A new report, ‘Taking the Temperature’, published today by Ethix SRI Advisors and Insight Investment, assesses how the 40 largest companies in the Nordic region are responding to risks and opportunities presented by climate change.
The report argues that Nordic companies are lagging significantly behind their European peers in their management of these risks and opportunities, and in the integration of climate change related factors into their business strategies.
“We benchmarked each company against a structured framework, looking at their governance, climate change policies, reporting and efforts to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The results indicate that, although a majority of Nordic companies have established climate change or environmental management systems, climate change is not yet widely recognised as a strategic value driver by most companies. Furthermore, despite the clear scientific and policy consensus that significant reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions are required, most large Nordic companies expect their greenhouse gas emissions to increase.”, said Emma Ihre, Head of Corporate Engagement at Ethix SRI Advisors.
Commenting on the investment implications of the research, Dr. Rory Sullivan, Head of Responsible Investment at Insight Investment noted: “The results have profound conclusions for investors. They suggest that we need to redouble our efforts to ensure that the companies we invest in have appropriate climate change governance and management systems and robust risk assessment processes in place, and that they are able to demonstrate to us that they are effectively managing and reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, the report highlights the central role of public policy in driving corporate action on climate change. We, as investors, need to proactively engage with policy makers to ensure that public policy provides the right incentives to companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions emissions in a timely and efficient manner”.
The full report can be downloaded here.
Update 2009-09-16: Media mentions of the report included the websites of the FT and Responsible Investor. See also the press release by Fortum here.
For further information regarding the project, please contact:
Emma Ihre, +46-407 00 12, emma.ihre@ethix.se
Rory Sullivan, +44-20-7321-1875, rory.sullivan@insightinvestment.com
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