For 53% of Italian companies, climate is not a risk

More than one in two manufacturing companies in Italy do not consider climate change a critical factor for business management. While less than 25% have invested in green solutions in the last three years .

This scenario emerges from a survey on the ability of companies to respond to climate risks, conducted as part of the Grins (Growing Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable) project . Funded with 115 million euros by the PNRR , the project involves 13 public universities, 14 private partners (including Intesa Sanpaolo , Prometeia and Exprivia ) and a team of over 500 researchers divided into nine thematic areas . The study analyses the sustainability of businesses and families, decarbonisation policies, social inclusion and sustainable finance, laying the foundations for strategies aimed at strengthening the resilience of the national production system in the face of environmental changes.

The analysis, which involved 9,630 unlisted companies in five Italian regions (Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont, Veneto, Lazio and Tuscany), highlights a widespread tendency towards poor reactivity towards climate risks. The prevailing strategy seems to be “wait & see” , with many companies having not made investments between 2021 and 2023 , nor do they plan to do so in the next three years.

“The data that struck us the most,” explained Vera Palea , professor at the University of Turin and national coordinator of working group 4 of Spoke 1, “is that 53% of companies believe that climate change does not have significant impacts on their business . We found wait-and-see attitudes not only on past investments, but also on future ones. This indicates problems of internal capacity, access to information and strategic priorities.” In fact, it turns out that only 13.2% have invested to reduce acute physical risk (floods, hailstorms), 7.5% for chronic physical risk (drought, high temperatures), and 25.4% to mitigate risks related to the energy transition and new environmental regulations.

At the territorial level, none of the five regions analyzed emerges as a model of climate resilience. Despite extreme events such as the 2012 earthquake and the 2023 flood, Emilia-Romagna records investment levels below the national average, with only 22.4% of companies having invested in the ecological transition, 17.3% in acute events and 7.3% for chronic risks.

Piedmont presents even more critical data, with 80% of companies that have not invested and do not intend to do so. Veneto shows slightly higher percentages, with 27% of companies engaged in the transition, 19% in acute events and 10% in chronic risks. Lazio instead stops at 21.7% for the ecological transition, while Tuscany records the highest figure on this front ( 36% ), even if there is a lack of aggregate data on physical risks.

The project classified companies into four strategic categories: wait-and-see, plan-taker, provident, and proactive . Proactive companies , which represent just 7% of the sample , stand out for a clear and continuous strategy of green investments , having already allocated resources to sustainability and planning further interventions for the future. These companies see the ecological transition not only as a necessity, but as an opportunity to innovate and improve their competitiveness on the market.

On the contrary, wait-and-see companies , which constitute about 45% of the total , show a low capacity to react to climate change and a low propensity for green investments. This category is characterized by a lack of access to strategic information and a limited awareness of the impact that sustainability can have on their business. Many of these companies operate without a defined strategy and postpone crucial decisions, exposing themselves to the risk of losing competitive advantage in the medium-long term.

Planners and foresighted companies are in an intermediate position: the former have developed adaptation strategies, but have yet to implement them concretely, while the latter have already adopted mitigation measures, although not with the same continuity as more advanced companies.

One of the main outputs of the project will be the Amelia platform , scheduled for release in November, which will integrate economic, climate and environmental indicators to assess the vulnerability and readiness of businesses and territories. The goal is to offer a georeferenced open data tool , useful for both institutions and the production system.

With Exprivia and Fondazione Links , the team is developing interactive dashboards to help companies evaluate their competitive positioning in terms of ESG . Furthermore, thanks to the collaboration with Reply , an artificial intelligence project is being developed to analyze corporate balance sheets and identify signs of exposure to climate risks . The research highlights how the climate awareness of Italian companies is still insufficient . Without adequate investments, companies risk being unprepared for the increasingly evident effects of climate change and environmental regulations. The future challenge will be to be able to translate awareness into concrete actions, preventing the “wait & see” from turning into a lack of competitiveness in the long term.