As part of a new initiative to catalyze corporate climate resilience leadership, C2ES, Resilience Rising, and Resilience First, have engaged cross-sector stakeholders—including businesses, NGOs, and resilience-focused organizations—to develop guiding principles that reflect how companies can demonstrate leadership in advancing resilience to the physical impacts of climate change.

The partners developed a first draft of leadership principles by drawing on stakeholder input gathered between July and September 2023 and existing resilience principles designed for other audiences such as those included in the United States National Climate Resilience Framework and the Living Guide to the Principles of Climate Change Adaptation. We collected feedback on two iterations of draft principles throughout November and December 2023. These principles reflect the written and verbal feedback provided by fourteen leaders within companies and relevant NGOs. They reflect a current view of the role of companies in advancing climate resilience and the definition of leadership, particularly for major corporations. As we anticipate that more engagement and discussion in this space will generate additional insights and clarity to incorporate into future iterations, they represent an initial set of “working” principles.

The working principles provide an organizing frame to guide our work and to establish a global framework for corporate leadership on climate resilience. They are designed for broad endorsement and use by private enterprises around the globe to assert a common view that companies leading on climate resilience are science-based and proactive; transparent and accountable; work to safeguard and enhance/strengthen communities and ecosystems; strive for inclusive and equitable decision-making; and enable systems-wide transformations.

Read the full report: “Climate Resilience Pathways: Catalyzing Private Sector Action.“