ACCA Finds Few Firms Ready for Water Supply Risks
A global survey of approximately 500 ACCA members found only 11% considered their organizations fully or very prepared for water-related supply-chain risks.
Updated on Nov. 5, 2026 in Current Conditions
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The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants released its report Weather Proofing Your Supply Chain on November 5, 2026. The research found only 11% of accounting and finance respondents described their organizations as fully or very prepared for water-related supply-chain risks.
Why it matters
Extreme weather can disrupt production, transport, labor and access to critical resources, putting supply chains and their financial results at risk. The findings suggest many organizations have not yet built the early-warning capacity needed to respond.
The survey of approximately 500 ACCA members globally found 11% rated their organizations as fully or very prepared for water-related risks, with resource and materials scarcity seen as high-impact by 43% of respondents. The report does not state how these expectations compare with realized losses.
The players
ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants)
A global professional accountancy body with over 266,100 members worldwide across 179 countries, which conducted the survey and published the report.
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
The Canadian federal agency that oversees government spending, management and policy, which co-wrote the report's case study on federal construction carbon requirements.
The details
The report, Weather Proofing Your Supply Chain, outlines five steps organizations can take to move from recognizing climate risk to acting earlier. It includes a case study on Canada's federal construction carbon requirements, written with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.
Timeline
Week before COP 31: ACCA published the Weather Proofing Your Supply Chain report.
November 5, 2026: ACCA released the report and accompanying press release from Toronto.
2027: ACCA plans to introduce a redesigned qualification integrating sustainability at every level.
Seasonal Patterns
The report's case study on Canada's federal construction carbon requirements illustrates how national carbon rules are increasingly being built into supply-chain planning alongside physical climate exposure. It positions regulatory transition risk as one of several pressures, rated by respondents as a high financial impact at 34%.
Organizations and finance teams can begin by assessing which supply-chain inputs are most exposed to water scarcity and physical climate events. The report's five steps are designed to help move from recognizing these risks to acting on them earlier.
The takeaway
Preparedness gaps are widespread, and finance professionals who can quantify water and climate exposure in supply chains are likely to be increasingly important to organizational resilience planning. Early warning and risk prediction tools are a key area organizations are looking to improve.
What happens next
ACCA plans to introduce its redesigned qualification integrating sustainability at every level next year.
Further reading
Track broader weather and disruption developments in our Current Conditions section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by North Bay Nugget.
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