Businesses focused on the global credit crisis should not ignore climate change, an academic says.
Professor Andrew Griffiths, from the University of Queensland's business sustainability program, said there was a fear that as businesses concentrated on their immediate survival, they might slow down sustainability initiatives.
"While the credit crisis will be resolved in time, climate change is unfolding," Prof Griffiths said.
"It won't impact on companies tomorrow or the next day but climate change and extreme weather events are not going to diminish.
"As we move into a climate changing world, a lot of this is about the impact the environment can have on their company.
"The real threat of extreme weather events is to companies and industries that have heavily embedded infrastructure they can't move."
Prof Griffiths said extreme weather events such as Cyclone Larry in 2006 and Hurricane Ike in the United States last month had the capacity to devastate entire economies.
"We really have to start looking at how and where we are building our bridges, roads, ports and airports, and if they can withstand hurricanes, cyclones or floods," he said.
Prof Griffiths will present a seminar about climate change and business strategies tomorrow at the Brisbane Institute.
