Water Scarcity & Climate Change: Growing Risks for Businesses & Investors

Author
J. Morrison, M. Morikawa, M. Murphy, P. Schulte
Publisher
Ceres
Publication date
February 2009
Type
Reports
Industry
Utility/Waste Management
Category
SRI/Sustainable Finance
Environment/Climate Change
Discipline
Finance
Environmental Management
Language
English
Link
Water Scarcity & Climate Change: Growing Risks for Businesses & Investors
Free/Pay for content
Free
 
This Ceres/Pacific Institute report, done at the request of the Investor Network on Climate Risk, outlines the wide-ranging risks investors and companies face from water scarcity and how global climate change will heighten those risks in many parts of the world.

This report identifies water-related risks specific to eight water-intensive industry sectors. Among the findings:

  • High-Tech: Eleven of the world’s 14 largest semiconductor factories are in the Asia-Pacific region, where water quality risks are especially severe.
  • Beverage: Coca-Cola and PepsiCo bottlers lost their operating licenses in parts of India due to water shortages and all major beverage firms are facing stiff public opposition to new bottling plants – and to bottled drinking water altogether.
  • Agriculture: Reduced water availability is already impacting food commodity prices, as shown by last year’s sharp increase in global rice prices triggered by a drought-induced collapse of rice production in Australia. Roughly 70 percent of the water used globally is for agriculture, with as much as 90 percent in developing countries where populations are   growing fastest.

The report also identifies water-related risks for electric  power/energy, apparel, biotechnology/pharmaceutical, forest products and metals/mining firms. For companies in these and other sectors, climate change will further reduce the availability of reliable and high quality water, impacting productivity, costs, revenues, public goodwill and reputation.

»