AT&T Survey: Majority of Businesses Have Not Yet Assessed Climate Change-Related Risks

A survey commissioned by AT&T as part of the company’s Climate Resiliency Project says 59 percent of U.S. business leaders consider their firms as “climate resilient.”

Market research firm Morning Consult polled more than 600 business executives between April 15 and April 22 and found that 71 percent of respondents said they have not yet evaluated the risks of climate change to their companies, AT&T said Monday.

Fifty-three percent of respondents said their companies have initiated measures to adapt to climate change such as building up disaster recovery processes; investing in physical updates; and updating plans for emergency response.

The survey also showed that 38 percent of business leaders indicated that their companies have climate-related event response plans.

In addition to the release of the survey findings, AT&T has unveiled the Climate Resiliency Community Challenge, which aims to facilitate collaboration between universities and local government agencies in the U.S. southeast region to carry out a risk-based climate analysis using climate datasets from the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory. The company will provide up to $50K each to fund the chosen research projects.