Reports / Reports

Building Climate Change Resilience in Cities: The Private Sector’s Role

In August and September 2014, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) queried 248 executives at companies around the world about the role of business in building urban climate resilience. Slightly more than half are from organisations with significant operations or markets in Asia. Most (more than 85%) are members of the C-suite and the rest are heads of departments or business units or managers.

The largest groups surveyed are from the construction and real estate (18%), financial services (14%), professional services (12%), agriculture and agribusiness (11%) and IT and technology (11%) industries—all fields that are directly or indirectly affected by or play a role in resolving issues posed by climate-change shifts.

Executives at firms of all sizes responded, with more than 12% from companies with annual global revenues of $10bn or more. About 40% are from companies with annual sales of $500m to $10bn, while almost half (47%) work for companies with annual revenues of $500m or less.

The survey covered all major regions, with 30% of respondents based in Western Europe, one-quarter in North America and 28% in Asia Pacific. The rest hail from Latin America (6%), Africa (4%), Eastern Europe (3%) and the Middle East (3%).