Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
As the Trump administration rolls back rules meant to fight global warming, new reports by the CDP, formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project, show the country’s largest companies are already gearing up for climate change. The CDP is a U.K.-based nonprofit that asks companies to disclose their environmental impact, including the risks they believe climate change presents for their businesses. More than 1,800 companies from the U.S. filed reports for 2018. The reports show how widely climate change is expected to cascade through the economy—disrupting supply chains, disabling operations, and driving away customers, but also offering new ways to make money. The reports show that Bank of America worries flooded homeowners will default on their mortgages, Walt Disney Co. is concerned its theme parks will get too hot for vacationers, and Coca-Cola wonders if there will still be enough water to make Coke.
The CDP also releases letter grades for each company that discloses, in order to measure, “how aware they are about the issue, how they’re managing it, how they’re progressing toward targets,” said Caroline Barraclough, a CDP spokeswoman. Thirty U.S.-based companies got an “A” grade, the most of any country.