COP30’s corporate lobby group turns attention to climate adaptation

International Chamber of Commerce makes recommendations as EU launches call-for-evidence on new resilience package

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has made a series of requests to governments to help companies manage physical climate risks. 

The trade body commissioned a report this week asking for open-source data to help the private sector invest in adaptation, as well as looser rules around collaboration and stronger criteria for public procurement.  

The report will inform ICC’s advocacy ahead of the COP30 climate negotiations later this year, for which it is the UN’s designated industry representative. 

The paper describes the current lack of available data as a “serious barrier” to investment into resilience, and calls on governments to “build and mandate access to high-quality, open climate risk data, enabling better risk assessments and adaptation planning”. 

It points to the EU’s Data Act 2024, through which public bodies can request privately-held data when responding to climate emergencies. 

“A practical next-step would be to add preparedness provisions,” said ICC, adding that this would allow “authorities [to] obtain climate-critical datasets … before events occur, and where early access can measurably reduce climate risk”. 

The European Commission said last week that it wants to undertake a dedicated project to promote “satellite and in-situ data, artificial intelligence and (digital and other) tools, services and applications for climate risk assessments, planning, implementation, monitoring, reporting and evaluation”.

The update came as part of a new call-for-evidence to help the EU come up with a suite of legislative and non-legislative tools to promote climate adaptation and resilience. 

With a formal proposal due later this year, the package will focus on national and regional resilience, but “will also seek to strengthen climate-proofing in all relevant sectors”. 

The Commission said it would “promote commercial opportunities for SMEs and others, enhancing the potential to innovate and create new project pipelines and markets for climate resilience products and services”. 

Meanwhile, influential green central banking body the NGFS has just published guidance on how to integrate climate adaptation into transition plans, which is expected to feed into work going on at the G20. 

The ICC pointed out that large-scale climate adaptation efforts across corporate supply chains may require collective efforts, such as sharing data or pooling resources. 

To make this easier, it urged competition authorities to clarify that such collaborations don’t breach antitrust rules. 

Similar moves have already been made on decarbonisation in Europe and the UK.  

It also said climate adaptation should be a bigger consideration in public procurement requirements.