Strategic Approach to Climate Change Resilience

Summary

South Africa’s power company, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., has adopted a holistic, integrated risk-based approach to understand and respond to the challenges associated with climate change. Its approach involves research with national climate change centers not only to understand, produce and use climate data but also to better understand operational thresholds that are sensitive to climate factors. Asset managers are encouraged documenting and sharing climate-related impacts and resilience measures they put in place in the integrated risk management system via adaptation case studies. Corporate climate change specialists support and shape this process with guidance and tools. This approach led Eskom to conclude that additional capital investments are required to ensure energy security in an environment of increased water scarcity.

Key take-aways

• Covering the costs of adaptation to climate change is a challenge.
• Incorporating climate change resilience into Eskom’s Integrated Risk Management requires custom data and specialist support.
• Adaptation decisions sometimes require choosing between resilience and technical and financial performance.