Businesses are failing to report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) vital information concerning the material risks and opportunities they face as a result of climate change, denying investors the information they need to make sound investment decisions, according to two new reports.

The reports, Climate Risk Disclosure in SEC Filings and Reclaiming Transparency in a Changing Climate, found that more than three-quarters of S&P 500 companies made no mention at all of climate change in their annual reports. Only 5.5 percent of annual reports filed by the S&P 500 in 2008 identified at least one risk posed by climate change and described a strategy for dealing with that risk.

The reports, researched and written by the investment coalition Ceres, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Center for Energy and Environmental Security, analyze thousands of disclosure forms from a range of companies, including utilities and coal and oil companies.

Transparency advocates are calling on the SEC to require greater disclosure of the climate change risks faced by companies and their strategies for dealing with them.

Investors increasingly seek information on the risks from climate change faced by businesses as well as what steps businesses are taking to adapt to the changing climate and mitigate their own emissions.

Read more here and in the New York Times article, "Should the SEC Crack Down on Climate Reporting."