Fern's Long Shadow: What US CEOs Said About Climate Risk in Q2

Corporate America spent much of the second quarter totting up the bill from Winter Storm Fern.

Nearly six months after the four-day freeze buried 26 states in snow and ice and killed more than 100 people, its name kept surfacing on earnings calls held between April and June — from energy producer executives tallying frozen wellheads, to retailers explaining softer February footfall.

But the second quarter also saw some corporates look ahead to the Atlantic hurricane season, while others groused about the unseasonably cool start to summer that dented heat-driven retail categories. Energy utilities, meanwhile, engaged in a fresh round of wildfire-liability wrangling in Sacramento as California heads into peak fire season.

This latest edition of Climate Proof’s quarterly Climate Risk Signals analysis digs into what executives at the biggest US public companies had to tell investors about climate risk and adaptation. Our findings show that from April to June, 125 of the 1,000 largest US public companies referenced climate impacts or adaptation actions across 11 sectors — with Winter Storm Fern’s long tail and continued investments in resilience emerging as the dominant threads.

📊 Explore all the excerpts over at the new and improved Climate Risk Signals Explorer HERE (paying members only)