Explainer: Four ways to discover how climate risk is affecting your assets

Accessing climate data and making interpretations in-house is a laborious, slow and often impossible task for many companies. That’s why having access to Cervest’s EarthScan™ and its asset-level climate intelligence can help your organization keep pace with constantly evolving climate risks.

EarthScan gives sustainability leaders on-demand access to decision-useful climate intelligence at the asset or portfolio level. Cervest Ratings™, Cervest’s globally comparable ratings system, and the combined physical risk category gives customers a clear idea of where their risk is concentrated, and allows them to make informed decisions to build operational resilience and create mitigation plans.

Not all ways of gathering climate intelligence data will provide this level of decision-useful insight. A recent Cervest’s survey revealed the many challenges that organizations face when trying to understand their physical climate risk:

• 46 percent struggled with the complexity of aggregating data

• 43 percent lacked real-time and actionable intelligence

• 38 percent had an insufficient understanding of what the data means

It’s possible for both humans and technology to collate data – but, for the most far-reaching results and to get a clear picture of climate-related risks, companies need insight into how multiple climate-related hazards – across multiple regions, climate scenarios and time horizons – will affect the assets that they own, manage or rely upon.

Here are four ways that organizations can begin to understand the climate risks facing their assets, and the pros and cons of each.

Many organizations enlist paid consultants for climate intelligence gathering and reporting alongside increasing regulatory demand. Some specialists provide this output, but it is costly and time-consuming, especially as reports can date quickly and are often based on a specific timeframe. Consecutive reports also often rely on different methodologies, processes, and datasets, meaning they can be incomparable year on year, especially if different consultancies are used over time.

Our climate is volatile, as are the scientific methods available. Organizations need consistent, frequently updated data instead of a single report to capture the ever-changing information. CI is needed daily for companies, helping them to make the most efficient decisions and processes smoother – not just for annual reporting purposes. On-demand, constantly updated intelligence is critical for climate-risk decision-making and adaptation plans.

Managing CI in-house can be time-consuming and expensive. This route is also not guaranteed to deliver comprehensive results at speed. Sourcing complex climate data demands expertise in the matter: it’s more effective when a specialist analyzes the information. It can be incredibly difficult to source experts with the right ability to gather, analyze and draw conclusions from climate data, making it difficult to understand the real opportunities and risks facing an organization.

Cervest is the world’s first climate intelligence platform. Cervest’s climate intelligence product, EarthScan, enables organizations to screen thousands of assets for physical climate-related risk and report on the greatest risks and opportunities in real-time.

For the first time, customers can analyze, rate and report assets on their physical climate risk, share directly with stakeholders, clients, investors and other shareholders, and meet fast-changing reporting regulations with report-ready insights and automated climate risk reports.

Join the EarthScan™ Starter Program today to see how climate intelligence can help you stay compliant, inform risk adaptation measures and build asset resilience.