ISS Report Details 100 Largest Companies’ Climate Risks

ISS Corporate Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Institutional Shareholder Services Inc., released Tuesday a comprehensive report detailing how the 100 largest large-cap U.S. companies are responding to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) climate risk guidelines, which the securities regulator passed in February.

The report, “Disclosing Climate Risks: How 100 Companies Are Responding to New SEC Guidelines,” is based on what ISS says is a “careful analysis of 100 large-cap U.S. companies’ climate risk disclosures,” and provides insight into best practices in climate risk disclosure and identifies opportunities where companies can further improve their communication with investors and other stakeholders.

Mallika Paulraj, the report’s author, stated in the release that “Only 51 out of 100 of the largest U.S. companies surveyed in this report mentioned risks from climate change in their 2009 annual reports.” He adds that here is “vast room for improvement in both the quality and quantity of companies’ disclosure of these risks to investors.”