In its latest Sustainability Report, Deloitte found that almost three-quarters (74 per cent) of Australian executives see the world at a tipping point for responding to climate change, up from just over half (52 per cent) only eight months earlier.
And more than two-thirds of Australian executives expect climate change to have a high or very high impact on their organisation’s strategy and operations over the coming three years.
The findings are based on a survey of more than 2,000 business leaders across 21 countries, including 102 in Australia.
Deloitte modelling for the Business Council of Australia shows that inaction on climate change could cost the economy $3.4 trillion by 2070 but rapid, focused action could grow the economy by $890 billion adding around 200,000 jobs in that same period.
Almost all the Australian executives surveyed (95 per cent) said their companies have already been impacted by climate change citing the operational and regulatory impacts of climate change, cost of mitigation, societal pressures, and resource scarcity as areas of impact.
Australian businesses feel more pressure to act on climate change than the global average and more than half (51 per cent) of Australian executives report that their organisation is being impacted by regulatory and political uncertainty.
The report finds Australian companies are much more likely – 10 per cent or more ahead of the global average – to be implementing the tougher, “needle-moving” actions defined by Deloitte’s analysis.
More than a third of Australian executives have in some way experienced the impacts of climate events over the past year, with more frequent and powerful storms, bushfires, severe flooding and severe drought among the most common events.
Despite the increasing levels of concern, the report finds the vast majority of business leaders in Australia remain optimistic that there’s still time to act. Eighty-nine per cent currently (compared to 80 per cent eight months ago) agree that with immediate action, the worst impacts of climate change can be limited.
