Acclimatise Group Ltd.

Acclimatise is a specialist consulting, communications and digital application company providing world-class expertise in climate change adaptation and risk management. Acclimatise has three distinct divisions, Network, Consultancy and Interactive.

Since 2004, Acclimatise has been focusing on providing climate services to the public and private sector in more than 40 countries. With over 100 projects completed, it has significant experience in understanding clients needs in terms of making them more resilient, as well as an unrivalled knowledge and experience as an SME company which has focused on delivering climate services, include developing software products in this new and emerging market.

The Network media and communications division has created unique web-based content for our clients. With our associates, we provide: Digital strategies and build communities, capacity building and training, content and copywriting, monitoring and evaluation.

The Consultancy division advises private and public sector clients on how to make their policies, projects, investment portfolios and assets resilient to climate change risks today and over time.

The Interactive software division develop interactive web-based applications, including some of the first user-centric climate change risk apps in the world. The flagship product is the AwareTM platform, which provides a framework for rapid climate risk screening exercises, used by multilateral development banks, such as the Asian Development Bank.

Acclimatise has offices in the UK, France, Barbados, USA and India.

www.acclimatise.uk.com

Acclimatise strengthens the perspective of business and SMEs to the project and brings in invaluable practical business experience. Acclimatise is the lead of WP 2 and will cooperate in WP 1.

Mr Alastair Baglee

With over 20 years experience in earth science, environmental impacts and climate change, Mr Alastair Baglee has become a leading expert in climate services in European and North American markets. Alastair was the UK Government’s leading advisor and author of the Business sector research as part of the UK’s Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) in 2012. He has been retained as author and advisor for the next CCRA (2017), once again focusing on the risks and opportunities to businesses in the UK resulting from climate change, including recognition of the contribution of climate services to the UK economy. Alastair has also authored publications for the UK government specifically on the market potential for climate services in the UK (including a consideration of international markets), as well as leading a climate “businesses” opportunity report for the Carbon Disclosure Project that considered over 300 businesses across Europe. Alastair has also lead the world’s first market adaptation study for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (& IFC) where a market evaluation was completed to quantify the potential climate services-related market in Turkey.
Alastair will be the lead coordinator for Acclimatise’s work within the EU-MACS consortium.

Locatelli, B., Fedele, G., Fayolle, A., Baglee, A. (2016). Synergies between adaptation and mitigation in climate change finance. CIFOR. Available from: http://www.cifor.org/library/5844/synergies-between-adaptation-and-mitigation-in-climate-change-finance/

UK Climate Ready (2016). Increasing Resilience to a Changing Climate: Managing Impacts, Market Opportunities and Climate Services. [awaiting publication]

CDP (2014). Climate Change Resilience in Europe: A Snapshot of the Private Sector. Available from: https://www.cdp.net/CDPResults/climate-change-resilience-europe.pdf

European Commission (2011). Guidelines for Project Managers: Making vulnerable investments climate resilient. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/adaptation/what/docs/non_paper_guidelines_project_managers_en.pdf

It is important to firstly point out that Acclimatise is a private company that delivers climate services across Europe and the rest of the world. As such all our work, staff and experience relates to climate services. However, as an example of our current work, some of our current projects (February 2016) are described below:

UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA): Every five years the UK Government must carry out an assessment of the current and future risks to the country from climate change. The next assessment is due in January 2017. The UK Government published the first Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) in January 2012. To inform the 2017 risk assessment, the UK’s Adaptation Sub-Committee (ASC) of the Committee on Climate Change is working with a range of experts to review published data and publish an independent evidence report of the risks and opportunities to the UK from climate change. This report must be delivered to Government by July 2016. The UK Government will then use the ASC’s evidence report as the basis of a Government report, which will be laid before Parliament by January 2017. The Acclimatise team who will be working on the EU-MACS project are currently co-authoring and advising the ASC on the “Business sector” report, which not only includes an assessment of the impacts of climate change on business, but also for the first time assesses the potential for UK businesses to offer climate service-related products and services both in the UK, Europe and internationally.

NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) are responsible for hosting and providing public access to one of the most significant archives for environmental data on Earth with over 20 petabytes of comprehensive atmospheric, coastal, oceanic, and geophysical data. The Acclimatise team for this EU-MACS project is contributing to a climate service-related project for NCEI, where we are identifying opportunities for NCEI’s vast database to be used by private sector businesses developing innovative climate service offerings, such as climate risk assessment and decision-support software tools. We are supporting the identification of opportunities with the development of a series of case studies, where we profile US innovators in climate services through written profiles and short films.

Market adaptation Study for European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD): Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in Turkey are increasingly concerned about the scale of the climate challenge facing their operations. In a country where water scarcity is a growing problem, their anxiety is not unfounded. SMEs also struggle to decide on the most effective strategies to reduce climate risk, according to a ground-breaking study, funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The study identifies opportunities for business investment to effectively manage the risks associate with climate change. The ‘Pilot Climate Change Adaptation Study: Turkey’, identifies priority actions for Turkish businesses to increase their climate resilience as well as identify opportunities for suppliers of climate services to support action in the Turkish market. The research, undertaken by the Acclimatise team who will be engaged on the EU-MACS project aims to help businesses identify viable actions that make business sense.