Is your company ready to reap the benefits in the era of climate change regulation?

The big boys sure are. They see business opportunities, not just headaches in reporting and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

That’s the take-home gleaned in a new survey by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a nonprofit that monitors corporate climate change activity. The survey found that 86% of companies responding saw business opportunities ahead.

There are certainly risks as 82% expect to deal with risks and challenges ahead. But these are regulatory compliance risks, something they’re used to dealing with.

For example, the number of companies that have already established their own GHG reduction targets has nearly doubled in the past year, to 52% of S&P 500 firms. Only 32% of companies had established GHG reduction targets in last year’s survey. So, they’re well prepared to meet EPA’s first-ever GHG reporting requirements.

Hardly any of the companies put climate change damages high on their worry lists.

CDP found that the best-run corporate managers say they’re ready to:

• take effective action to manage GHG regulation
• plan on capitalizing on new opportunities created by regulation
• develop verifiable GHG emission tracking, reporting and reduction programs, and
• develop compliance programs.

The companies facing the biggest risks are the carbon-intensive industries that rely heavily on fossil fuels for power, such as coal-fired power plants, cement and glass facilities and other larger operations.

These are the so-called “scope one” industries that generate significant levels of GHG emissions. In this group, 96% of utilities were anxious about the costs of operating in a GHG-regulated world.

The CDP’s press release about the survey is here.

The full report is here.

Tags: Carbon Disclosure Project, climate change, GHG emissions