Mobility sphere Interview Climate

What role can businesses play in climate change adaptation?

Adèle Tanguy, Researcher specializing in climate change adaptation policies within the Climate Program at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) Rédigé le January 03, 2025

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Speaker (The Mobility Sphere by Transdev): “There is truly a need for all stakeholders to be involved in adapting to climate change, and for this to become a real way of structuring systems and making decisions.” “The challenge is to be able to mobilize all actors, including companies. This is what was planned, in particular for certain businesses and operators of vital importance in the PNACC 3, especially in the transport, energy, and telecommunications sectors.” “There is a real need for this reflection to be carried out more broadly, shifting from incremental adaptation—meaning addressing issues one by one—to transformational adaptation. In other words, an adaptation approach in which we genuinely rethink the transformation of our socio‑economic systems.” “This requires bringing together the various actors of a sector around the table to discuss this transformation. The role of public authorities is also to guide this discussion by establishing obligations, incentives, and standards.” “The challenge is that adaptation is a topic that must be managed at the scale of risk. And many climate risks occur at a very local territorial level.” “It is therefore crucial to examine what the risks are in each region: first, the climatic hazards (precipitation, heatwaves, droughts, floods), but also the factors of exposure and vulnerability.” “Exposure means identifying which populations, infrastructures, and activities will be affected. Vulnerabilities refer to how likely these exposed elements are to be impacted by the climatic hazard.” “In terms of territorial governance, the challenge is to be able to make decisions at the scale of risk and, again, to bring together around the table the different actors within a given territory.” “If we want these pathways to be desirable and acceptable, we also need to include the population and civil society in the discussion, beyond the technical stakeholders of a sector.”

Adèle Tanguy, Researcher at IDDRI, analyzes the role of companies in the face of climate change.

What role can businesses play in climate change adaptation?

It's important that all stakeholders are involved in adapting to climate change, and that this becomes a way of structuring and making decisions. To achieve this, we need to go beyond the public and state spheres. This is the purpose of a national climate change adaptation plan like PNACC-3: the challenge is to be able to mobilize all players, including businesses. This is what was planned for certain companies and operators of vital importance in the PNACC-3, notably in the transport, energy and telecoms sectors. But behind this, there's a real need for this reflection to be conducted on a broader scale, and for us to move on from incremental, piecemeal adaptation to transformational adaptation, where we really think about the changes to our socio-economic systems and the way we operate.

All this could enable us to anticipate the actions we need to take in the future. These are transformations that need to be thought through at sector level, not within each individual company. This means bringing together the various stakeholders in a sector to reflect on these transformations. Behind this, the public authorities must also provide a framework for this discussion and put in place obligations, incentives and standards that will enable this reflection and these transformations to begin.

What governance strategies can strengthen the resilience of local areas against extreme events?

Adaptation is a subject that needs to be managed on a risk scale. These risks are often territorial, and it's important to take this into account. We also need to anticipate climatic hazards: precipitation, heat waves, drought, flooding, etc. We need to look at exposure and vulnerability factors. Exposure means, for example, seeing which populations, infrastructures and activities are going to be impacted by these hazards, and vulnerability, which is the greater or lesser propensity of these exposed objects to be affected by the climatic hazard. This means that, in terms of territorial governance, the challenge is to be able to make decisions on the scale of the risk, and therefore once again to bring together the various players in a territory affected by a risk or by a particular issue in a sector to make decisions.

Once future risks have been estimated, the question of adaptation also arises. This is a discussion that needs to take place at territorial level. If we want these paths to be desirable, we need to be able to include the local population in the discussions.