Business risk from climate change laid bare at European Parliament meeting

Also, melting of the Arctic ice will open up new sea routes, presenting a risk to freight operators on established routes and established supply chains. Loss of coastline could shift fishing exclusion zones 200km inland and away from valuable resource areas and the disappearance of islands, as seas rise, could throw into doubt national claims by the island-owning countries over surrounding waters, claimed Cleo Paskal, Associate Fellow at the think-tank Chatham House. Such geophysical changes as a result of climate change are already strongly affecting international agreements on water, fisheries, hydropower and policies such as agricultural subsidies, she told a recent meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels.hide“Environmental change is remaking geography,” said Ms Paskal at a European Parliament meeting. “This is already starting to become an issue.” She added that geopolitics and geoeconomics are now interacting with geophysics: “This is not science fiction,” she said. “This is happening now.” Companies, and their risk managers, with energy pipelines and other infrastructure in the Arctic must face up to the fact that global warming may well melt the rock-solid permafrost on which the assets are built, she added. The MEP Peter Liese, a member of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) who sits on the parliament’s environment committee, criticised the US and other opponents of the European Union’s decision to include aviation in its emissions trading system (ETS), saying that they should accept a recent European Court of Justice ruling in favour of the inclusion. Airlines have claimed that charging for carbon dioxide emissions is a risk to their survival and could lead to trade wars. However, Mr Liese said that the effect would be minimal, typically less than €2 per passenger flying between the US and China. The measure would cost less than €1 between London and New York, which compares with taxes of more than £100 per passenger for the same flight. “The financial effect on airlines is limited,” he said. Military and political speakers at the European Parliament meeting warned that global warming could lead to international conflict. “We face a strategic challenge that requires a strategic response,” said Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti. The EPP Deputy General Secretary, Christian Kremer, said that conflicts would make it even harder to reach international agreements to deal with climate change: “We are running out of time.” The military is wary about responding to man-made or climate change disasters. It does not see global warming as a direct military threat, said Mr Morisetti, but could face knock-on effects such as enforced migration and associated crime or terrorism. The parliament’s defence and security sub-committee is likely to publish by early June a long-awaited report on climate change and security, with a focus on the possible role of the military. Under the initiative by Green MEP Indrek Tarand, the military could have to respond to floods induced by climate change.

Business risk from climate change laid bare at European Parliament meeting

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