Most businesses are still flying blind on climate risk.

New analysis by Consultants Vail Williams, looking into an Office for National Statistics survey of more than 10,000 firms, shows that nearly three in four businesses have not assessed how climate change could hit their operations.

Even fewer are doing anything about it.

Only 27.9% of businesses said they had any concern about climate impacts and just 5.3% said they were “very concerned”.

That sits awkwardly alongside the reality that 16% of firms report being hit by climate-related disruption every year, mainly from storms, flooding and rising temperatures.

When impacts do land, they hurt.

One in five businesses reported weather-related damage to buildings and infrastructure.

Staff absence affected 13%. Local supply chains were disrupted for 9% and global supply chains for 5%.

Even among the minority that have assessed climate risk, action is thin. Just 15% have adapted to supply chain disruption.

Fewer than one in ten have taken steps to cope with higher temperatures and only 6% have addressed flood risk. More than a quarter of businesses that assessed risks have taken no action at all.

Environmental action more broadly is just as weak. Two-thirds of businesses said they had taken none of the listed measures such as monitoring climate risks, setting a net zero target or putting a climate strategy in place.

Larger firms are pulling ahead. Around a third of companies with more than 250 staff now have a climate strategy, compared with a tiny fraction of smaller businesses.