Climate Change Mitigation Policies

In the previous chapter the focus has been on issues concerning adaptation to climate change. Key adaptation concepts and policies were introduced and potential adaptation responses in the case of developed and developing parts of the world were summarized. Also, several incentives encouraging or barriers preventing adaptation were identified and the economic framework for adaptation was outlined.

Climate Change and Supply Chain Operations

In the previous chapter 3 the focus of the presentation has been on the implications of climate change, as felt globally, for the environment and human societies in developing as well as in developed countries. As noticed there, the Stern Review’s conclusion that “climate change will have increasingly severe impacts on people around the world, with a growing risk of abrupt and large-scale changes at higher temperatures” (Stern Review, 2006) is shared by most scientists and governments. The Review warns that “a warmer world with a more intense water cycle and rising sea levels will influence many key determinants of wealth and well-being, including water supply, food production, human health, availability of land, and the environment” (Stern Review, p. 84).

Global Impacts of Climate Change

In the previous chapter, the basic facts regarding global warming have been presented, summarizing mainly the latest scientific findings reported by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), particularly in Working Group I’s Fourth Assessment Report on the Physical Science Basis of Climate Change (Forster et al., 2007).

Global Warming

As noted in the previous chapter, climate change has emerged in recent years as one of the most critical topics at almost all levels of decision making, both private and public. This constitutes a radical change compared to the common perception only a few years ago. Climate change, a result of global warming, is a reality of universal acceptance, affecting in many ways the life of human societies as well as the environment. Continuing research over the last decades has established concrete knowledge of the basic facts about the results of interactive processes in the Earth system,which determine climate and climate change. It has particularly shown the anthropogenic influences on these processes. There is no doubt that human activities are the critical cause of the changes in the climate that Earth is experiencing since the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century, i.e. since the time that a period of rapid industrial growth with far reaching social and economic consequences begun in Britain and spread to Europe and other countries all over the world. The industrial revolution marked the beginning of a dramatic increase in the use of fossil fuels, which is the main cause of climate change.

Business Responses to Climate Change

In the previous chapters 5 and 6 the issues of adaptation and mitigation regarding climate change were introduced. Key concepts were defined, several questions were addressed and potential responses and policies were summarized, based on the findings of scientific research, including valuable sources such as (IPCC, 2007) and (Stern Review, 2006). It is particularly interesting to explore how businesses have perceived these issues and, even more important, how they have actually responded to the challenges of climate change. The issue of global warming, with its pervasive impacts on the society and economy, is not only an issue of public policy and, of course, it is not just an academic issue to be discussed among researchers. The extent and ways that businesses participate in world’s efforts to stabilize oncentrations is of vital importance, as businesses in different sectors of the economy produce large quantities of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and thus have a significant share of the responsibility for the problem. On the other hand, big corporations possess the organizational, technological, and financial resources to cope with environmental problems, including global warming. Indeed, big corporations’ involvement is a critical factor in the policy deliberations relating to climate change, as they are main suppliers of consumers with goods and services as well as main developers and disseminators of new technology. In addition, they implement and finance a substantial part of governments’ climate change policies.

Frameworks of Policy Making Under Climate Change

How can decision-makers ensure that their policies will be robust enough to cope with the challenges of a climate, which is changing dramatically? How best to adapt to climate variability and extreme events? Which are the best practices for understanding, analysing and finally managing the risks that are associated with climate change and face business entities, communities, individual countries and the whole planet? Are there appropriate frameworks and methods available, capable to assist in systematically carrying out the decision-making and policy process? Questions such as these have not only a theoretical scope, but a great practical significance as well. Decision makers have been seeking for appropriate guidance and analytical frameworks to deal with these questions.

Coping with Uncertainty and Risk

In the previous chapters, reference has been made to the uncertainty, which characterizes measurements and assessments related to climate change, and the risks accompanying policies to adapt to and/or mitigate the impacts of global warming. Particularly in the case of the facts, based on (IPCC, 2007a), about global warming and relevant projections into the future presented in chapter 2, the presence of uncertainties is strong (Stainforth et al., 2005; Meinshausen, 2006). The same is true in the case of the global warming impacts presented in chapter 3. On the other hand, it is obvious that such uncertainties, coupled with other uncertainties stemming from sources related to society and economy, imply that any policy to adapt to and/ or mitigate the impacts of global warming is accompanied with some degree of risk, and the outcome of such a policy will be, to a bigger or lesser degree, uncertain.

Climate Change Adaptation Polices

In the previous chapters issues such as the role of the enterprise in a globalized world, extended enterprise, enterprise social responsibility and the role of supply chain management in view of sustainability requirements were introduced; basic facts about global warming and the impacts of climate change in human lives and the environment were presented; economic and social impacts of climate change for people around the world, developing and developed countries were outlined and climate change monetary costs were indicated; and relationships between climate change and key supply chain operations were discussed.

The Enterprise in the 21st Century

Climate change has emerged lately as one of the main issues of concern, may be the most important, in economy and society. This was not so, even just a few years ago. Climate change used to be considered, even until quite recently, as something not much more than mere scientific hypothesis. But the situation has radically changed. The planet is now almost universally recognized as being in a state of emergency because of global warming and its impacts on the environment, economy and human societies. Enterprises are increasingly faced with the climate change challenge and with having to take measures to adapt. Countries and the whole international community are taking urgent measures to mitigate the causes of climate change and hopefully, in a rather distant future, reverse the catastrophic trend.