Coleman quoted in Reuters article on hottest year on record, business response
Electric utilities in the United States can expect an extra $12 billion a year in annual revenue by 2030 as heat waves increase the demand for air conditioning. Oil and gas companies may find it easier to drill in the Arctic, where sea ice is melting.
But grocery manufacturers are shouldering hundreds of millions of dollars in unexpected costs as extreme weather disrupts their supply chains.
As world temperatures continue to tick up - 2014 was the warmest on record, two U.S. government agencies reported on Friday - companies are scrambling to assess how a greenhouse Earth will affect their bottom line.
While the agencies' reports did not show that global warming is accelerating, they underscore how companies will need to factor more climate-change-fueled extreme weather events into their operations.
"Companies are increasingly disclosing the risk that climate change poses for their business, including risk to the bottom line, and are increasingly concerned about it," said Heather Coleman, climate change policy manager at Oxfam America.