Most FT500 companies address climate risks — report
Posted on March 14th, 2008By Debra Kahn
Climatewire: More than half of the world’s largest companies addressed climate change in corporate sustainability reports over the past year and a half, according to an analysis by corporate report compiler Corporate Register.
Two-thirds of the world’s largest 500 companies by market capitalization, as listed by the Financial Times, published corporate sustainability reports in the past 15 months. Of those, 87 percent addressed climate change.
Eighty-one percent of companies with a market capitalization above $80 billion included a specific section on climate change in their reports, compared to around 60 percent of companies with a market capitalization below $80 billion.
By region, companies in Europe, Australasia and Japan were most likely to include a section dealing specifically with climate change. And in Japan, 29 percent of reporting companies set absolute emissions reduction targets, compared to 20 percent in Europe and 19 percent in North America.
Perhaps reflecting the types of industries thus far covered in greenhouse gas emissions caps, the sectors most likely to disclose quantitative emissions figures were transportation, automobiles, tobacco, personal and household goods and utilities. The service sector — including retailers, support services, banks and telecommunications companies — was the least likely to report emissions.
Companies overall were more likely to cite energy efficiency than any other mitigation measure, including emissions trading, renewable energy initiatives and transportation improvements.
U.S. investor groups have recently been pressing the Securities and Exchange Commission to require companies to disclose their climate-related liabilities, which can include weather-related risks, new government regulations and higher energy costs.
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