Warming Up to Climate Change

Companies receive grades on climate-change strategies.
CFO Staff, CFO Magazine
July 21, 2006

Al Gore is not the only one confronting the threat of global warming these days. In fact, some companies, like General Electric with its Ecomagination initiative, are turning climate change into a business opportunity. A recent report by Ceres, a shareholder environmentalist group, ranked 100 industrial companies on their strategies for addressing the financial risks and opportunities from climate change. BP and DuPont received the highest scores. Not surprisingly, ExxonMobil ranked near the bottom, with a score of 35 out of 100.

Top 10 global industrial companies on climate-change strategies*
Company	Sector	Score
BP	Oil & gas	90
DuPont	Chemical	85
Royal Dutch Shell	Oil & gas	79
Alcan	Metals & mining	77
Alcoa	Metals & mining	74
AEP	Electric power	73
Cinergy	Electric power	73
Statoil	Oil & gas	72
Bayer	Chemical	71
Nippon Steel	Metals & mining	67
Source: "Corporate Governance and Climate Change: Making the Connection," Ceres. *Scores based on commitment to controlling emissions, disclosure practices, support of regulatory actions, and strategic planning to address climate change.