What is adaptation to climate change under ISO 14090?
Adaptation to climate change, as ISO 14090:2019 frames it, is the process by which an organisation works out how a changing climate can affect it and then takes that into account in its decisions. It does not cut emissions: it cuts the vulnerability of your sites, your people, your supply chains and your markets.
ISO 14090:2019, “Adaptation to climate change — Principles, requirements and guidelines”, was published in June 2019 by subcommittee ISO/TC 207/SC 7. According to iso.org, it covers integrating adaptation within or across organisations, understanding impacts and uncertainties, and using them to inform decisions. It applies to any organisation, whatever its size, type or nature: a company, a business unit, a group, an industrial sector, a natural resource manager. It can also serve as the basis for sector-specific adaptation standards.
Three ISO standards make up the adaptation family. Their status as of 11 November 2026, read on iso.org:
Standard | Title | Published | Status on 11 November 2026 | For whom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
ISO 14090:2019 | Adaptation to climate change — Principles, requirements and guidelines | June 2019 | Reviewed and confirmed in 2026 (stage 90.93): this edition remains current | Any organisation |
ISO 14091:2021 | Adaptation to climate change — Guidelines on vulnerability, impacts and risk assessment | February 2021 | Under systematic review (stage 90.60), no new edition announced | Any organisation |
ISO 14092:2026 (formerly ISO/TS 14092:2020) | Climate change adaptation — Requirements and guidance on adaptation planning for local governments and communities | February 2026 | Published (stage 60.60); English only on iso.org | Local governments, communities, organisations with location-based risks |
Adaptation or mitigation? Mitigation reduces greenhouse gas emissions: it belongs to the corporate carbon footprint and the decarbonisation strategy. Adaptation reduces the company’s exposure and sensitivity to the effects of the climate. The two interact: more air conditioning protects a cold chain but raises electricity use. A good adaptation plan checks for this kind of side effect, often called “maladaptation”.
Certification? ISO 14090 contains requirements, but iso.org does not present it as a management system standard comparable to ISO 14001. For a company it is first a method framework. ACG does not promise any certification: we structure the work, and any third-party attestation is a matter for an independent body.
How do you assess the vulnerability of your sites under ISO 14091?
By crossing, site by site, present and future climate hazards with what you have exposed and your capacity to cope. ISO 14091:2021 gives the guidelines for this assessment, which then becomes the basis for the adaptation plan, its implementation and its monitoring.
According to iso.org, ISO 14091:2021 explains how to understand vulnerability and how to carry out a sound risk assessment in the context of climate change, for present and future risks alike, and it applies to any organisation. We do not reproduce its paid content; the steps below are the method ACG uses to apply it to a Moroccan manufacturer.
- Set the scope. Production sites, warehouses, water sources, critical suppliers, roads and shipping ports. A plant that has never run short of water may depend on a farm supplier that does.
- List the hazards. Extreme heat, drought and falling water resources, heavy rain and floods, sea-level rise and coastal erosion, wildfires, strong winds. For each one: what has already happened on site, and what official projections say.
- Map exposure. What stands in the hazard’s path? Buildings, stock, equipment, staff, access routes, supplies.
- Assess sensitivity and adaptive capacity. At equal exposure, a site with water storage, a backup generator, a fallback supply contract and a trained team suffers less than a site with no margin.
- Rate the risks. Likelihood, severity, time horizon (today, in ten years, over the life of your investments) and uncertainty, on one written scale used for every site.
- Document the sources. Every climate assumption points to a dated public source: Morocco’s national communications, the NDC, national meteorological data, regional climate plans.
The table gives generic examples, without figures, to start the grid for a Moroccan site.
Type of site (anonymised) | Main hazard | Exposure | Vulnerability factors | Adaptation option |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Fish cannery on the Atlantic coast | Heatwaves, sea-level rise | Cold chain, quay, ground-floor storage | Ageing chillers, no power redundancy | Cold-chain and power redundancy, raised storage, business continuity plan |
Textile washing plant near Casablanca | Drought, abstraction limits | Water-intensive process | Single water source, no recycling | Water audit, process water recycling, an authorised alternative source |
Agri-food processor in the Souss relying on irrigated growers | Chronic drought | Volume and quality of raw materials | Single sourcing area | Geographic diversification of purchasing, multi-year contracts, technical support to growers |
Plant in an industrial zone on a valley floor | Heavy rain, floods | Buildings, transformer, stock | Undersized drainage in the zone | Protection of critical equipment, flood alert plan, dialogue with the zone operator |
Inland logistics warehouse | Extreme heat | Staff, sensitive products | Uninsulated building, fixed shifts | Insulation, shading, adjusted shifts, a heat protocol for teams |
Which physical climate risks affect companies in Morocco?
