The Rise of the Climate Consultant: As the SEC asks for climate risk disclosure, an industry blooms

Publish Date: June 6, 2010
Article Source: Bloomberg Businessweek
Article Link: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2010/tc2010063_014477.htm

BlackRock’s Dan Rice, managing director of the $1-billion Energy & Resources Fund, relies on AER’s “weather forecasts to gauge heating demand that moves the oil and coal markets...Rice commissioned Atmospheric & Environmental Research (AER), a Lexington (Mass.) consultancy to synthesize the climate literature.”

“In 2009, as climate change became a more pressing issue for U.S. businesses, [Dan Rice] grew concerned about the coal companies in his portfolio; he wondered if climatologists knew something he didn't. Rice commissioned Atmospheric & Environmental Research (AER), a Lexington (Mass.) consultancy to synthesize the climate literature. After he sat down to read AER's 35-page report, he says, “I was humbled by how little I know—and how much uncertainty there is in the existing science.”