Impact of climate risk on long-term core activity management in the power sector

Abstract

The global economy faces the challenges of climate change that generates the climate risk, which essentially affects the operational activity of power companies. The power sector is both, one of the most important greenhouse gases emitters, and an industry especially exposed to widely perceived climate risk. Changes in the natural environment cause negative impacts on the energy infrastructure (physical risk), while regulatory changes and society sentiments (transition risk) reshape the conditions of operational profitability of power companies. These phenomena, currently accelerating changes in the global economy, persuaded the authors to undertake a study on necessary changes in the core activities of power companies, which should secure the resilience of their profits in an uncertain future. The authors performed a comprehensive study of literature concerning climate risk exposure in the power sector by researching operational adjustments made by leading power companies in the green transformation process. To meet the abovementioned objectives of the article, the authors present the results of their research in the part of the article that discusses the recommendations for the necessary changes of the core activities of power companies. They intend to identify universal solutions that can be applied by power companies operating in the globalized economy. This requires a long-term approach to the process of re-designing the operational activities of power companies, which would secure physical assets responsible for the continuity of their operations, and hedge future profits against transition risk.

Keywords

• management
• power company
• strategy
• climate risk
• climate change
• core activity
• power market