Climate and natural hazards at the heart of strategic decision-making

Our annual Climate Breakfast took place as part of Climate Week Zurich 2026. The event brought together representatives from business, the financial sector, public administration and academia to discuss the growing importance of climate and natural hazards in strategic decision-making.

Discussions centred on the new CH2025 climate scenarios and the question of how physical climate and natural hazards can be systematically identified, assessed and integrated into decision-making processes. It became clear that climate risks are having a growing influence on investment decisions, corporate strategies, lending and regulatory requirements.

Scientific perspective: CH2025 climate scenarios

Reto Knutti (ETH Zurich) opened the event with a scientific analysis of the CH2025 climate scenarios. He highlighted the key findings for the management of climate and natural risks and explained how these can be integrated into planning and strategy.

Financial sector: Climate and natural risks in the banking sector

Petra Roth (Thurgauer Kantonalbank), in conversation with Nathalie Benz (Swiss Climate), examined how climate and natural risks are taken into account in the financial sector. The focus was particularly on lending processes, risk management and strategic decision-making in banks.

Corporate perspective: value creation and investment

In a discussion with Nathalie Benz, Alessa Perotti (Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund) provided concrete insights from the perspective of a major Swiss retail company. She highlighted how climate and nature are jointly incorporated into strategic decisions and how Migros has approached the SBTN (Science Based Targets for Nature) process.

Moderation and practical implementation

Nathalie Benz and Andreas Steiner (Swiss Climate) moderated the ‘Climate Breakfast’. They enriched the discussion with concrete approaches to identifying, assessing and strategically integrating climate and nature risks within companies and organisations.

Conclusion: From climate scenarios to strategic decisions

The 2026 Climate Breakfast impressively demonstrated how relevant the management of climate and nature risks is for sustainable decision-making. The exchange between the scientific community, the financial sector and the business world underscored the need to systematically integrate climate risks into strategic processes.

Swiss Climate would like to thank all the speakers and participants for the valuable exchange and the inspiring discussions.