Investors press top 2,000 firms on climate change




LONDON (Reuters) - Investors with some $30 trillion of assets have written to 1,933 of the world's biggest companies demanding disclosure on their climate change stance, the UK-based Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) said on Wednesday.
The world's biggest shareholders want to know how well prepared companies are for the effects of climate change and for hardening climate change policy, as fears grow for impacts on investments.
The CDP's fourth such annual request is on behalf of a swelling investor group, up from $20 trillion last year and $10 trillion the year before, and is directed at a growing company target list, up from 500 last year.
"There are business risks and opportunities (from climate change) that have implications for the value of investments in corporations worldwide," said Paul Dickinson, CDP project coordinator.
The investors have demanded disclosure on companies' risk from extreme weather events, often associated with climate change, and about their emission of carbon dioxide (CO2), widely blamed by scientists for climate change, and for their strategies to cut emissions.
Detailed information on emissions is seen even more key this year given high energy prices, increasing the attractiveness of companies which are less carbon and energy intensive, or which have active programs in this direction.
"It's a question of institutional investors taking a well-informed view of the profitability of companies based on energy consumption and (carbon) emission performance," said Dickinson.
"You could take a view that climate change will be good for green technology companies such as GE."
Unprepared companies could also find themselves in the firing line of policy, investors fear, as political rhetoric hardens on the need for CO2 cuts, for example as required under the Kyoto Protocol, while a blase attitude to climate change could also risk reputation damage.
Some large companies are taking a proactive line on climate change, including companies associated with high carbon energy.
For example BP Plc said last November it plans to double its investment in greener energy sources over the next three years.
The world's second-largest listed oil firm said it may invest up to $8 billion in wind, solar, hydrogen and high efficiency gas-fired power generation projects over the next 10 years.© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.