How to Start Your Climate Risk Assessment: A Practical Guide for Companies

Climate change creates severe risks on companies’ assets, sites and business activities both in direct operations and across value chains. These may originate from physical hazards such as floods or droughts, as well as transition pressures that include new regulations, carbon pricing, or shifting market conditions. These risks can significantly affect business viability, while lenders, investors, and regulators are increasingly expecting companies to identify, assess, and disclose them.

Yet for many organisations, knowing where and how to start remains the biggest challenge for many organisations.

To help address this, we publish a practical guidance on conducting climate risk assessments, which looks at the needs and critical steps for both small companies and those with more companies handling complex business models. Our aim is to make the process more accessible, proportionate and focused - whether businesses are running a first screening or refining an already established methodology.

‍What the guidance covers:

The guidance walks through the full assessment process step by step: from defining the project objective and selecting sites and economic activities, through mapping climate hazards and transition events, to conducting qualitative and quantitative analysis and presenting results. It also addresses how to use assessment findings effectively, embedding them into risk management, resilience planning, transition strategies, and sustainability reporting.

A key principle throughout is proportionality and prioritisation: the guidance is designed to be useful for organisations with straightforward business models and limited resources, as well as for larger companies with complex operations and geographically dispersed assets. The aim is to move beyond a tick-box exercise and help organisations treat climate risk assessment as a genuine strategic tool.

The guidance is designed for:

• Sustainability officers, ESG managers, and other professionals responsible for delivering climate risk assessments

• Decision-makers who rely on climate risk information to inform strategy, including department directors and board members

• Organisations at any stage of the assessment process - from first iteration to advanced quantitative analysis

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We are currently gathering feedback from companies, financial market actors and other experts. The guide is therefore subject to targeted improvements and updates based on input received. If you would like to contribute to the consultation, you can use this public form or contact david.nemecek@frankbold.org.