Ignoring climate change’s risk to business is like pretending you can’t catch fire when strolling through a burning building. One of America’s two major political parties wants us to ignore it anyway. But corporate America and its investors know they don’t have that luxury.Fitch Ratings this week said it would review the impact of climate change on the creditworthiness of more than 1,600 companies. Nearly 20% of those companies could have their credit ratings cut as a result, according to an initial Fitch estimate. These companies will have to change the way they do business or potentially face higher borrowing costs. This follows BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest asset manager, vowing last week that it would keep pressing corporate boards for plans on handling climate risks, despite months of attacks from Republican politicians over such concerns…

Climate-proofing your operations and investments in the face of such a clear and growing risk is simply good business. There is no evidence that it has anything at all to do with an agenda to force the country to adopt a woke religion or some such nonsense. Even the fossil fuel industry, supposedly a prime beneficiary of anti-ESG actions, seems to get this. It devoted much of its recent CERAWeek confab to talking up its part in the green transition. These companies surely want to go on pumping oil and gas forever, but investors and consumers will only let them go so far. 

Most voters are also on board. A recent poll by Heatmap News found that two-thirds of Americans want action to fight climate change, including 61% of self-identified Republicans. 

Anti-ESG Backlash: Fitch Recognizes Climate Threat GOP Ignores – Bloomberg