The UN has launched a new online database to showcase successful strategies that businesses and communities are using to adapt to climate change while simultaneously increasing their profits and using their resources more efficiently, said officials.
The database, which can be accessed through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) website, features more than 100 examples from companies such as Coca-Cola, Levi's, Microsoft and Starbucks, which share the details of their business-friendly adaptation practices, Xinhua quoted officials as saying.
"By showcasing private sector adaptation success stories, we intend to help both communities and businesses become more climate-resilient and to put the benefits and business sense of adaptation firmly on the agenda of the private sector," said UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
"Climate risks which affect communities around the world are always also business risks," she added.
Examples of best practices in the database include efforts to make drinking water clean and safe in developing countries and efforts to improve the yield of coffee beans in regions that are particularly vulnerable to climate change, said the officials.
The database also covers activities such as the development of climate-friendly goods and services and climate proofing the supply chains of companies.
"The initiatives detailed in the database both show how the private sector can secure early advantages by adapting without waiting for absolute policy certainty at the international level, and how governments and the private sector can work together to respond to climate change now," she said.
"Public-private partnerships and cooperation with a wide range of stakeholders is becoming increasingly important to ensure successful implementation."