Climate change as a business opportunity

A new joint research report of KPMG and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) on climate change, with the goal of identifying how top companies report on business risks and opportunities of climate change, was released on 17 July 2007. The research, Reporting the Business Implications of Climate Change in Sustainability Reports, shows that companies report on new business opportunities from climate change, rather than on climate change as a cause of risk. The researchers surveyed a sample of annual sustainability reports published by international companies in the Financial Times' FT Global 500 list that followed the GRI's Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.

Of the companies surveyed, 90% reported on climate change, but only 20% reported any risks to their business from climate change. A surprising two-thirds of companies reported business opportunities from climate change, mostly in emissions trading and emissions credits created under the rules of the Kyoto Protocol.