NEW YORK, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- More than half the companies listed on the Standard & Poor's 500 index fail to disclose climate-change risks to their investors, a U.S. study found.
The reason is that the largest U.S. companies do not take global warming and other climate-change risks seriously, said the Ceres/Calvert report, representing a coalition of investors, environmental groups and other public-interest organizations.
Fifty-three percent of the S&P 500 companies ignored a survey about their strategies for climate risks -- a survey sponsored by institutional investors with assets of $41 trillion under management, Ceres/Calvert said.
Thirty percent of the companies that did respond refused to answer questions about the matter, calling it "confidential," the report said.
"More extreme weather events, regulatory changes and growing global demand for climate-friendly technologies are just a few of the ways that climate change will ripple across all sectors of the economy," Ceres President Mindy Lubber said. "Yet many U.S. companies are not addressing these trends and are leaving investors in the dark about their strategies for mitigating those risks."
The fewest responses came from low-emitting companies such as retailers, banks and insurers, Ceres said.
