There is a lot of confusion among companies about what sort of information they should be providing investors and analysts on climate change. Some companies have never been asked for this data by shareholders so the buy side’s expectations can seem obscure. ‘No-one ever, and I really do mean ever, has asked us about this,’ one IRO from a Eurotop 300 company said recently. ‘Not once. Not one fund manager or analyst has ever brought this up.’

His company is taking climate change and other corporate responsibility issues seriously. It tries hard to communicate what it is doing in this regard to its investors. But it is not convinced that more than a minority is at all interested in knowing about what the firm is doing in this area. So are climate change and other corporate responsibility matters really of relevance to IR? Or are these still marginal issues of interest only to parties with certain agendas and pro-socially responsible investment (SRI) groups?