SEVERE WEATHER Updated Jan. 30, 2020 12:52 PM
World Economic Forum (WEF) President Borge Brende singled out a first in his organization’s annual Global Risks Report. One category – environmental concerns – dominates the focus of the WEF’s multi-stakeholder community of more than 750 global experts and decision-makers who took part in the latest Global Risks Perception survey .
It is “the first time in the survey’s history that one category has occupied all five of the top spots,” Brende notes in his preface to the 2020 Global Risks Report.
Extreme weather events with major damage to property, infrastructure and loss of human life heads the top five global risks in terms of likelihood. The list also includes failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation, human-made environmental damage and disasters, major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, and major natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and geomagnetic storms.
Volunteers walk under the wind and rain from Hurricane Dorian through a flooded road as they work to rescue families near the Causarina bridge in Freeport, Grand Bahama, Bahamas, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
The report was among the key talking points of world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump , who gathered in Davos, Switzerland, last week for roundtable discussions highlighting these concerns.
“There is mounting pressure on companies from investors , regulators, customers and employees to demonstrate their resilience to rising climate volatility,” John Drzik, Chairman of Marsh and McLennan Insights, said in a related WEF story. “Scientific advances mean that climate risks can now be modeled with greater accuracy and incorporated into risk management and business plans.”
That determination resonates with those involved with corporations’ outlooks on environmental risk assessment and concerns.
“The latest WEF Global Risks 2020 Report corresponds with what I hear from corporate leaders today who are taking weather risks seriously and actively mitigating those risks and liabilities with our services,” said AccuWeather’s Jonathan Porter, vice president of Business Services and general manager of Enterprise Solutions. “These companies range from Fortune 100 firms to small businesses. The Global Risks reports add urgency to business leaders to make sure they are operating in a way that is compliant with industry best practices, enhancing safety and minimizing risks. Too much is at risk from a liability and reputation standpoint for companies to attempt to manage the aftermath of weather-related incidents when it’s better to develop a proactive, site-specific plan based on actionable weather insights.”
“AccuWeather already offers many services that allow companies to prepare for severe weather events, actually saving lives, increasing profits and protecting property,” said AccuWeather Founder and CEO Dr. Joel N. Myers. “These forecasts of severe weather are provided to companies globally and have been touted as the most accurate available from any source."
In the near future, AccuWeather will be announcing additional specific climate forecast services that will allow companies to plan for climate change decades in advance so they will be able to properly prepare with the appropriate resources and within the reasonable range of what is likely to occur based on various ranges of risk around temperature, flooding, rains, snow, water-level rise, and all types and frequency of weather events.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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