Business continuity & climate change
Climate change is no longer a future risk for Australian organisations; it's a present one. Floods, bushfires, and extreme heat events are already disrupting operations, supply chains and staff. At the same time, regulatory pressure on climate-related disclosure is increasing rapidly.
We help organisations understand their climate risk exposure and build it into their resilience planning, in practical terms and in line with emerging regulatory requirements.
Ensuring business continuity in the face of an increasing climate change risk is particularly essential for the following organisations:
Importers of raw materials or finished goods that have long supply lines.
Businesses that have assets in locations subject to fires, floods, storms etc.
Financial services companies that have diverse investment portfolios where reporting risks is regulated.
Two types of climate risk
Physical risks: The direct operational impact of climate change; floods and storm surge affecting facilities, bushfires disrupting supply chains, extreme heat affecting staff and infrastructure and water scarcity affecting manufacturing operations. Australia's geographic remoteness amplifies these risks – our extended supply chains have more points of failure when climate events become more frequent.
Transitional risks The risks that arise from the shift to a lower-carbon economy - new regulations, legal obligations, changes in market expectations and technology disruption. For APRA-regulated entities and ASX-listed companies, climate risk disclosure is increasingly mandated for these regulated entities.
What we do
Climate change risk assessment
We lead or assist in comprehensive climate risk assessments, identifying your organisation's exposure to both physical and transitional risks, assessing likelihood and impact and recommending strategies to manage them.
Gap analysis
If you have existing climate risk assessments or sustainability plans, we review them against current best practice and regulatory requirements and identify gaps.
Location risk assessments
For organisations with multiple facilities or complex supply chains, we conduct detailed location-level risk assessments, using physical climate data to assess exposure at specific sites.
Integration with business continuity planning
Climate risks need to be reflected in your BCP, not treated as a separate workstream. We integrate climate risk findings into your broader resilience program so your recovery plans account for the disruptions most likely to affect your specific organisation.
We partner with XDI, a world leading company that offers physical climate risk analysis at the touch of a button, from screening a single asset or portfolios of tens of thousands of assets, to performing in-depth analysis for due diligence and adaptation planning, all in a highly secure and encrypted system. XDI quantifies the cost of extreme weather and climate change impacts to physical assets. Our analysis empowers decision makers and asset owners to strategically manage these impacts and identify opportunities for adaptation.
Regulatory context
Listed companies and APRA-regulated entities face increasing disclosure obligations around climate risk:
ASIC — has published guidance (RG208) on climate risk disclosure obligations for financial services licensees and listed entities. https://download.asic.gov.au/media/j4rhwyiz/rg280-published-31-march-2025.pdf
APRA CPG 229 — APRA's guidance on climate change financial risks for regulated entities. https://www.apra.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-11/Final%20Prudential%20Practice%20Guide%20CPG%20229%20Climate%20Change%20Financial%20Risks.pdf
IFRS - Having successfully established the blueprint for climate-related risk, the TCFD formally disbanded in late 2023, officially passing all monitoring and oversight responsibilities to the IFRS. The IFRS Foundation is a not-for-profit, public interest organisation established to develop high-quality, understandable, enforceable and globally accepted accounting and sustainability disclosure standards. https://www.ifrs.org/
What our customers say
“Following the risk assessment done by Continuity Matters, we decided to move our facilities which were located in a low lying, flood risk area to a location higher up. Very grateful for the sage advice received from Continuity Matters.”
International manufacturing organisation.
