AT&T launches climate risk portal for public sector use

AT&T Inc. launched the Climate Risk and Resilience Portal with two government partners.

The company developed the portal in partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Energy Department's Argonne National Laboratory. The portal gives state and local emergency managers and community leaders free access to climate projections to help improve natural disaster preparation and risk management.

Hazards currently included in the portal, known as ClimRR, are temperature, precipitation, wind and drought conditions. Additional risks, such as wildfire and flooding, will be added in the coming months.

AT&T originally had asked Argonne's Center for Climate Resilience and Decision Science to produce the climate projections in ClimRR for the company's own resiliency efforts. Through its collaboration with FEMA and Argonne, AT&T made the data used in ClimRR publicly available.

"While fortifying the AT&T network against climate change is critical for the millions of people who rely on the connectivity we provide, resiliency can't be built in a vacuum," said Charlene Lake, chief sustainability officer and senior vice president of corporate social responsibility at AT&T. "We want other organizations and communities to see where they're potentially vulnerable to climate change and take steps to become resilient."