Climate Change and Its Impact on Businesses in Australia: Report

This report examines the multifaceted impact of climate change on businesses in Australia. It explores how climate change affects business operations, production processes, and costs, particularly in relation to energy and water sources. The report discusses the effects of extreme weather events, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions on businesses, emphasizing the need for adaptation strategies. It analyzes the impact of government regulations, such as those related to carbon emissions and waste recycling, and how businesses are responding by adopting new technologies, reducing reliance on natural resources, and focusing on eco-friendly products. The report also addresses the challenges faced by organizations in adapting to these changes, including the need for financial support and technological upgrades. Furthermore, it highlights the strategies employed by modern businesses to mitigate climate change impacts, such as recycling, adopting new technologies, and providing employee support. The conclusion reinforces the importance of government regulations and business adaptation in addressing the challenges posed by climate change, while also encouraging the use of recyclable waste for production.

Running Head: Climate Change and Its impact on Businesses
Climate Change and Its Impact on Businesses in Australia
Report
System04104
9/30/2019

Climate Change and Its impact on Businesses
1
Introduction
Climate change is a global issue and it affects the entire world. It has also some negative
effects on the business practices apart from affecting human and animal lives. The major
issues related to climate change is that it affect the production process and increases the cost
of overall business operation because almost every business organisation depends on energy
and water sources for the successful operation of the business and energy and these sources
are directly related with pollution and emission of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases and
pollution are the major cause of climate change because these factors increase the
temperature of Earth as well as affecting the Ozone layer1. This report discusses all these
factors and its impact on Australian business organisations.
Current Issues related to Climate Change and Its impact on Business
or the Businesses
Climate change is related to extreme cold or hot temperature, strong winds, untimely seasons,
and number of natural disasters like Earthquakes, cyclone, draught, and flood etc. The major
thing that is related with climate change is pollution, which is generally comes from the
carbon emission on the Earth. However, the major impact of these factors that an organisation
that depends on the natural resources like coal or oil may have to cut the consumptions of
these energy sources to meet the national regulatory requirements and laws, which applies on
every business to protect the nature and environment2.
Another factor this is related with the climate change is weather conditions. Without human
resources, no organisation can run for long time. Every organisation has large numbers of
1 Kjellström, E., Bärring, L., Nikulin, G., Nilsson, C., Persson, G. and Strandberg, G., Production and use of
regional climate model projections–A Swedish perspective on building climate services. Climate services, vol.
2, 2016, pp.15-29
2 Mran, A., Ooi, S.K., Wong, C.Y. and Hashim, F., Business strategy for climate change: An ASEAN
perspective. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, vol. 23, no. 4, 2016, pp. 213-227

Climate Change and Its impact on Businesses
2
people who are working all around the clock to achieve the objectives of the organisation.
High temperature or extremely cold conditions may affect the productivity of the people and
it will directly relate with the business performance. Every employee wants a safe and
comfortable place for the work and ensures that there should be work and health safety in the
organisation. However, if such type of climate change issue arises in the organisation then it
directly affect the performance of these people and make the fatigue and exhausts. The rise in
temperature or extremely cold temperature may result in fatigues, heat stroke, cramps, rashes,
and exhaustion. However, the Australian fair work policy, 2009 does not have any specific
leave entitlement for employees who cannot join the work or their duties due to such type of
extreme hot situation of cold temperature3.
Analysis of the impact of the issue on the Business
Climate change directly affects the performance and profitability of the organisation. The
government of every country including Australian is forcing the business organisation to
recycle the waste products and rely less on natural or fresh raw material. This will reduce the
carbon emission in the country4. Although, it is really difficult for the business organisations
that how they can completely rely on wastes products or recyclable products. Recycling of
waste products and use them again is a costly technique of production or manufacturing
products that cannot be adopted by every business organisation.
This also affects the profitability of the organisation because to reduce the carbon emission in
the country, every business organisation must implement the latest technology equipment in
the organisation and for a low budget organisation; it is really a costly technique. The
organisation also needs to make changes in their schedule plan and consumption of energy to
produce the products. For example, a manufacturing company that uses coal as a primary
energy resource and that is a low cost energy resource cannot afford the natural gases or oil,
3 Rodríguez-Olalla, A. and Avilés-Palacios, C., Integrating sustainability in organisations: An activity-based
sustainability model. Sustainability, vol. 9, no. 6, 2017, p.1072
4 Soares, M.B. and Dessai, S. Barriers and enablers to the use of seasonal climate forecasts amongst
organisations in Europe. Climatic Change, vol. 137, no. 1-2, 2016, pp.89-103.

