Climate risk tops every risk list. Your comms strategy needs to reflect it

Last week comms teams got the tactical messaging right; now comes the harder work of building the narrative that makes climate central to your strategy.

I love the hot weather. Ice, cold showers and adopting a sedentary pace gets me through. But I recognise I’m a minority.

Last week in the UK most people struggled and many were genuinely at risk. A meeting during London Climate Week to discuss the impact of extream heat was cancelled because the venue was too hot.

Communications teams throughout Europe did what they do best at times of crisis. They supported management with clear guidance on working patterns. They checked in on vulnerable colleagues. They arranged fans, ice lollies and flexible schedules.

This is all important work but it’s only part of the story. It doesn’t address the much bigger sustainability issue.

The tactical response and the strategic gap

In extreme weather management needs help communicating quickly. Employees need to know where to work, whether offices will close and who is most at risk. Customers need to know the impact on services. These messages prevent frustration, and worst panic. They keep people safe.

But there is a much larger conversation that the communications function needs to lead.

Climate change has been well understood since the 1990s. We have known temperatures would shift, weather patterns would become more extreme, and that heat waves and cold snaps would increase.

Yet the strategic implications for how organisations manage climate from a risk and communication perspective is often missing. As soon as an extreme weather event passes we’re onto the next issue. Rod Cartwright’s Reputation, Risk and Resilience report shows this disconnect clearly.

Climate change tops global expert risk rankings for the fifth consecutive year according to Cartwright. It occupies first place among professional risk managers, strategists and researchers.

Meanwhile AXA, tracking climate risk at the top of global threats for five years has recorded a decline in concern. In 2024, 63 per cent included it in their top worries. By 2025, 55 per cent did. Severity scores for all environmental risks have declined over two years in both relative and absolute terms.

“Organisations that allow political volatility and short-termism to become a cover for reduced climate ambition are trading long-term resilience for apparent short-term comfort,” says Cartwright.

What comms should do

This is an environment listening (in all definitions of the term) and sense-making challenge that elevates comms in management conversations.

Strategic communications helps organisations interpret what is happening. It frames the meaning of events. It connects the immediate to the structural. It bridges the short term priorities of audiences with what they need to do long term.

Your organisation has known about climate change for decades. It has probably made net-zero commitments. But does it have a coherent narrative about what climate transition actually means?

Here are the questions you need to ask:

• Does it explain why last week’s heat spike in Europe is not an isolated event but a pattern your organisation must plan around?

• Does it position climate as central to strategy rather than as a problem for the environment team?

Please stop waiting for instructions from sustainability or risk functions. They are resource-constrained and narrowly focused. They will not frame climate in ways that connect to reputation, stakeholder engagement and competition.

Your job is to develop an integrated narrative that makes sense to internal and external audiences. It should sit at the centre of your strategy. It should guide how you talk about all aspects of your organisation.

The opportunity for comms to step up

Most organisations respond to climate risk with a mix of sustainability reporting, net-zero messaging and reactive comms when weather hits like last week.

Start this next week:

• Audit your current climate communications. Where does it sit? Sustainability reports? Reactive messaging when weather hits like last week.

• Map climate risk against your key stakeholder concerns: employees, customers and investors. What conversations are you not having?

• Ask your sustainability team what they’re not able to say because they lack comms resources or permission. That’s the gap your work begins.

• Finally, develop a narratives about what climate transition means operationally for your organisation.

Further reading

This article was originally posted on my Substack. The Wadds Inc. newsletter is read by more than 5,500 communications and public relations practitioners. We take a slower, critical perspective on the research, evidence and developments shaping the field.