Choosing a climate risk platform is a big decision. You might be investing in assets, advising clients, or preparing disclosures. Whatever the case, you need insights you can trust, not just scores or maps.

But not all platforms are built the same. Some are optimised for fast visualisation, others for technical modelling. Few support the full journey from risk analysis to reporting, especially across complex portfolios.

This article walks through the 10 most important features to consider when comparing platforms, from hazard coverage and return periods to usability, pricing, and disclosure readiness.  

If you're actively evaluating tools, it’s designed to help you choose a provider that aligns with how your team works and what your business needs.

10 essential features to look for in a climate risk platform, at a glance

Choosing a climate risk platform means balancing technical depth with real-world usability.  

Here are the 10 features we´ll explore below:

1. Geographic coverage
2. Time horizon & scenario granularity
3. Climate model quality & uncertainty quantification
4. Hazards coverage
5. Hazard intensities & return periods
6. Mapped assets & asset-level insights
7. Usability & flexibility
8. Insights, not just data
9. Regulation readiness
10. Pricing flexibility & scalability

10 key features to consider when choosing a climate risk platform

Climate risk tools directly influence strategic decisions, investment outcomes, and compliance.  

Whether you're managing real assets, conducting due diligence, or preparing your first CSRD report, the platform you choose will shape the quality, credibility, and speed of your decisions.

Here are 10 decision-making features that separate generic platforms from truly practical ones.

1. Geographic coverage

Climate risk doesn’t stop at the border. If your assets or operations span multiple countries, your platform needs to handle varying hazard exposure, regulatory requirements, and inconsistent data availability across regions.

Why it matters

Many climate risk tools were built with one geography in mind, often the UK, Europe, or North America. This can be adequate for portfolios concentrated in these geographies, but quickly becomes unsuitable when:

• Expanding into new markets (e.g. LATAM or APAC)
• Reporting across global portfolios
• Benchmarking assets in locations with less historical data

Without wide and consistent geographic coverage, teams are forced to patch together insights from multiple tools or run expensive custom analyses.

Who needs it most

• Real estate investors managing cross-border portfolios
• Energy and infrastructure teams operating in remote or emerging markets
• Banks and insurers reporting across international lending and underwriting operations
• Consultancies supporting clients in multiple regions or regulatory jurisdictions

Platforms like EarthScan are designed with global use in mind, supporting risk analysis across Europe, North America, LATAM, APAC, the Middle East, and Africa.

Users can run assessments anywhere globally on land, without needing localised workarounds or third-party integrations.

Tip: Ask vendors whether their hazard models vary by region. And if so, how they manage differences in accuracy, resolution, and data sources.

2. Time horizons and scenario granularity

Choosing a climate risk platform isn’t just about hazard data, it’s about how far forward you can see, and under what future conditions.  

Different use cases require different visibility. For instance, a real estate firm might focus on the next 10–20 years, whereas an infrastructure investor or insurer often needs a 30+ year outlook to assess long-term risk.

Why it matters

Regulators and investors increasingly expect organisations to demonstrate how physical risk evolves across time and scenarios within their portfolio.  

A platform that only showcases one version of the future, especially an extreme one, limits your ability to compare risk under more realistic or Paris-aligned pathways.

You’ll want flexibility to explore how exposure changes based on:

• Different timeframes (e.g. 2030 vs 2050 vs 2080) ‍
• Multiple scenarios (SSP1, SSP2, SSP5, or RCP equivalents) ‍
• Adjustments in emissions pathways or climate policies (e.g. Paris-aligned vs high-emissions futures)

Without this comprehensive coverage, you risk making decisions on incomplete or skewed data.

Who needs it most

• Financial institutions running Climate Value at Risk (CVaR) assessments or long-term stress tests
• Critical infrastructure operators planning asset resilience over decades
• Real estate investors managing hold periods across varied climate futures
• Consultants building multi-scenario reports for CSRD, ISSB, or TCFD

Platforms like EarthScan make this easier by modelling from 1970 to 2100 in five-year increments, across 3 IPCC-aligned scenarios, letting users compare best- and worst-case outcomes effortlessly.  

3. Climate model quality and uncertainty quantification

The science behind the platform matters, especially when it’s being used to make investment decisions or disclose to regulators.

