adaptation planning in the private sector.
• Develop guidelines for physical climate risk disclosure and adaptation-related metrics, to support harmonisation of standards and alignment of regulation. These could be incorporated into existing regulatory frameworks.
• Establish a collaborative platform to facilitate both public-private and business-to-business collaboration around risk sharing and sector-specific co-investments in adaptation in shared supply chains.