Pedro Walpole SJ and Rowena Soriaga
At the Xavier Business School seminar, Is the Future Safe for Us? A Look into the Impact of Climate Change, on 22 January 2026 at St Xavier’s University, Kolkata in India, ESSC Research Director Pedro Walpole SJ shared inputs on the topic Climate change and its impact on our planet and how climate change is a market signal that our current economic model is misaligned with planetary limits – the boundaries on the landscape.
These boundaries allow us to see the integral ecology that humanity is part of and the resulting social vulnerabilities as well, and touch the heart of the formation of conscience and education for justice.
For these future managers, the business school students, the complexity of this challenge must be humbly acknowledged. Climate change will shape their professional lives whether they choose to engage with it or not. It is a fundamental test of their responsibility, solidarity, and leadership. The presentation provided an opportunity to draw on the students’ visioning of a society where they are the future leaders.
Lived realities and systemic stress
Climate change refers to long-term disruptions.
There are the stark lived realities such as heat stress with temperatures reaching 38 to 40°C in many regions and soaring to 50°C in New Delhi, cities facing the double threat of extreme monsoons and cyclones, and rising food prices that highlight the vulnerability of supply chains.
Beyond temperature rise, climate change is about systems under stress: disrupted water cycles, unpredictable agriculture, fragile ecosystems and increased vulnerability of the poor. Impacts on the market economy include supply chains breaking, insurance becoming unaffordable, and infrastructure becoming a risky investment.
In South Asia, these risks are systemic rather than exceptional. Disrupted water cycles, unpredictable agriculture, and increasingly fragile ecosystems are human-driven, fueled by fossil fuel dependence and unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, and land-use change. Nature is not merely a backdrop to the economy; it is its foundation. When natural systems like ocean warming or glacial melt, the impacts cascade through where these ecosystems interconnect in forming the regional climate as the biome and impact human systems, intensifying social vulnerability, poverty, migration, and inequality.
Climate change reveals broken relationships between humans and nature, economy and ethics, and present decisions and future consequences. Two case studies were mentioned, the animal feeds industry based on maize production and alternative indigenous responses in Mindanao, Philippines, and featured in this 16-minute video Winds of Change.
Dr. Jayanta Basu, an environmental journalist, shared practical mitigation and adaptation actions in India that include village adaptations in the Sundarbans and also spoke about the second largest mangrove area in Asia, which is very important.
Management in a warming world
For future business professionals, climate change reshapes how value is created and lost. Systemic risks were categorized as:
- Physical Risks: Direct damage to assets and logistics disruptions.
- Transition Risks: Evolving policy shifts, carbon pricing, and the reality of stranded assets.
- Reputational Risks: Heightened scrutiny from both consumers and investors.
This reality raises urgent ethical questions: Who profits? Who pays? Who decides? Growth without care leads to ecological debt and social instability. Therefore, good management today must include care for people, places, and future generations.
With the current lived realities of heat stress, coastal and riverine flooding, flooded cities, more extreme cyclones and monsoons, and rising food costs, planning based on “business as usual” is increasingly unreliable.
Understanding the pressures on natural ecosystems requires us to look at the processes affecting collective impacts. This is where attention needs to be to be integrated across the sciences, business worlds, and present political and corporate basis for decision making.
The present production, absorption, and reflection of heat from land-based operations impacts our surrounding oceans. The oceans absorb most of the carbon and at the same time respond with sea-level rise and thermal flows that change the climate patterns. The oceans are part of the natural systems of management – the collective ecosystem called biome.
A moral and social imperative
The climate crisis reveals what we value and what we ignore. It challenges short-term thinking and the concentration of power. Through a Jesuit lens, we are called to listen to the “cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor,” recognizing that they are interconnected. Those least responsible are often most affected.
Decisions in finance, management, and policy are not neutral as they shape lives and futures. Future professionals must find the courage to question dominant models and embrace a slower, wiser form of decision-making that prioritizes equity over simple efficiency. The future is not fixed—it is being negotiated every day. While governments must align policies with long-term wellbeing, the invitation is to live wisely within the planet’s limits.
Student reflections and shared commitment
During the group sharing sessions, the students demonstrated an active awareness through environmental exhibitions and social outreach programs. While many spoke of personal shifts such as reducing plastic use, they also grappled with the difficult challenge of systemic shifts in energy and economics. The students identified several key areas where businesses and managers can exert a positive influence:
- Ethical and Responsible Investment: Making investment choices that consider long-term ecological impacts.
- Supply Chain Integrity: Ensuring responsible sourcing and transparency throughout the production line.
- Purpose-Guided Innovation: Moving beyond profit-only models to create long-term value for society.
The students concluded that their journey begins now by developing habits of reflection, asking better questions, and choosing careers with a profound awareness of their impact. Hope, as they expressed, is not mere optimism; it is a commitment to stay informed, reflect, and engage despite the uncertainty of the future.
St Xavier’s University, Kolkata encourages students to look beyond traditional metrics of success and fosters an environment where the challenges of the modern world are met with rigor, reflection, and a deep commitment to the common good. And rooted in the Jesuit tradition, Xavier Business School serves as a crucible where business education meets social conscience and is a thriving center of learning, committed to academic excellence, and the formation of morally responsible leaders.
As Dr Soma Sur, Director of the Father Lafont Centre for Excellence in Research and Innovation (LCERI), reminded the 230 students in her opening address, climate change is no longer only about the environment. It is about how we live, decide, invest, govern, and care for one another. And in a Jesuit institution, education does not merely ask what works or what is profitable, but also for whom, at what cost, and towards what future.