COLUMBUS – Ohio is home to many key industries but a new report says climate change is affecting the viability of auto suppliers, farms, manufacturers and other businesses in the state.
Companies depend on Ohio for its access to key waterways, model climate for corn and soybeans, and fast-moving global supply chain, which means the state’s infrastructure gets a lot of use.
The report from the Business Forward Foundation Jim Doyle says that makes the state’s economy vulnerable to severe weather events.
“Ohio is an economic juggernaut. And Ohio’s economy is based on how central it is, and how efficient its infrastructure is. And severe weather threatens that infrastructure and threatens that competitive advantage,” president Jim Doyle said.
Two dozen Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Ohio and 20 of them have issued warnings to investors about severe weather risks, Doyle said.
According to the group’s research, since 2014, Ohio has experienced 15 climate- or weather-related disasters, each topping one-billion dollars in damages, and those have an impact on businesses.
“Severe weather is hurting their commodity prices,” Doyle said. “It’s hurting them on their supply chains. It’s damaging plants and equipment, and it’s also messing with consumer demand for their products. Ohio companies are doing a great job mitigating these costs, but they’re rising – and it’s going to get tougher and tougher.”
Rising temperatures, flooding and drought are changing the ways companies build, where they locate and how they insure their assets, Doyle said.