Water first, then heat and extreme events. That is what Morocco’s nationally determined contribution says: the NDC 3.0 for 2026-2035, listed in the UNFCCC registry with a submission date of 30 September 2025.
The executive summary of the NDC 3.0, drawing in particular on Morocco’s Fifth National Communication, gives the following benchmarks:
Phenomenon | What Morocco’s NDC 3.0 says | What it means for an industrial site |
|---|---|---|
Temperature | Mean annual temperatures projected to rise by more than 3 °C nationally by 2050, and by up to 5 °C in some regions | Higher load on cooling, ventilation and staff; lower equipment efficiency |
Rainfall | A widespread projected decline, mostly between 5 and 15%, up to 20% in some areas | Less water for processes and for farm suppliers |
Water resources | Renewable resources fell from 2,560 to about 620 m³ per person between 1960 and 2025, very close to the absolute scarcity threshold of 500 m³ | Possible abstraction limits; cost and security of water supply |
Drought | 2023 was the driest year in at least eight decades, with an estimated 48% rainfall deficit | Disruption of farm raw materials, competing water uses |
Extreme events | 26 extreme weather events triggered alert bulletins in 2023: intense thunderstorms (35%), heatwaves (30%), snowfall (19%), strong winds (16%) | Production stoppages, cut-off access, damage to buildings and stock |
Water stress is the first risk to document. For a manufacturer in food, textiles, chemicals or building materials, the question is not only “do we have water today?” but “where does it come from, who else draws on it, and what happens to it in ten years?”. The NDC 3.0 ties its water component to Morocco’s National Water Strategy, which includes seawater desalination, artificial aquifer recharge and the reuse of treated wastewater: all factors that can change your supply options.
The national and regional framework. According to the NDC 3.0, adaptation planning is carried by the National Adaptation Plan (PNA) and the National Strategic Adaptation Plan (PNSA 2030), within the National Sustainable Development Strategy (SNDD 2035) and the National Climate Plan 2020-2030. All twelve regions of the Kingdom have regional climate plans or climate-resilient adaptation and development plans, which include an assessment of vulnerabilities and risks by sector. The NDC 3.0 sets 80 sectoral adaptation targets for 2035, broken down into 107 projects, covering water, agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, forestry, sensitive environments, biodiversity, health, urban planning, infrastructure and transport, and hydro-meteorological observation.
For a company, its region’s climate plan is the first useful read: it shows which hazards the public authority treats as priorities in the area and which projects are planned. Your physical risks then fit into the overall map described on our climate risk and IFRS S2 page, which also covers transition risks.
How do you build a company adaptation plan with ISO 14090?
Start from the vulnerability assessment, choose measures in proportion to the priority risks, then build them into budgets, maintenance, purchasing and risk management, with a yearly review. ISO 14090:2019 provides the frame: integrate adaptation into the organisation, understand impacts and uncertainties, and use them to decide.
The approach ACG follows with manufacturers:
- Governance. A member of senior management owns the topic; the committee that oversees risk receives the analysis at least once a year. Without a named owner, the plan stays on paper.
- Assessment. Vulnerability and risks by site, following the method above (ISO 14091:2021), approved by management.
- Adaptation options. For each priority risk, several options compared on estimated cost, lead time, effectiveness, and effects on emissions and on other risks.
- Decision and timetable. Chosen measures, owners and deadlines, tied to the capital expenditure plan and the maintenance plan. Long-lived assets (buildings, kilns, boilers, chillers) are selected with the climate expected over their working life in mind.
- Implementation. Works, procedures, contracts, team training, emergency plans.
- Monitoring and review. Simple indicators (days lost to climate events, water use per tonne produced, cold-chain incidents), a yearly review of hazards and projections, and an update after every extreme event.
