According to the Carbon Disclosure Project's (CDP) 2010 S&P 500 Report, disclosure of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by S&P 500 companies increased to 59 percent in 2010, and 54 percent of companies now include emissions data in their annual corporate reports.

However, a new report, entitled Risk and Opportunity in a Low-carbon Business Climate: Small & Mid-Caps & Climate Change, demonstrates just how far small- and mid-cap companies have yet to go in preparing for the transition to a low-carbon economy.

The report, authored by Helen Mou, a Sustainability Intern at Pax World Management and a Climate Fellow at Clean Air-Cool Planet (CA-CP), examines the disclosure of climate-related risks and opportunities by 364 companies representing the top 50 percent of market capitalization among the Russell 2000 index of small- to mid-cap companies.

The findings of the report are sobering. Although 56 of the 364 companies studied published sustainability or corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, "Only 39 recognized climate change (10.7 percent) at all, while only four of 364 companies reported their greenhouse gas emissions," the report found.

The four companies that reported their GHG emissions are JetBlue, Otter Tail, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, and Timberland.

Since late 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized a rule mandating the reporting of GHG emissions by approximately 10,000 facilities that account for 85 percent of total U.S. emissions, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued guidance on disclosure of climate change risks and opportunities at publicly traded companies.

Julie Gorte, Senior Vice President for Sustainable Investing at Pax World, told SocialFunds.com, "Every small-cap company wants to become big. You'll want to be ready for the requirements, in the happy event that you're successful."

Furthermore, "If the U.S. ever gets out of the feeling of being economically precarious and gets serious about regulating greenhouse gas emissions, as most of the rest of the developed world already is, the results of the report will be even more sobering," Gorte continued.