It’s Time to Give Companies Standalone Climate Ratings

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2022

Journal Title

Harvard Business Review

ISSN

0017-8012

Abstract

Investors are increasingly using ESG ratings for their investment decisions. But we need to assign companies a stand-alone rating focused on climate risk that’s distinct from the ESG rating system. Such a climate-specific rating can distill complex information regarding a company’s carbon footprint and climate risk into an intuitive, user-friendly format, while avoiding the flaws that currently mar ESG ratings. The “super-wicked” problem of climate change is so urgent and far reaching that it deserves its own rating, one that eschews the methodological complexities and legal challenges of melding together E and S and G. A climate-specific “C-rating” would empower investors and c-suites alike to make the climate-conscious choices that markets are telling us they want.

Publisher

Harvard Business Publishing

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