The Climate Resilience Paradox: Between Awareness and Action

Recent events have highlighted that the impact of climate change does not stop at national borders or geographical boundaries. CelsiusPro explore the topic here – and its existential relevance to businesses.

For instance, Stadler, a Swiss railway rolling stock manufacturer, experienced three severe weather disasters within five months, significantly disrupting its supply chain and necessitating a revision of its financial guidance. Similarly, the 2025 California wildfires caused widespread transportation gridlock, power outages, and agricultural losses, underscoring vulnerabilities that extend beyond immediate disaster zones.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025 reinforces this reality, ranking extreme weather events—driven by climate change—as the most significant 10-year risk for the second consecutive year.

Climate change isn’t just a distant threat; it’s here, and it’s exposing the alarming fragility of our insurance systems and the growing protection gap.

Building Internal Capacity

Climate risks dominate headlines. And yet, sustainability leaders at industrial companies face a frustrating irony: despite near-universal awareness of these threats, translating risk insights into actionable strategies for climate risk management remains elusive. 

For businesses, strengthening climate resilience is a delicate, cross-functional effort. Achieving buy-in means engaging stakeholders across the organisation. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development echoes this in a recent report, stating that “business leaders across all core functions should take an active role” and that “each role has a responsibility to coordinate across diverse internal and external stakeholders to build resilience and manage physical risk along the value chain.”

Sustainability leaders must bring physical climate risk and scenario analysis onto the broader corporate agenda—turning it from a niche concern into a company-wide priority.

The Cost of Inaction: When Awareness Stalls 

The paradox lies not in a lack of data but in organisational inertia. Some of these inertial forces include:  

1. Siloed Risk Views: Physical climate-related financial risks are assessed in isolation , not fully taking into account interdependencies across suppliers, logistics, and customer networks.  
2. Static Reporting and Regulatory Disclosures: Many companies rely on metrics from previous frameworks which were not designed to model forward-looking scenarios (e.g., stress-testing the impact to operations in a high-emission scenario).  
3. Misaligned Incentives: Budgets for climate adaptation compete with short-term profitability goals, which may delay critical investments.    

The Path Forward: Bridging the Awareness-Action Gap 

If buy-in from executives and other stakeholders remains elusive, the question is: What’s missing?

One missing factor is a fundamental understanding (and acceptance) that climate resilience isn’t a report—it’s a much-needed conversation. One that spans finance, sales, risk management, and beyond.

For businesses, closing the awareness-action gap requires not only embracing risk assessment but also moving towards risk integration. This means embedding climate resilience into:  

• Capital Planning: Prioritising infrastructure upgrades using climate scenario analysis.  
• Supply Chain Strategy: Mapping tier-2 and tier-3 suppliers for climate exposure.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Aligning CFOs, COOs, and CROs on adaptation investments that protect EBITDA margins.  

Additionally, fostering internal capacity through cross-functional collaboration is crucial. Engaging stakeholders across the organization ensures that climate resilience becomes a shared priority, facilitating the integration of risk assessments into broader corporate strategies.

CelsiusPro’s Role in Facilitating Action

To support companies in this transition, CelsiusPro offers Climate Risk and Regulatory Reporting Workshops. These tailored sessions provide actionable insights and practical tools, empowering sustainability leaders to secure buy-in and drive capacity building within their organizations. By engaging cross-functional teams, these workshops transform functional concerns into strategic priorities, promoting a proactive approach to climate resilience.

In conclusion, while awareness of climate risks is at an all-time high, translating this awareness into concrete actions requires overcoming organizational inertia and psychological barriers. By adopting integrated strategies and fostering internal collaboration, companies can enhance their resilience and navigate the complexities of a changing climate.