Aviva has called for the UK to be the most climate-ready large economy by 2030 simultaneous to the release of its first climate-ready index, which measures how influential countries (G7 and Ireland) are progressing on climate mitigation, resilience, and adaptation.
Aviva’s campaign for the UK to be the most climate-ready large economy by 2030 addressed new research from YouGov, which found that only one in three UK businesses were planning to get climate-ready even if close to 75% of them admitted to being aware that they needed to do so. Further, barely one in three (36%) of UK businesses surveyed were taking action to guard their operations from extreme weather events, while even fewer (34%) had a structured plan in place to reduce their carbon footprint.
Aviva said climate-preparedness was vital for the future and presented an opportunity for long-term green growth in the UK. In the short term, however, 68% of SMEs agreed that dealing with the cost of living and business operations were greater business priorities than implementing climate policies. Forty-eight per cent recognised they had to do more to reduce their carbon footprint but were stopped by the costs of doing so “during these uncertain times”.
Another34% of SME respondents revealed they had had to pause their climate-related investments due to “the current economic climate”.
“I want the UK to be the most climate-ready large economy in the world by 2030 as the country moves towards its net-zero targets…,” said Aviva group CEO Amanda Blanc. “Current financial pressures are understandably making it harder for many businesses to invest in climate action right now, even though they recognise they need to do more. Government and bigger businesses have a responsibility to help SMEs get climate-ready.”
The climate-ready index, which Aviva created with climate experts and Good Business, tracks 11 key measures of climate-preparedness, including reducing emission, building climate-resilient infrastructure, and helping small businesses prepare for the impact of climate change.
The UK ranked third for climate-readiness, trailing behind Germany at the top spot and France in second place.
The UK’s placement on the index was driven by a strong performance in emissions and mitigation – relating to its net-zero targets and progress made towards these targets– supported by policies to support renewable energy and electric vehicles. Still, Aviva noted that the UK scored relatively low across all remaining areas, including support for biodiversity (ranking fifth of eight) and business readiness (seventh of eight).
The results indicated that British businesses were lagging behind in terms of preparing themselves against climate impact and helping to deliver a more climate-ready country.
To address these gaps, Aviva called on the UK government and financial institutions to take action to become more climate-ready through the five following steps:
Emma Howard Boyd, former chair of England’s Environment Agency and UN global ambassador to Race to Zero and Race to Resilience, said the wide acceptance of the need to reach net zero has heralded an economic race to get ahead of new extremes – but “no one should be left behind”.
“Countries can learn a lot from each other about climate preparedness, and [the climate-ready index] provides a helpful snapshot of where different countries stand,” Boyd said. “It will provide policymakers everywhere with insights on what’s working and what’s not.”
