Webinar: Launch of the OCARA Tool, a Method for Analyzing Business Climate Resilience

Abstract

The climates we know are changing : The severity of floods and the frequency of wildfires and heat waves are increasing, and rainfall and drought cycles are becoming more erratic. Our companies must therefore anticipate these changes and ensure that they are prepared to weather these new climate shocks.

In response to the lack of standards for analyzing these physical risks, Carbone 4 launched the OCARA project. Developed in partnership with Ademe, HDI Global France, Bureau Veritas, and the Grand Est Chamber of Commerce and Industry, OCARA is the leading analytics platform on business resilience to climate change.

OCARA provides a method and a tool for conducting a climate resilience assessment and launching an adaptation process. OCARA is structured around three key steps. The climate resilience analysis (Step 1) assesses the the company's level of resilience in the current climate. Combined with Step 2 (climate impact projections and scenarios), this approach makes it possible to conduct a a physical risk assessment that is both holistic and systemic. Step 3 (Resilience Plan) enables the identification and planning of adaptation pathways.

OCARA allows you to understand, identify, and prioritize weak or strong signals of climate change based on a holistic view of climate impacts across the company’s entire value chain. It also helps identify potential courses of action to develop an adaptation plan in order to strengthen the resilience of the company as a whole. It provides operating results on the specific risks of climate change to the company: the processes most at risk, the most significant impacts, the most resilient elements, the most critical risks, as well as potential courses of action.

OCARA introduces several major methodological advances: an operational approach with a three-step process-based methodology, a list of processes to be evaluated (120 processes divided into three dependency scopes), a list of climate hazards that could cause potential impacts, and standardized assessment metrics that allow for aggregating information and comparing results. OCARA provides a practical interpretation of concepts related to adaptation and offers solutions tailored to businesses.

Like the Bilan Carbone method, the The OCARA method is intended to be used directly by companies and refined based on experience and to deepen understanding. To help spread its use, the method and tool are available for free download, and follow-up projects are already planned.

To mark the launch of the OCARA methodology, Carbone 4 and its partners held a press conference to present the tool.