Survey of Climate Change Disclosure in SEC Filings of Automobile, Insurance, Oil & Gas, Petrochemical, and Utilities Companies

Current SEC disclosure regulations require companies to disclose trends and uncertainties likely to have a reasonable impact on their operations. This study offers evidence that “publicly traded companies in the automobile manufacturing, integrated oil and gas, insurance, petrochemicals, and utilities industries are failing to report material environmental issues such as climate change in Securities and Exchange Commission filings.” According to the survey, “companies from every sector surveyed provided some climate change reporting, suggesting that climate change can be a material business risk and/or opportunity in each of these industries. Yet only a limited number of U.S. companies are recognizing and disclosing these risks to their shareholders.”