Companies 'not investing enough in climate change'

Businesses are not investing enough money in preventing climate change, it has been suggested.

A report released last week from responsible investment research specialist EIRIS revealed that leading European companies are not addressing the problem of high carbon emission levels to help combat climate change.

Executive director at EIRIS Peter Webster said: "Climate change impacts arising from companies' products can be very significant, yet very few companies have targets in place to address these impacts."

The EIRIS 2010 European Climate Change Tracker report analysed the quality of response to climate change of 300 companies on the FTSE Eurofirst Index.

It revealed that 41 per cent of the firms have a significant impact on reducing CO2 levels, but 64 per cent are failing to manage climate change risks.

Earlier this month, EIRIS released figures that revealed by the end of 2009, the total value of green fund investments had risen to £9.5 billion, compared with £2.4 billion in 1999.

Posted by Claire Manning