An assessment of the impact of climate change on the financial performance of South African companies

Abstract

South African companies face uncertainty about whether they should commit resources to mitigate vulnerabilities and exploit opportunities arising from climate change. There is ambiguity over whether responding to climate change materially affects the financial sustainability of South African companies. The study sought to establish the extent to which responding to climate change impacts financial performance. Secondary analysis of historic data was used to compare the climate-change performance of 70 Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed companies to indicators of their financial performance. The research concluded that there is a positive and statistically significant correlation between climate-change performance and financial performance