Climate change is a fact of political life and is playing a growing role in business competition. Greenhouse gases will be increasingly scrutinized, regulated, and priced. Businesses have begun treating carbon emissions as costs. Consumers are increasingly taking a company's environmental record into account when they make purchasing decisions. Investors are discounting share prices of firms poorly positioned to compete in a carbon-constrained world, and are hungry for clean energy.

The presentation will provide:
· An update on U.S. climate change policy at the state, regional, and national level.
· The ways that different business sectors will be affected in the short-term
· How businesses can account for climate change risks and mitigate climate-related costs in its value chain
· Some of the steps businesses can take to understand its emissions, increase transparency, and seize opportunities to gain competitive advantage and shape policy
· Examples of companies in manufacturing, mining, retail, insurance, and energy that are innovating and enhancing their competitive positioning by creating new products and leading the restructuring of their industries to address climate issues more effectively.