Investors, Environmentalists Form Coalition for Climate Change Risk Reporting

You know the seriousness of the climate change issue for the enterprise when the New York Times runs a story that a coalition of environmental groups and investors has asked the SEC to compel companies to disclose risks to their business models from climate change. This comes on the heels of a story widely reported about the disappearance of ice in the Arctic and the surmise that the Northwest Passage, which was sought but never found by generations of explorers, might end up being an open channel for intercontinental shipping. The Arctic has less ice than at any time since measurements began.

More than half of the S&P 500 are inadequately reporting climate change risk, according to Ceres, the coalition of investors and environmental groups. And New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo has begun an investigation of five energy companies to find out if they were adequately reporting their risk from the operation of coal-fired plants, which are known to emit gasses that cause global warming.

This is just the beginning of a trend to acknowledge that business will be threatened by climate change. And it’s why I believe that business will take the lead in trying to reverse its effects.

1 comment September 24th, 2007