March 14, 2007—Despite growing financial losses in various business sectors from climate change, more than half of the nation’s 500 largest publicly traded companies are doing a poor job of disclosing climate change risks to their investors, according to a first-ever report analyzing climate disclosure practices among S&P 500 companies last year.
The Ceres/Calvert report concludes that America’s largest companies still aren’t taking climate change seriously enough. Less than half (47 percent) of the S&P 500 companies responded to a global survey last year by the Carbon Disclosure Project requesting information about their climate risks and strategies, and those that did respond failed to provide much of the information investors are seeking. Nearly a third (30 percent) of the responders, in fact, declined to publicly release their responses, calling them “confidential.”
Poor survey responses among lower-emitting companies—in particular, retailers, banks, and insurers—were especially conspicuous, says Ceres. Many companies in these sectors provide insufficient climate disclosure to investors, even after suffering large financial losses from climate-related events, such as the 2005 hurricanes. Ceres says that all companies should disclose their risks using the three most common disclosure mechanisms: SEC filings, CDP, and sustainability reports using Global Reporting Initiative guidelines.
For the complete CDP FT 500 Report — 2006 or Report Summary, visit the Carbon Disclosure Project Web site.
