David Abel: From forest fires and floods to rising temperatures and growing calls for action, the changing climate is having an increasing impact on businesses. With the planet warming and not enough being done to reduce global emissions that impact is likely to surge in the coming decades.

John Macomber: Society probably can't defend in place every asset and every person along the coast to the United States and every other nation in the world that has a shore.

Ashley Whillans: Behavioral interventions might be really challenging in and of themselves to shift commuter behavior. When we think about driving, we think of freedom and autonomy and control. It's very easy and efficient.

David Perry: If we want to feed 10 billion people by 2050, we need to do something differently. Current methods of agriculture are consuming a lot more of the Earth's resources than we can afford to devote to that.

David Abel: But a changing climate also presents opportunities.

Rachel Cleetus: Businesses can really work in breaking down some of the silos right now that stand in the way of building broad resilience because they have employees, they have supply chains.

Adam Gromis: It's about 1.2 billion cars in the world or so, and there's usually one to two people in the car. If you consider a four to five seat car that means at any given moment there's about 100 million to 200 million empty seats just moving around the world.

Rebecca Henderson: And I heard over and over again that yes, we want to do this. Yes, it's important, but I'm constrained by what my investors want. And so I became convinced that investors were hugely important in helping the real economy to move in this direction.

David Abel: Welcome to Climate Rising, a new podcast by Harvard Business School that looks at the challenges and opportunities facing businesses in a world likely to heat up dramatically over the coming decades. I'm David Abel, environment reporter at the Boston Globe where I've spent years covering climate change. Over the coming season, I'll be talking to leading thinkers from the worlds of business, academia, and environmental groups. Exploring what businesses have done, what they can do, and what they should do to confront climate change. Fossil fuel companies, power plants, car manufacturers, airlines, farms, and many others have long been the main source of the emissions warming the planet. But businesses have also long offered a well of innovation. It's time for new ideas and serious solutions.

Rachel Cleetus: The most important thing we can do now is really make sure that this risk is communicated clearly well ahead of time so that people have a chance to make decisions about what they want their future to look like.

David Abel: There's much ground to cover. Please look for Climate Rising coming soon to Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you listen.