Climate change now a top worry for Canadian CEOs: survey

The proportion of Canadian business leaders who say they are worried about climate change jumped dramatically in 2024.

In a newly released report by Deloitte, 85 per cent of the 129 Canadian executives surveyed between May and June of this year said they "worry all or most of the time" about climate change. 

That's a sharp increase from the 59 per cent who said they worried all or most of the time in 2023. 

Notably, this year's edition of the Deloitte survey shows many Canadian C-suite executives identify themselves as being personally affected by climate change. Fifty-four per cent of those surveyed said they have been impacted in the past year by flooding, while 47 per cent said they have experienced extreme heat and 33 per cent said they have been affected by wildfire or wildfire smoke.

"What showed up in the survey was the sense that executives had been personally impacted by a number of areas that are climate-related," said Daniel Rowe, managing partner for sustainability at Deloitte.

"As executives are experiencing more directly those impacts in their lives, I think that translates perhaps to it being more front-of-mind for them." 

The findings coincide with what will likely go down as Earth's hottest year on record, after a summer of scorching temperatures globally. 

In Canada, the insurance industry has already declared 2024 the most costly year ever for weather disasters. Storm-related flooding in Toronto and southern Ontario, the wildfires in Jasper, Alta., and a severe Calgary hailstorm count among the severe weather events experienced this year.

According to Deloitte, 78 per cent of Canadian C-suite executives expect a "high or very high" impact from climate change on their strategies and operations over the next three years, compared to 70 per cent of the survey's global respondents.

In Canada, a majority of executives said their operations are already being impacted in many ways, including higher insurance costs and lack of insurance availability, the cost of climate mitigation, and scarcity and cost of resources.

But Canadian executives also reported a high level of optimism about the world's ability to take sufficient steps to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, with 92 per cent of respondents feeling "somewhat or extremely optimistic."

The report shows companies continue to increase spending on sustainability, whether that means introducing more climate-friendly products, improving operations or technology to become more environmentally sustainable, or transforming their business model entirely to address climate change concerns. 

Thirty-six per cent of Canadian executives surveyed said their companies significantly increased their investments in sustainability this year, compared with 13 per cent in 2023.

The report finds organizations in Canada are experiencing significant pressure from various stakeholders such as board members, investors, and government regulators to take action on climate change. 

But executives said they feel less pressure from their customers to act on climate change than in previous years. Only 39 per cent of CEOs said their customers or clients pressure them to do better on sustainability, compared with 58 per cent last year.

Some of the executives said this is concerning, and suggested market dynamics are not fully supportive of investments in sustainability.

Nearly one-in-five executives polled also identified politics as a barrier to investing in sustainability. Nineteen per cent of those surveyed said they have concerns that "taking a stance" could alienate a subset of customers or employees.

"Executives are watching the political dynamics around the topic and they're being careful about what stance they take," Rowe said.

"They're watching the market ... It's certainly been the case that the debate on this topic has been quite polarizing."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.