Businesses 'could benefit from climate change'

Businesses could benefit from climate change, it has been said, after environmental analysis was given to its overall consequences.

Kay Johnstone, project officer at the UK Climate Impacts Programme, suggested that while the main impact of climate change is fundamentally "negative", there are some business benefits to it.

She recognised the market opportunities to be had and that some processes and activities will become "more economically viable" if the climate of the UK was altered, such as better growth of new agricultural crops.

Her comments follow reports from Natural England and Network Rail, which have said longer, hotter summers could boost the UK's tourism industry as more foreigners could come to the country if the weather remains warm.

Ms Johnstone added that "there's nothing wrong with trying to exploit these benefits", as long as companies remain committed to tackling the causes of climate change by reducing their carbon emissions.

She noted that there is an amount of "unavoidable and inevitable change" as a result of historic emissions, stating that it is no longer "taboo to talk about the opportunities of climate change".

Posted by Joseph Hutton