Why it matters

Your climate risk intelligence platform should:

• Be based on transparent, peer-reviewed models (like CMIP6)
• Show uncertainty (e.g. 5th, 50th, 95th percentiles)
• Offer clear documentation you can cite in audits or investor reviews

Platforms that rely on black-box algorithms or outdated models may fall short under scrutiny.

Who needs it most

• Financial institutions and insurers
• Infrastructure investors with regulatory exposure
• Anyone reporting under CSRD or ISSB

EarthScan is powered by Mitiga’s proprietary Multiple Futures Model, a forecasting system built to capture future climate extremes with more precision than traditional tools.

Instead of relying on linear extrapolation, the platform uses advanced statistical methods, including Gaussian Process Regression and a Bayesian framework, to model a range of possible outcomes.

It also draws on trusted climate data from CMIP6 and CORDEX to ensure projections are aligned with the latest IPCC science.

This combination allows EarthScan to generate hazard predictions alongside confidence intervals, giving users a clearer picture of uncertainty across locations, scenarios, and time horizons.

The model has been back-tested using historical data (1980–2000) and validated against real-world observations (2000–2020), consistently outperforming conventional approaches in both accuracy and uncertainty estimation.

You don’t just get a static risk score. You get a probabilistic forecast you can trust to support due diligence, resilience planning, and audit-ready disclosures.

Tip: Ask vendors what climate models they use and how uncertainty is handled.

4. Hazards coverage

Not all climate risk platforms model the same hazards, nor with the same depth. Some focus on acute events like flooding and storms, while others overlook chronic or emerging risks like heat stress, wildfires, or sea level rise.  

When choosing a climate risk assessment platform, this can make a major difference in what risks your team can plan for.

Why it matters

• Your exposure isn’t limited to one risk; therefore, your climate risk software shouldn’t be either.  
• For investment teams, missing a hazard like wildfires could mean underestimating operational risk.  
• For ESG reporting, overlooking chronic heat or precipitation patterns might mean failing to comply with disclosure standards.

You should expect your climate risk platform to cover both acute and chronic risks, ideally with:

• Transparent definitions for each hazard
• Clear mapping to assets or coordinates
• Visibility into risk drivers (e.g. rainfall intensity vs. sea level rise)

This matters especially if you’re building climate narratives, stress testing physical risk, or planning resilience investments.

Who needs it most

• Renewable energy and infrastructure teams evaluating exposure to drought, wildfires, or wind
• Commercial real estate firms planning energy efficiency and cooling strategies under heat stress
• Financial institutions conducting portfolio-wide assessments across varied geographies
• Climate consultancies needing comprehensive, regulator-aligned hazard screenings

Key takeaway: When comparing vendors, ask which hazards are supported today and which ones are “coming soon”. Your risk model is only as strong as the hazards it covers, and those need to match your specific use case(s).

5. Hazard intensities and return periods

Understanding whether a location is exposed to flooding or heat is only part of the picture. What really matters is how often those events might occur and how severe they could be.  

That’s where return periods come in.

Why it matters

In climate science, return periods estimate how frequently a hazard of a given intensity is expected to occur.  

A 100-year flood doesn’t mean it happens every 100 years, it means there’s a 1% chance it could happen in any given year.

Being able to view risks at multiple return periods is essential to:

• Distinguish between every day and catastrophic risks ‍
• Plan for worst-case scenarios without overreacting to unlikely events ‍
• Inform insurance negotiations, resilience budgets, and due diligence

Many climate risk platforms offer just one return period (usually 100 years), which may be fine for baseline screening, but not enough for real decision-making.

Who needs it most

• Real estate and infrastructure operators evaluating asset-level risk tolerance
• Insurance teams and banks performing climate stress tests
• Consultants generating risk outputs for investment committees

Tip: The wider the range of return periods available, for example, from 2-year to 1,000-year, the more nuanced your risk profile can be. This also supports better alignment with regulatory expectations under frameworks like CSRD and ISSB, which expect scenario-based thinking.

Leading platforms like EarthScan support customisable return periods across multiple hazards, from short-term (2 years) to extreme scenarios (1,000 years).  

