Business and Climate Change

Author: Sundaram, Anant K.
Source: Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth University
Year: 2010
Number of pages: 13

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Abstract:

The goal of 'Business and Climate Change (BCC)' is to explore whether CEOs and CFOs of shareholder value-maximizing companies should care about climate change and the emerging climate economy, and if so, why, how, and what they can learn from the many forward-thinking companies that are getting in front of the issue.

Why are many taking it head on? Simply put, they know they are the constituency with the largest cause-and-effect relationship to climate change. Through their resource use and greenhouse (GHG) emissions, they are the cause of climate change; the effect of mitigating and adapting to it - ultimately solving the problem - will be a major source of costs for some, and benefits for others. BCC has four specific goals:

(1) To develop your awareness of the issue of climate change and the opportunities/challenges it presents for shareholder value-maximizing businesses;

(2) To understand the emerging climate economy and what it means to your company, its industry, and the global economy;

(3) To develop the frameworks to assess the market value/value-at-risk consequences of firms' exposure to climate change risks, their fossil fuel use, carbon footprints and GHG emissions; and the economic analysis tools to assess impacts of likely regulatory responses to climate change;

(4) To develop your understanding of corporate responses to climate change and to inform your ability to shape the conversation in your company.