Modelling the Impacts of Climate Change on Geotechnical Companies

Modelling the Impacts of Climate Change on Geotechnical Companies "Climate change already impacts how geotechnical companies operate. The specific impacts of climate change on geotechnical companies can be divided into physical and transition risks / opportunities. Physical risks arise from the impacts of climate change itself, including both acute extreme weather events and longer-term chronic changes in climate. Transition risks arise from moving to a low carbon economy, spanning the products and services we offer, impacts to operations, impacts on our supply chains and reputational changes. Both these risk categories will grow in future, but the rate of increase depends on the pace of decarbonisation across the world. In this paper, we conduct a full Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) aligned scenario analysis, modelling multiple climate risks and how they impact a geotechnical company. In terms of transition risks, we look at carbon taxation on materials and the rate of rig decarbonisation required in Europe. In terms of physical risks, we model the impacts of heat, extreme precipitation, wildfires and hurricanes in North America on operations. All these models use the latest International Energy Agency (IEA) scenarios for different climates, applied to how they impact a global geotechnical company. We finish with a look at how some of these climate risks can be mitigated, to safeguard geotechnical companies in the future.