Building Climate Positive
& Resilient Businesses for a Sustainable Future

Climate change describes the long-term differences in the statistics of weather measured over multi-decadal periods. These include rising temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, sea level rise, ocean acidification, melting ice and changes in extreme weather patterns. Besides impairing corporate assets, operations and supply chains, climate change threatens humanity with increased flooding, extreme heat, increased food and water scarcity, more disease, economic loss and mortality.

Extreme weather events have already cost the world more than US$ 5 trillion in economic losses and killed 1.6 million people. Absent any intervention, climate shocks can shave off 4.4% of the annual world's GDP and drive 132 million more people into extreme poverty.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are gases like carbon di-oxide, methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases that trap heat in Earth's atmosphere. As the mass of GHGs in our atmosphere increases, it traps more heat, leading to higher temperatures. GHG emissions are often reported in terms of carbon di-oxide equivalent.

There is mounting scientific evidence to support that anthropogenic (human-led) activities have led to an increase in GHG emissions, which in turn have warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land. The estimate of total human-induced global surface temperature increase from pre-industrial era (1850–1900) to 2024 is about 2°F (between 1.1 to 1.4°C). This rate of warming is faster than at any time during the last 2,000 years.

Short answer is yes. The scientific consensus is that limiting warming to below 2°C is a vital step in reducing the severity of climate change. The international climate agreement that most of the world is presently working under (i.e., the 2015 Paris Agreement) has the aim of holding the increase in global average temperatures to “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” while “pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”

At the same time, we cannot disregard the ill-effects of climate change that will come to pass with a 2°C warming. This will require sizable investments in adaptation and resilience projects across agriculture, water, health, infrastructure and other vital systems.

A useful way to think about this problem is in terms of a carbon budget. The scientific community’s best estimate is that peak warming is 0.3°–0.6°C for every trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emitted into the atmosphere. We have already warmed by 1.3°-1.4°C since the industrial era, so we can stay under 2°C warming if we limit future aggregate emissions to between 800-1000 billion tonnes.

To meet the 2°C threshold, net GHG emissions need to decline to 30-40% of today’s value by early 2030s and reach zero by 2070. There exist other trajectories that can limit warming to under 2°C. However, they all have a fundamental trade-off between the speed of emissions reductions right now and negative emissions later this century.

Because GHG emissions are ubiquitous and deeply entwined in our day-to-day lives – the way we plug into electricity, the abodes we live and work in, how we move from one place to another through road, rail or air, the food we consume, the clothes we wear, and the everyday products we consume and dispose.

Deep decarbonisation requires massive changes to the way these are produced and consumed. Implementing these changes is not only costly but also requires massive changes in consumer behaviour. Various research estimates place the marginal cost of abatement to between US$ 28 to $17,000 per ton of carbon di-oxide averted, depending on the sector and process under consideration.

Making an accelerated and a just net-zero transition happen is an integral part of our firm’s DNA. We visualise ourselves as an eco-system player, someone who can connect the most vital cogs of the climate eco-system.

That means - working with large cap corporations to create Board sponsorship for climate action, set bold climate goals, support rapid and cost-effective deployment of decarbonisation and resilience initiatives, and communicate outcomes authentically; equipping early-stage climate ventures become “bankable” by raising traditional and innovative sources of capital, and generating revenue pipeline; helping climate investors deliver superior financial returns and impact outcomes through market research, transaction advice and ongoing investee management 

We are not a traditional consulting firm with a pyramid project structure of analysts, managers and partners. Instead, we are a multi-disciplinary team of climate scientists, systems engineers, investment advisors, strategy consultants, change management experts and domain specialists.

Our knowledge does not merely come from case studies, but through the lived experience of real-life success and failure. More importantly, we hold ourselves accountable for outcomes in a way that most traditional consulting models do not. That means we get paid largely for solving our client’s problems, not for developing frameworks, reports and presentations.