This flexibility allows teams to run detailed climate risk assessments based on real-world planning needs, whether you're forecasting flood damage for insurance, or testing grid resilience under future wind conditions.

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Key takeaway: Ask your vendor: Can I choose return periods by hazard or am I stuck with one fixed number?

6. Mapped assets and asset-level insights

Knowing that a postcode is exposed to risk is one thing. Knowing which specific building or site is affected, and how, is what enables action.

Many climate risk platforms provide insights at regional or postcode level , but lack true asset-level resolution. That’s a major limitation if you’re managing physical assets, developing new sites, or reporting under CSRD.

Why it matters

Asset-level insights give you:

• Real-world relevance: understanding which specific asset is exposed to specific risks, not just a general area ‍
• Faster workflows: no need to geocode and map every asset manually ‍
• Portfolio context:  seeing which assets drive your exposure, and why

For consultants and sustainability teams, this means less back-and-forth with data. For real estate or infrastructure firms, it can reveal high-risk assets you didn’t know you had.

Who needs it most

• Commercial real estate teams managing diverse assets in dense urban areas
• Energy and infrastructure operators with distributed or remote sites
• ESG consultants running bulk climate risk assessments for clients

Check whether the platform supports batch uploads, asset-level modelling, and site-specific and portfolio-wide views. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting time formatting data instead of using it.

Key takeaway: Look for climate risk software that supports bulk asset uploads, location-specific modelling, and outputs tied to the actual coordinates of your assets.

7. Usability and flexibility

A climate risk platform isn’t helpful if it slows you or your team down. From uploading assets to generating reports, the experience should be fast, intuitive, and easy to tailor, not a bottleneck.

Some tools prioritise feature overflow, leaving risk and sustainability teams waiting on exports or external support. Others lock you into rigid outputs that don’t reflect how your organisation actually works.

Why it matters

Climate risk management isn’t one-size-fits-all. You’ll likely need to:

• Upload and analyse bulk assets, quickly
• Filter outputs by region, scenario, or asset type
• Tailor reports for regulators, boards, or internal teams
• Adjust return periods or assumptions without raising a ticket

If the platform can’t adapt to your needs or deliver insights in minutes, it can slow down decision-making and increase manual work.

What to look for:

• Clean, intuitive interface: no clutter, no friction ‍
• Fast processing for bulk uploads (not just single assets ‍
• Self-serve reporting: reports ready in minutes, not days ‍
• Customisable return periods, scenarios, and reporting views ‍
• No-code tools: so your risk and sustainability teams can use the platform and generate outputs without IT support  

Who needs it most

• Real estate and infrastructure firms managing diverse, fast-moving portfolios
• Consultants running repeatable, multi-client assessments
• Financial institutions with cross-border risk profiles
• In-house sustainability teams under regulatory pressure

EarthScan is designed to be self-serve from day one. You can upload a CSV or select from over 500 million mapped assets, adjust assumptions on the fly, and export decision-ready reports. All in just a few clicks.

Want to integrate climate risk into your tools? For teams with technical capacity or existing data infrastructure, EarthScan also offers a flexible API.  

It gives direct access to our risk models, so you can plug climate data into your dashboards, workflows, or client platforms. No interface required.

Tip: Before committing to a platform, ask for a live demo or free trial. If it takes more than 5 minutes to upload an asset and generate a basic report, it’s likely not built for scale.

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8. Insights, not just data

Risk maps are nice, but actionable insights move business decisions forward.

Why it matters

Many platforms visualise risk, few turn it into strategy. You want a tool that answers questions like:

• What’s the likely financial impact of this hazard?
• Which assets are most exposed and why?
• What scenarios pose the biggest risk over time?

Look for composite risk scores, Climate Value at Risk (CVaR) estimates, and tools that support ranking, filtering, and strategic planning.  

CVaR estimates translate specific physical hazards, like flooding and wind, into potential financial losses, helping you prioritise actions based on economic exposure.

Who needs it most

• Investment and due diligence teams
• O&M leads prioritising upgrades
• Risk managers building climate strategy

For teams that need more than a one-off risk score, platforms like EarthScan offer climate-adjusted CVaR for certain hazards, composite risk ratings, and downloadable risk trajectories at the asset level.

