Climate Change as an Investment Theme

A few weeks ago, a reader sent me a link to the second edition of Lehman Brothers' The Business of Climate Change report (PDF document). I unfortunately only got around to reading through it tonight.

Over the past two years, several of the big sell-side shops have published reports discussing the major investment opportunities and risks related to global warming. This one is a tad different from other such reports. The discussion is far more academic (rather than focused around actionable information) and the authors do not provide a list of potential outperformers organized by sector.

Nevertheless, the latter bit features short discussions of the impact of global warming-related trends (e.g. regulation, stakeholder expectations, etc.) on the following industries: autos, aviation, building materials, capital goods and engineering & construction, chemicals, consumer and retail, integrated oil, mining and metals, real estate, renewables, technology, telecom, and utilities. There are also some insightful discussions on carbon emissions trading and the state of the debate around global warming regulation.

Overall, there are some good nuggets of information for people interested in playing global warming as an investment theme, although long-time followers of this space may find the report a bit basic.

Happy reading!