Coping with climate change: It’s time businesses cleaned up their act

It is gradually becoming unacceptable to pollute for free and pass the bill on to future generations. Some 40 countries are now putting a price on carbon pollution, write Catherine McKenna and Feike Sijbesma

The hurricanes that pummeled the Caribbean, Texas, and Florida this year left highways submerged, homes and businesses demolished, and lives lost. The floodwaters have since receded, but the images of upheaval remain etched in our collective memory. Recovery will take years, perhaps decades, and it will cost billions.

Experts tell us that warming oceans are causing hurricanes to become more powerful, and other consequences of anthropogenic climate change — from severe droughts in the Horn of Africa to extreme flooding in Asia — are leaving millions without food and basic shelter.