New Climate Realities in the Boardroom: What Directors Are Really Saying (and Doing)

Image courtesy: Artist: Patrick Chappatte; First Published: World Meteorological Organisation Calendar

Guest blog by Helle Bank Jørgensen, GCB.D, NACD.DC (originally published here)

Global Managing Director, Board Development, Board Intelligence and Founder Competent Boards. #1 Amazon Bestselling Author, Global Keynote Speaker.

If you serve on a board today, you can feel the ground shifting under your feet. The rhetoric is louder, the politics are harsher, the data are starker, and yet, behind the headlines, many boards are getting on with it. They’re changing how they talk, how they budget, and how they govern.

That was the unmistakable signal from the recent Competent Boards Global Forum conversation we convened with directors and senior leaders spanning Asia, Africa, North America, South America and Europe. Here’re the top 5 distilled reality from the conversation. It’s messy, nuanced, and actionable.

Pledges don’t buy trust anymore. Proof does.

Not long ago, boards were applauded for “setting ambition.” Today, pledges on their own often backfire. Stakeholders from employees to insurers to regulators are asking two blunt questions: What did you deliver last quarter? And how do you know?

This is catalyzing a governance shift from promise to performance. Boards are insisting on shorter feedback loops, independent assurance, and simpler dashboards that connect climate actions to operational resilience and cost. The message to management is changing from “be a leader” to “show the ledger.”

Board move: Replace glossy targets with three near-term, auditable outcomes (e.g., hardening two critical supplier nodes against extreme weather, lowering water risk at one high-exposure site, and cutting energy intensity in a data center cluster, etc.). Measure, verify, repeat.

The politics changed, but the enterprise risk didn’t.

“This ‘climate change,’ it’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion,” Trump said in his speech at the recent United Nations General Assesmbly. “All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong. They were made by stupid people that have cost their countries fortunes and given those same countries no chance for success. If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.”

Also, according to Politico (Sept. 28, 2025), the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy issued guidance instructing staff to avoid using a set of terms such as,  “climate change,” “green,” “emissions,” “energy transition,” “sustainability” or “sustainable,” “clean” or “dirty” energy, “carbon” or “CO₂ footprint, etc. that are central to climate and clean energy policy.

Yes, I know the feeling. I took a deep breath too. Climate change has turned into a political football. We are seeing some companies have lowered their voice or rebranded the work, but the risks - physical, transitional, liability, and reputational - unfortunately, do not disappear with the politics. They cut across party lines. As one director at the Global Forum mentioned, “We’re still doing the work; it’s just showing up in the budget under a different name.” Whether you decide to lean on political statements, science, or data is up to you, but whichever direction you take, be prepared to be held accountable by stakeholders.

Board move: Don’t debate the label; scrutinize the substance. Ask management to demonstrate where climate and sustainability risks are embedded in budgets, capex, and strategy, even if they are described differently across jurisdictions. Ensure the board can track resilience and performance regardless of the terminology in use.

The insurance wake-up call

Insurance is no longer a passive annual premium; it is becoming either a strategic partner or a constraint. Directors are realizing that the conversation with insurers is not about negotiating last year’s rates but about shaping tomorrow’s insurability.

At the corporate level, they are sharpening their models by incorporating climate science, real-time satellite data, and advanced risk analytics. The implications for boards are profound: your premiums, exclusions, and even access to coverage will increasingly be determined by how credible your resilience measures are.

Boards that engage insurers early on site-level hardening, supply chain continuity, and the quality of climate-related data see better terms and stronger relationships. Those that do not are learning the hard way: exclusions spread, premiums spike, and some risks become uninsurable. The question is simple: if you cannot insure it, can you really afford to operate it?

Board move: Put a standing agenda item on “insurability.” Invite your lead underwriter or risk carrier into the boardroom annually, not just to renew a contract but to stress-test assumptions, discuss emerging loss trends, and co-design resilience criteria you can realistically meet. Ask the uncomfortable question: Which parts of our business could become uninsurable within the next five years, and what would that mean for shareholder value? Use the answer to guide capital allocation, site strategy, and disclosure.

The East/West mindset split risk vs. opportunity

Participants from Singapore and Hong Kong, suggested the climate rhetoric in their region is notably more positive. Younger infrastructure and growth markets see the energy transition as productivity and competitiveness, not just compliance and retrofit. Meanwhile, many OECD economies feel the weight of legacy assets and political polarization.

Neither worldview is “right”, but boards that can hold both in their head will unlock better strategies: protect mature cash flows and place smart bets in growth markets where policy and capital align.

Board move: Require an “opportunity ledger” alongside your risk register. For every top climate risk, identify at least one monetizable opportunity such as a new market, product, efficiency gain, or partnership, and assign some accountability.

Green-hushing is real, and risky

The pendulum has swung from overpromising to underreporting. Under pressure from lawsuits, political rhetoric, and regulatory crackdowns on greenwashing, some companies are going quiet. Entire programs are being rebranded, stripped of climate language, or buried in ESG appendices. It may feel safer, but it is not. Silence creates its own risks. In other words, the story will get told with or without you.

The new governance challenge is not whether to speak, but how to speak credibly. Boards must push for calibrated transparency: disclose what is material, verifiable, and near term; avoid slogans; and let credible third parties validate the story. The companies that get this right do not just avoid risk; they build trust at a time when trust is scarce.

Board move: Replace silence with disciplined disclosure. Require management to follow a “say, prove, improve” protocol: only say what you can prove today, show the evidence, and name the next improvement step with a date. Ask specifically where the company risks being accused of greenhushing and how to strike the right balance between compliance, clarity, and competitive positioning.

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From my years of experience in this space, I would caution boards not to be swayed by political rhetoric when the underlying risks are material. Political winds change quickly, but the risks we are talking about, whether climate, nature, human capital, or technology, do not wait for the next election cycle. If you are unsure about where to focus, go back to the basics. Revisit your materiality assessment, the purpose and what creates real long-term value. Challenge your assumptions. Rethink the scenarios that could disrupt your business, and plan accordingly.

As I suggested in my latest book The Future Boardroom, the environment we are navigating is turbulent, uncertain, and noisy. The role of a board is not to wait for the noise to clear but to create clarity within it. That means asking the uncomfortable hard questions, pressing for the data, insight and foresight you need, and ensuring management has built resilience into strategy.