Very good report by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions issued this month - Weathering the Storm: Building Business to Resilience to Climate Change. From the report:
"Ninety percent of the S&P Global 100 Index companies identify extreme weather and climate change (such as
warmer temperatures, more extreme weather, or greater water scarcity) as current or future risks to their business,
across all industry sectors. Most of the S&P Global 100 companies (82), and all of the case-study companies, discussed
these concerns in their response to the Carbon Disclosure Project (which specifically includes questions on this
topic). Substantially fewer addressed extreme weather and climate change in either their financial filings (36 companies)
or their annual sustainability reports (35 companies). The limited mention of climate change impacts outside of
the Carbon Disclosure Project responses suggests that this issue has not yet risen to the level of financial materiality
or public significance for the vast majority of companies included in the research.
Of the ten S&P Global 100 companies that do not acknowledge risks from extreme weather and climate change
in any of the three sources of public disclosure reviewed, six are in the manufacturing & industrials sector, three are
consumer goods companies, and one was in the healthcare sector. Among these ten companies, five have assessed the
risks of extreme weather and climate change and concluded that such risks would not generate a substantive change
in expenses or revenues. The remaining five companies are silent on the subject.
Yet while the vast majority of companies acknowledge risks from extreme weather and climate change, they also
describe challenges with adequately understanding the risks and their implications for the business. Several, for
example, describe the risks as relatively minimal, too distant in time to be of concern, too difficult to quantify, or
too uncertain to support business decisions directed specifically at improving their resilience. Several case-study
companies describe challenges with communicating internally with decision-makers about climate-related risks that
are inherently volatile and uncertain."
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