Climate Change and Its impact on Businesses
3
which is comparatively expensive. These all factors affect the entire production system of the
organisation5.
The modern business organisations are also facing issues related to producing eco-friendly
products, which is good for our environment. The Australian government makes some strict
laws and regulations under its Environmental protection Act and make it mandatory for all
the business organisation to follow and reduce the emission6. The inefficiency of the
organisations and lack of financial support may lead to the failure of the overall plan of the
government.
How business tries to adapt to the changes caused
The modern business organisations are facing extreme issues and challenges from the climate
change and other environmental issues. The modern business organisations are focusing on
the following strategies to adopt the changes that affect the performance of business
organisations:
1. The modern business organisations are relying on those waste materials, which is easy
to recycle and reduce their dependency on the natural or fresh raw material. This will
help the country to reduce the carbon footprint and it also increase the efficiency of
organisations to produce better product with recyclable product materials7.
2. The modern business organisations are focusing on introducing latest technology in
the organisations, which reduces the carbon footprints while producing or
manufacturing products. The organisations also reduce their dependency on natural
resource and energy sources like coal, oil, and other natural resources. The
dependency on electricity and other renewable energy like solar energy and wind
energy taken place instead of carbon emitted energy resources8.
5 Nikas, A., Doukas, H., Lieu, J., Alvarez Tinoco, R., Charisopoulos, V. and van der Gaast, W., Managing
stakeholder knowledge for the evaluation of innovation systems in the face of climate change. Journal of
Knowledge Management, vol. 21, no. 5, 2017, pp.1013-1034.
6 Masud, M.M., Al-Amin, A.Q., Junsheng, H., Ahmed, F., Yahaya, S.R., Akhtar, R. and Banna, H., Climate
change issue and theory of planned behaviour: relationship by empirical evidence. Journal of Cleaner
Production, No. 113, 2016, pp.613-623.
7 Zaalberg, R. and Midden, C.J., Human responses to climate change: flooding experiences in the Netherlands.
In The social and behavioural aspects of climate change, 2017, pp. 157-176.
8 Pinkse, J. and Gasbarro, F., Managing physical impacts of climate change: An attentional perspective on
corporate adaptation. Business & Society, vol. 58, no. 2, 2019, pp.333-368.

Climate Change and Its impact on Businesses
4
3. The organisations are also focusing on introducing latest technology at the workplace
and provide all the facilities to the employees, so their performance cannot be affected
from the climate change or any other natural disasters like heat, cold, or strong wind
etc.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the impact of climate change on the modern business organisations in
Australian is unavoidable but government provide all the facilities and implement proper
rules and regulations to protect the business organisations from climate change such as rising
temperature, cold, and strong wind etc. Apart from this, the modern business organisations
are also known for their approach to deal with such type of critical situation and they are
continuously reducing their dependency on natural resources and other natural form of energy
sources. This will help them in production and encourage them to use recyclable waste for
production of new product and goods.

Climate Change and Its impact on Businesses
5
References
1. Mran, A., Ooi, S.K., Wong, C.Y. and Hashim, F., Business strategy for climate
change: An ASEAN perspective. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental
Management, vol. 23, no. 4, 2016, pp. 213-227.
2. Nikas, A., Doukas, H., Lieu, J., Alvarez Tinoco, R., Charisopoulos, V. and van der
Gaast, W., Managing stakeholder knowledge for the evaluation of innovation systems
in the face of climate change. Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 21, no. 5,
2017, pp.1013-1034.
3. Pinkse, J. and Gasbarro, F., Managing physical impacts of climate change: An
attentional perspective on corporate adaptation. Business & Society, vol. 58, no. 2,
2019, pp.333-368.
4. Soares, M.B. and Dessai, S. Barriers and enablers to the use of seasonal climate
forecasts amongst organisations in Europe. Climatic Change, vol. 137, no. 1-2, 2016,
pp.89-103.
5. Zaalberg, R. and Midden, C.J., Human responses to climate change: flooding
experiences in the Netherlands. In The social and behavioural aspects of climate
change, 2017, pp. 157-176.
6. Masud, M.M., Al-Amin, A.Q., Junsheng, H., Ahmed, F., Yahaya, S.R., Akhtar, R.
and Banna, H., Climate change issue and theory of planned behaviour: relationship by
empirical evidence. Journal of Cleaner Production, No. 113, 2016, pp.613-623.
7. Rodríguez-Olalla, A. and Avilés-Palacios, C., Integrating sustainability in
organisations: An activity-based sustainability model. Sustainability, vol. 9, no. 6,
2017, p.1072.

Climate Change and Its impact on Businesses
6
8. Kjellström, E., Bärring, L., Nikulin, G., Nilsson, C., Persson, G. and Strandberg, G.,
Production and use of regional climate model projections–A Swedish perspective on
building climate services. Climate services, vol. 2, 2016, pp.15-29.