Climate risks have lower priority than the framework conditions of the ecological transformation
Enterprises in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) have experienced climate change impacts considerably more often within the past five years than enterprises in the other federal states. According to a survey of the Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn, extreme weather, heat or flood and low water, occurring more frequently as a result of climate change, affected the business activities of every second small, medium-sized and large enterprise.
Changing framework conditions more relevant than climate risks
Though every second enterprise in NRW does not feel sufficiently protected against such extreme weather phenomena, at present they prioritise current business challenges. They also often lack financial means.
For entrepreneurs in NRW and the other federal states, the focus is mainly on the changing framework conditions in the wake of climate change. They closely monitor the rising energy prices and the uncertainties in energy supply resulting from the transition to emission-free energy production. At the same time, they worry about an expansion of bureaucratic requirements resulting from society's efforts to protect the climate.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as large companies in NRW consider suppliers as the greatest risks to their business processes within their value chains. In contrast, they rate the risk of their employees being impaired or absent significantly lower. Especially in this respect, the large enterprises in NRW are more optimistic than their counterparts in the other federal states.
Enterprises are taking a variety of measures to counteract climate risks. Compared to SMEs, large companies in NRW and other regions of Germany more often implement construction measures and take targeted activities to increase energy and water supply autonomy. At the same time, large enterprises in NRW take out insurance policies more often than in the other federal states. Relocations, in contrast, are only considered by very few enterprises in NRW, as well as in other parts of Germany.