Options fall into four families. The table helps avoid limiting the plan to building works.
Option family | Examples in a Moroccan plant | Watch-out |
|---|---|---|
Technical | Process water recycling, water storage, building insulation, cooling redundancy, raising electrical equipment | Check the effect on energy use, and therefore on the carbon footprint |
Organisational | Adjusted hours in hot periods, business continuity plan, flood alert procedures, training | Low cost, often the first to put in place |
Purchasing and supply chain | Geographic diversification of farm suppliers, safety stocks, multi-year contracts, continuity clauses | Cross-check with your traceability and due diligence requirements |
Financial | Review of insurance policies, provisions, search for dedicated financing | A bank will ask for the documented assessment before lending |
Do not confuse adaptation with a claim. An adaptation plan is described with its limits: it reduces a risk, it does not remove it. Saying a site is “climate resilient” without an assessment and measures in place invites challenge. Our position is the same as for carbon: claim only what you can prove.
Before presenting the plan to management, go through this list:
Does ISO 14092:2026 also concern companies?
Indirectly. ISO 14092:2026 covers adaptation planning by local governments and communities, but iso.org states that it is also relevant to any organisation operating locally or managing climate risks tied to specific locations, infrastructure or services.
ISO 14092:2026, published in February 2026, replaces the Technical Specification ISO/TS 14092:2020, published in May 2020 and now withdrawn (stage 95.99). According to iso.org, the new edition raises the document to a full International Standard, updates the guidance and adds an annex on implementing adaptation measures. It sets out a step-by-step frame: governance and responsibilities, stakeholder engagement, assessing and prioritising risks, designing and implementing measures, monitoring and improvement. As of 11 November 2026, iso.org offers it in English only.
iso.org sums up the split as follows: ISO 14090 provides the general adaptation framework for organisations, ISO 14091 focuses on assessing climate risk, and ISO 14092 zooms in on the local scale, where impacts are felt most. The same page says it helps align adaptation planning with disclosure frameworks such as the CSRD or the EU Taxonomy, and with funding mechanisms.
For a manufacturer, the benefit is practical. The risks of an industrial zone (drainage, floods, access to water, roads) are rarely managed alone. If your municipality, your region or your zone operator is building an adaptation plan, ISO 14092:2026 offers a shared language to bring your data to the table and argue for your needs.
How do ISO 14090 and ISO 14091 connect to IFRS S2, the VSME and bank requests?
The ISO standards give the method; disclosure frameworks and questionnaires say what to show. One well-documented vulnerability assessment answers all of these readers, as long as it is presented in their format.
Reader | What they ask on physical risk and adaptation | What the ISO 14091 assessment and ISO 14090 plan provide |
|---|---|---|
Investors, if you report under IFRS S2 | Acute and chronic physical risks that could affect cash flows, access to finance or cost of capital; a scenario-based resilience analysis; the amount and percentage of assets or business activities vulnerable to physical risks (category (c) of paragraph 29) | Risks by site, horizon and severity; exposed assets; planned adaptation measures |
Moroccan bank | Data on large borrowers’ exposure to climate-related financial risks, under Bank Al-Maghrib Directive No. 2/W/2025, according to Bank Al-Maghrib’s banking supervision report (2025 financial year) | An exposure sheet per site, hazard sources, a dated adaptation plan |
European customer or bank using the VSME | Section C4 “Climate risks” of the comprehensive module: climate hazards and transition events identified, how exposure was assessed, time horizons, adaptation actions | Written method, horizons, ratings, actions |
Parent group | Physical risks of the sites and share of assets exposed, for the consolidated report | One grid for every site in the group |
IFRS S2 is explained paragraph by paragraph in our IFRS S2 requirements guide, and section C4 in our VSME standard guide. To choose between these frameworks, see our ESRS, VSME, GRI and ISSB comparison.
One data set. The sites, assets, and water and energy use you record for adaptation are the same ones as in your greenhouse gas inventory under ISO 14064-1:2018. Keeping them in a single database avoids contradictory figures between your answer to the bank and your report. The levers that cut both vulnerability and emissions (energy efficiency, water recycling, on-site renewable power) are covered in our guide to industrial decarbonisation in Morocco.