LSC/UoS - Climate Change Threat and Sustainable Business Practices

This report examines the problematic impact of climate change on businesses, using examples to illustrate the economic threats and challenges posed to various industries, particularly agriculture. It highlights how climate change can disrupt supply chains, increase economic inequality, and create liability risks for businesses, including small entrepreneurs. The report uses Cargill as an example, showing how climate change affects their supply chain and increases price volatility. Furthermore, the report emphasizes the increasing complexity of corporate legislation due to climate litigation. The conclusion stresses the importance of businesses taking action against climate change and supporting sustainable projects to ensure future growth. Desklib offers a variety of resources, including past papers and solved assignments, to help students further explore this topic.

Building a
Sustainable
Organization
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFRENCES...................................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Climate change is defined as the changes in global weather pattern from middle of the
20th century which is attributed to the rising level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The
impact of climate change can be seen in rising temperature across the world along with regular
occurrence of severe storms. Large amount of greenhouse gas emissions have lead to higher
temperatures, rising sea level and melting ice caps. It is estimated that on an average in the next
20 years, global temperature will rise to or exceed 1.5 degree Celsius of warming (Climate
change widespread, rapid, and intensifying – IPCC, 2021). Climate change is a huge threat to
economic, social and natural development of the world. The harm of climate change is not only
limited to changes in natural ecosystem but it also has economic consequences harming the
corporate world. This essay evaluates the problematic impact of climate change for businesses
with suitable examples and provides suggestion for reducing carbon footprint of an enterprise.
MAIN BODY
Climate change poses as an economic threat and can harm the global financial environment.
Many countries, specifically smaller countries, will face. Economic harm because of climate
change. In addition to this micro financial stability. Non-financial corporates face threat climate
change and stranded assets such as coal reserves. It is important to take strict global action
against climate change because it will support stability of the global economic environment.
Many businesses are taking actions to lower their climate impact because the climate change can
lead to disastrous consequences for the survival of the human race and growth of its business
environment.
The most vulnerable industry to climate change is agriculture. This is because
continuously rising temperatures and occurrence of storms and other climactic disasters can lead
to lower yields of desirable flops for agricultural enterprises. In addition to this, the most
vulnerable groups in the end industry are dependent farmers and small farmers who will not have
reliance on technology to keep their crops safe from climate change. The harmful impact of
climate change on the agricultural industry not only affects the agriculture industry, but can have
a damaging effect on the global economy.
Challenges created by climate change for agricultural enterprises can lead to food prices
becoming higher and higher. This is because many agricultural enterprises and independent
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farmers outside the developed world do not have access to tools and technologies needed to
protect their crops and get high yields even in drastic climates. This will destabilize the entire
food industry and will also impact global economy as food is the one of the basic needs of
humans. On a macroeconomic level, higher food prices lead to higher inflation, which reduce
real income of the household.
This showcases the importance of taking action against climate change and lowering
carbon impact at an individual level and entrepreneurial level because climate change can affect
the economy and increase income inequality by changing agricultural supply and demand. This
type of economic inequality created by climate change will negatively impact both small and
large businesses in and outside of the agricultural industry. An example of agricultural industry
suffering loss because of climate change is the largest agricultural company in the world, Cargill.
As the climate change crisis versions, Cargill may face supply chain shortages because its
trading and processing business is largely dependent on agricultural raw materials and rods or
other climatic disasters will affect the global food supply chain. In addition to this, the meat
business of Cargill is also suffering because of climate change as droughts and increased number
of climate disaster have. led farmers to decrease their herd sizes. Cargill has not been able to
cope up with high demand for beef due to supply shortage. This has increased price volatility for
Cargill, which forces the company to frequently mitigate risks across 7 plus commodities (The
Effects of Climate Change on Cargill’s Supply Chain, 2017).
This example of the agricultural industry showcases the intense negative impact of
climate change for businesses. Climate change will directly impact the commodities which fulfill
basic needs of humans disrupting global supply chain and increasing economic inequality for
small businesses. In addition to this, liability risks will also be increased because of climate
change, harming businesses across the world. Liability risks are defined as the failure to mitigate,
adopt, disclose or comply with changing legal and expectations. Advancements in increase in
climate litigation, which is a new body of environmental law focused on using legal practice and
precedent to mitigate climate change risks will increase liability risks of businesses.
The threat imposed by liability risks is immense for small businesses, as they do not have
resources to handle climate litigation specifically from government and public sector institutions.
In addition to this service sector, individuals who fail to consider climate change in their
products and services will also be impacted by climate litigation. For example, structural
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engineers and architects who fail to consider climate change impacts of their designs such as
intensity of rainfall on their design will also face evolving and complex climate change litigation.
In this way, climate change will increase the complexity of corporate legislation and law and
reduce accessibility of entrepreneurship as well as global business by increasing legal threats.
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CONCLUSION
From the above essay, it is concluded that the impact of climate change is not only natural and
environmental, but it also has economic consequences. Climate change will impact industries
across the globe and increase risks for global businesses as well as small entrepreneurs. The
agriculture industry will be heavily impacted because of climate change as commercial farming
will become more challenging because of droughts and rising temperature. The negative impact
of climate change on the agricultural industry will have drastic consequences for the whole
global economy because it will create supply shortage for various food products and result in
inflation. Finally, climate change also creates the risk of climate litigation, which will increase
the complexity of corporate rock harming small business entrepreneurs and independent
professionals in the service industry. It is essential for businesses to take action against climate
change and support sustainable projects so that their future growth is ensured.
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REFRENCES
Books and Journals
Dalziell, T., 2004. Colonial Displacements: Another Look at Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant
Career. ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, 35(3-4).
Dane, A., 2020. Gender and Prestige in Literature. Springer International Publishing.
Franklin, M., 2021. My career goes bung. Good Press.
Henderson, I., 1997. Gender, genre and Sybylla's performative identity in Miles Franklin's My
Brilliant Career. Australian Literary Studies, 18(2). pp.165-173.
Hogarth, N.E.C., 2022. Resisting Linguistic Rules in French-Australian Writing. Australian
Journal of French Studies, 59(1). pp.60-72.
Kent, J., 2018. A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, a Literary Life. NewSouth.
McCarthy, G., 2021. Indigenising Australian Studies in China. Journal of Australian
Studies, 45(2). pp.265-280.
Robinson, F. and Smith-Laing, T., 2017. An Analysis of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own.
Macat Library.
Online
Climate change widespread, rapid, and intensifying – IPCC, 2021. [Online] Available through
<https://www.ipcc.ch/2021/08/09/ar6-wg1-20210809-pr/#:~:text=The%20report
%20shows%20that%20emissions,1.5%C2%B0C%20of%20warming.>
The Effects of Climate Change on Cargill’s Supply Chain, 2017. [Online] Available through
<https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-rctom/submission/the-effects-of-climate-change-on-
cargills-supply-chain/>
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