Environment
The health of the environment directly impacts its constituents in the short and long-term. Identifying risks to the environment and opportunities for positive impact in a timely manner is critical to ensuring sustainability and resilience.
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Climate Risk:
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Models indicate global greenhouse gas emissions leading to runaway climate effects. Rising sea levels, prolonged droughts, ocean warming, hurricane intensification, and biodiversity loss are among the current impacts observed. Climate risk also correlates to increased social, governance, and private sector risks.
Social risk can stem from tension and conflict over constrained resources such as water and the resulting impacts on food security and population movements.
Material private sector risk stem from business models slow to react to distressed and physically vulnerable assets as well as rising reputational costs (added social risk) from perceived lack of action against a universal threat.
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Governance risks and challenges are increasingly interlinked with the transparency and reporting of climate related risks. The SEC has announced a review and pending changes to the 2010 guidance on climate related disclosures, while the EU has been leading the charge with Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation and Non-Financial Reporting Directive.
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Biodiversity Risk:
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Human activity has led to drastic losses in biodiversity, from endangerment to extinction of species and fauna. Environmental degradation leads to collapse when tipping points in ecosystems are reached.
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1 million plant and animal species face extinction in coming years.*
75% of land and 66% of oceans have been "significantly altered" by human activity. **
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50% of wetlands have been lost since 1900.***
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Land degradation also threatens the livelihoods of 3.2 billion people.****
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Biodiversity risk can materialize into significant downstream impact on foods chains and food security, exasperating geopolitical and social risks. Increased regulatory and compliance requirements along with global scrutiny add governance challenges and risks that extend to supply chains and external stakeholder networks.
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WhiteBox A.I.:
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Leverage structured and unstructured data to map, assess, and prioritize material environmental risks to mitigate and identify opportunities for positive impact. Optimize long-term strategy and
adapt business models to changing global environmental dynamics.
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****Sources:
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Nature 569, 171 (2019): doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01448-4
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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-03891-1
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The analysis distils findings from nearly 15,000 studies and government reports, integrating information from the natural and social sciences, Indigenous peoples and traditional agricultural communities. It is the first major international appraisal of biodiversity since 2005. Representatives of 132 governments met last week in Paris to finalize and approve the analysis
- Nature
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