UK startup TransZero has unveiled a new online platform aimed at helping companies manage their property portfolios for extreme weather risks associated with climate change.
The TransZero platform models how multiple extreme weather events – including floods, windstorms, droughts, hail, subsidence and heatwaves – are expected to change throughout the 21st century, using advanced climate risk models, artificial intelligence and geospatial technology. This enables businesses and investors to explore targeted resilience and risk mitigation strategies through a cloud hosted service.
With 2024 recognized as the hottest year since records began in 1850 and global average temperatures now 1.46°C above pre-industrial levels, extreme weather events are increasingly being linked to climate change. Between 1980 and 2014, it’s estimated that 78% of all global natural hazard economic losses came from weather-related events, with storms and flooding accounting for 41% and 36% of all damage respectively, according to TransZero.
“Climate change is an existential threat to global businesses and investors,” said Dr Iain Willis, TransZero founder and director. “The combination of highly interconnected supply chains alongside the shifting frequency and severity of extreme weather events is driving an urgent need for companies to understand their exposure – both to the direct damage and the indirect impacts these events have on business downtime.”
TransZero’s cloud-hosted platform uses high-resolution hazard modeling alongside client exposure data and artificial intelligence algorithms to help the user generate deep insights and resilience strategies for their portfolio.
Willis added, “The reason for using artificial intelligence in the platform lies in its capability to rapidly see complex patterns and correlations of climate risk between property assets that it may take you or I much longer to identify in the results.”
TransZero has been developed through close collaboration with a broad range of businesses in asset management, banking and retail.
According to TransZero co-founder Daniel Yarnold, there is a growing need for risk management tools in this space: “Detailed climate risk assessments are fast becoming a core part of enterprise risk management. Beyond regulatory disclosures and reporting, we’re seeing strong engagement with risk and sustainability management teams in multiple sectors.”