6 steps to building climate-resilient value chains through collaboration and tech-enabled adaptation

Climate change is a present reality disrupting economies, industries and communities. Extreme weather events, shifting resource availability and rising costs are already straining business operations. By 2030, the frequency of extreme weather events could exceed 560 per year, and if current trends persist, companies may experience profit declines of 5% to 25% annually by 2050.

Responding to these pressures requires more than isolated action. Building resilience at scale means using technology to coordinate across industries, sectors and regions. By sharing data, digital tools and technical resources, stakeholders – from businesses and startups to governments and civil society – can work together to identify risks and scale solutions.

Applying advanced technologies – artificial intelligence (AI), early warning systems, satellite data and digital infrastructure – through existing or new networks and partnerships will not only protect operations, communities and ecosystems from climate impacts, but also unlock new opportunities for innovation and sustainable growth.

The World Economic Forum’s Climate Adaptation: Unlocking Value Chains with the Power of Technology white paper and Adaptation Toolkit, highlight how value chains can turn risk into opportunity by scaling tech-enabled adaptation.

When stakeholders collaborate on climate action using shared technologies, they can:

Accelerate research and develop new solutions tailored to the value chain’s specific risks by tapping into startups, frontier technologies and open-source ecosystems.

Implement tech-driven systems like early warnings to shield operations from future climate impacts, while aligning on shared standards to ensure long-term sustainability.

Pool resources and co-invest in solutions to reduce individual risk and extend benefits across sectors, communities, and ecosystems – amplifying both impact and cost-efficiency as adoption grows.

By acting now to collaborate across value chains, global leaders can more fully harvest the benefits of technology for adaptation. Here are six actions to set up value chain-wide climate resilience:

Engage on climate adaptation by establishing or joining a pre-competitive collaboration space involving all value chain stakeholders, from suppliers to policy-makers. Encourage collaboration to ensure that everyone – across geographies and value chains – benefits from collective adaptation and resilience. Hold meaningful conversations about the nuance behind design of these systems, including who benefits, who may be excluded and potential intended and unintended consequences.

Define the collective value at stake and build a compelling business case for adaptation. Quantify climate risks using scenario modelling and their impact on your assets, employees, operations and supply chain. Develop a shared mission statement to guide joint efforts, prioritizing clear collective actions for adaptation and resilience. Inspire collective action by uniting all stakeholders – governments, business and communities – around shared climate goals to drive investment, responsibility and lasting impact.

Standardize adaptation with a common language and metrics shared across the value chain, to ensure adaptation efforts are measurable and comparable. Align on data-sharing protocols and governance models to foster trust and transparency.

Recognize that data is the foundation of effective adaptation. Identify and prioritize critical data to unlock from the value chain. Implement secure, industry-wide mechanisms to exchange information on climate risks, vulnerabilities and best practices. Treat certain climate data as public goods, democratizing access for underserved communities and local initiatives to ensure accessible and widespread adaptation.

Invest in advanced technologies, such as open climate AI models, and in digital public infrastructure to accelerate adoption of adaptation technologies. Pool resources to reduce financial burdens and enable large-scale climate solutions. Facilitate the development of open-source analytical tools and shared expertise with cross sector partnerships, connecting cutting-edge tech providers and researchers with end users.

Bring onboard academia, start-ups, local businesses and communities to the platform by offering them opportunities to co-design, experiment and implement local adaptation solutions. Leverage local networks and partnerships to build local expertise and innovation with the communities. Document, learn and scale up innovations along the value chain and in other locations.

The path to climate resilience is complex, but it begins with collaboration. As outlined in the World Economic Forum’s report Climate Adaptation: Unlocking Value Chains with the Power of Technology, coordinated action across value chains is essential to meet the scale and urgency of the challenge.

This isn’t about starting from scratch – solutions already exist. In the energy sector, companies are using digital platforms and early warning systems to strengthen operational resilience. In food systems, precision agriculture and data-sharing tools are helping farmers adapt to changing conditions. These examples and others show that when stakeholders come together, adaptation can shift from fragmented pilots to transformative impact.

Building on this momentum, business leaders and policy-makers now have a clear framework to scale action. This six-step approach offers a practical starting point to co-develop strategies, align on metrics and harness technology and data for long-term resilience.

By embedding climate adaptation into the fabric of how industries operate and collaborate, we can turn today’s risk into tomorrow’s opportunity – and ensure that value chains, communities and ecosystems are prepared for what lies ahead.