This makes it easier to track exposure over time and prioritise decisions across a portfolio.

Key takeaway: The best climate platforms help you act, not just react. Choose a platform that supports decisions, not just exploration.

9. Regulation readiness

As climate disclosure becomes mandatory across regions, tools must support, not slow down, compliance.

Why it matters

Manual climate reporting is time-consuming, unreliable, and hard to scale.

You’ll want:

• Outputs aligned to CSRD, ISSB, TCFD
• Asset-level granularity  
• Customisable narratives and visuals to support reporting

If reports take weeks or require consultants to build from scratch, the platform isn’t future-proof.

Who needs it most

• Sustainability leads under CSRD timelines
• ESG consultants serving compliance-driven clients
• Real estate or infrastructure firms reporting under SFDR

Tip: Automating your climate disclosures can save hours of manual work. EarthScan Disclose generates CSRD-aligned Excel and PDF reports instantly, including asset-level risk, probabilities, and financial exposure mapped to Article 15.

10. Pricing flexibility and scalability

Not every user needs an enterprise plan, but some will grow into one.

Why it matters

Rigid pricing can block access or slow down procurement. The right platform should offer:

• No lock-in contracts or large minimums ‍
• Volume-based pricing for portfolios ‍
• API access for enterprise integrations

Flexibility is especially key for consultancies, pilot users, or cross-sector teams testing climate tools for the first time.

Choose a platform that grows with you, not one that locks you in.

Now that you know what to look for in a climate risk platform, it’s time to focus on what matters most for your sector.  

Here are key questions worth asking before you choose a platform.

What to ask when evaluating climate risk tools, tailored by industry

How EarthScan supports smarter, faster climate risk decisions

Choosing a climate risk platform isn’t just about getting data, it’s about turning that data into decisions. EarthScan was built to help organisations make confident calls across investment, operations, and compliance workflows.

The platform combines global coverage with asset-level precision.  

You can upload site-level spreadsheets or access over 500 million pre-mapped assets worldwide, enabling risk analysis anywhere on land, from North America and Europe to LATAM, APAC, and the Middle East in seconds, without custom integrations or third-party support.

EarthScan currently models 10 key climate hazards, including:

• Heatwave, heat stress, and changing air temperature
• Drought, storm, and heavy precipitation
• Coastal flooding, sea level rise, fluvial flooding, and wildfire

With 7 additional hazards in active development, including pluvial flooding, ensuring coverage keeps pace with stakeholder needs.

To support deeper planning and strategy, EarthScan includes:

• Return periods from 2 to 1,000 years, with uncertainty intervals (5th to 95th percentile) across all hazards ‍
• Regulatory-ready reports generated via EarthScan Disclose, aligned to CSRD and IFRS formats
• Transparent science, powered by our proprietary Multiple Futures Model and based on CMIP6, ERA5, and CORDEX datasets, with validated methods that capture uncertainty across time, location, and hazard

In addition to physical hazards, EarthScan also helps users anticipate shifting energy needs.  

The Heating & Cooling Demand Index measures projected demand at a 250–500m resolution, revealing how rising temperatures and extreme events will impact comfort-related energy use.

• See heating and cooling hotspots down to city level
• Track energy demand shifts across monthly, seasonal, and yearly timescales
• Use 10-year forward and backward analysis to prioritise refurbishments, resilience upgrades, and cost-saving measures

This makes EarthScan not just a climate risk tool, but a practical platform for long-term operational planning and investment strategy.

Final words

Choosing a climate risk platform isn’t just a compliance task, it’s about enabling smarter decisions, faster. Whether you're advising clients, managing real assets, or preparing for CSRD or ISSB disclosures, the right tool should make your job easier.

That means combining scientific rigour with practical usability: a platform that helps you screen assets, test scenarios, and generate reporting outputs without needing a week of prep or a team of analysts. It should deliver insights you can explain, act on, and trust.

Still comparing options? Revisit the 10 key features in this guide to assess what matters most. Or, if you’re ready to see how EarthScan performs with your data, you can start a free trial and explore asset-level insights in minutes.  

Prefer a tailored walkthrough? Book a demo with our team to see how EarthScan supports your specific needs, from investment due diligence to long term planning and regulatory reporting.