Climate

Since 1987, ICF has been at the forefront of preparing leading-edge climate-related technical and strategic analyses, and building real-world management tools. The need to understand and manage GHG emissions information has emerged in response to international climate negotiations, national climate policies, and new emissions trading schemes.

ICF's portfolio of off-the-shelf tools and models covers all aspects of the climate project lifecycle from emissions modeling to project investment, and from carbon pricing to risk management. These well-respected tools and models have been adapted for both public- and private-sector clients around the world, highlighting the broad applicability of each tool.

Our in-depth perspective on climate science and economics and our familiarity with tool development mean that if a new tool or model needs to be developed, ICF can provide cost-effective and timely development.

ICF's fluency in climate science, climate policies, economic and market analysis, and emissions reduction strategies enables us to provide integrated and holistic climate services to clients around the world.

We work with public and private-sector clients at the local level and around the globe to promote climate-resilient decision making and build capacity to manage climate risks. Our clients include multinational companies and organizations; local, state, and federal agencies; metropolitan planning organizations; and international funding institutions. Our multidisciplinary team brings extensive knowledge of energy, transportation, health, environment, and other sectors to these cross-cutting issues.

Our risk and resilience services include:

• Evaluating extreme weather and climate risks
• Developing decision-support frameworks for addressing environmental risks
• Identifying, evaluating, and recommending resilience options
• Investigating the nexus between resilience and disaster management
• Enhancing asset management and financial tracking systems to capture the costs of extreme weather and climate risks
• Building the business case for mainstreaming climate risk management into existing activities
• Engaging stakeholders through pilot programs, workshops, and outreach

Our decades of experience in extreme weather and climate risk and resilience are marked by a series of firsts:

• ICF performed the first detailed vulnerability assessment of extreme weather risks to transportation in a single location (Mobile, Alabama), which is expressly designed to enable transferability of tools and approaches across the United States.
• ICF supported the World Bank in the development of a national-level and several sectoral tools to rapidly screen for risks in all Bank investments. These tools are supporting the largest climate risk screening effort ever undertaken, as measured by the value of the investments that are being screened.
• ICF developed the first U.S. federal agency adaptation framework—for the Federal Highway Administration—and provided technical assistance to transportation climate resilience pilots implementing the framework.
• ICF developed the first climate risk screening tool for park infrastructure for the National Park Service.

ICF’s international support includes technical assistance for the agency bureaus, field missions, and partner practitioners of the U.S. Agency for International Development to integrate climate resilience into the fabric of the agency. We have also supported five Canadian agencies, the European Commission, UN agencies, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, and national-level clients outside the United States, and have led innovative adaptation projects spanning every major sector in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Climate change can present fundamental risks to corporate revenue and profitability through increased damage to physical infrastructure, reduced service capability, supply chain impacts, and price fluctuations. We help businesses understand the potential impacts of climate change on:

• Overall corporate strategy
• Sector portfolios
• Individual investments
• Compliance with industry standards, such as the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure

These insights can illuminate risks that could otherwise derail a company's growth strategy. ICF's work is based on the best-available science, including the U.S. National Climate Assessment, which our staff supports.

Our analyses can not only identify physical risks, but also "transition risks" that result from investments in sectors and technologies that may undergo rapid change due to new policies, regulations, or market preferences. We help clients plot a resilient course in the face of these changing conditions.

We can even help companies get ahead of the competition by describing markets, technologies, and regions that are likely to benefit from climate change.

ICF helps clients evaluate the cost-effectiveness of buying allowances versus reducing emissions internally—and we help ensure that the offset market opportunities are real, verifiable, additional, and permanent.

Using a full suite of tools and analytics, ICF provides clients with recommendations that account for all the greenhouse gas (GHG) allowance and offset market variables, such as the emergence of sector-specific mechanisms and the impact of compliance requirements for non-GHG pollutants.

Our services related to allowance and offset market analysis include:

• In-depth emissions modeling at the project level
• Macro analysis of global offset markets, prices, costs, opportunities, and risks
• Assessment of the financial risks of current and future carbon constraints via our International Carbon Pricing Tool
• Simulations of regulations, supply, demand, and future value via our Integrated Planning Model

ICF’s comprehensive knowledge of climate-related protocols, trends, and market forces includes:

• All major regional U.S. GHG initiatives
• Current regulations, such as AB32, and pending legislation
• GHG offset opportunities worldwide
• Renewable technologies, including wind, solar, and methane capture

ICF works with both public- and private-sector clients, including national, state, regional, and local government agencies; multilateral institutions; and other international entities. We help our clients understand and inventory emissions; develop and respond to mandatory and voluntary emission reduction targets; identify, analyze, and prioritize emission reduction strategies; and track progress over time.

ICF supports every stage of GHG management:

• We are at the forefront of developing methodologies to estimate GHG emissions.
• We design and develop high-quality, robust inventories, consistent with widely accepted and/or mandatory guidelines.
• We help to design, implement, and monitor GHG reporting, monitoring, and verification programs.
• We prepare technical, economic, and public policy analyses to understand the costs and benefits associated with various future scenarios and the impact of proposed policy options.
• We help our clients understand and respond to regulations and policies.
• We collaborate with our clients to set, track, and achieve emission reduction targets.

ICF works with organizations worldwide to design and implement solutions related to GHG management and environmental strategy. We understand the policy drivers that influence GHG mitigation investment and help clients identify and prioritize actions that achieve their targets and support their missions.

ICF's extensive history with national, regional, and international regulatory bodies helps us negotiate the processes, tools, and potential obstacles involved in regulatory and policy development.

We support our clients’ regulatory and policy development efforts with a range of services, such as:

• Greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory development
• Analytics, simulations, and scenario modeling
• On-the-ground program implementation
• Communications and outreach support

Our policy specialists navigate every step of the regulatory roadmap and the associated agency challenges. We deploy sophisticated analytics that are informed by extensive work in the electric, oil and gas, mining, metals, and manufacturing sectors.

ICF grasps all aspects of climate regulations and policies, including:

• GHG mitigation policies and programs
• Government and commercial sustainability programs
• Renewable energy programs and technologies
• Resource conservation
• Impacts, vulnerability, and resilience

We combine this expertise with in-house knowledge in related areas such as communities, human health, economics, and the environment.