Global warming could melt your portfolio

A coalition of environmentalists and institutional investors lays out which companies will be better prepared for climate change.

NEW YORK – Long-term investors, take heed: Global warming will have a significant impact on the financial performance of companies in your portfolio.

Some companies — General Electric, DuPont, Cinergy, American Electric Power, BP, Toyota and Honda — are seriously grappling with the risks and opportunities posed by climate change. They will be better prepared as governments and shareholders focus on the issue.

Many others — ExxonMobil, Dominion Power, Sempra Energy, Nissan, BMW and Volkswagen — have been slow to address climate change, and they could put their owners at financial risk.

Those, at least, are the findings of a report released Tuesday that takes a close look at how 100 of the world’s largest companies are positioning themselves to compete in what’s called a “carbon-constrained world” — that is, a world in which emissions of greenhouse gases are regulated, as they are today in Europe and Japan and probably will be before long in the United States.

Fortune