Sept. 17, 2007 Electric utilities seeking to assuage investor fears on climate risk now have a new framework for reporting their climate-related business challenges and opportunities.

The Disclosure Framework for Electricity Utilities (PDF) is published by the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), a collaboration between pension funds and asset managers representing assets of more than 3.5 trillion Euro ($4.9 trillion). The group worked with sell-side analysts at Paris-based CA Cheuvreux and a number of European utilities to develop the guidelines, which IIGCC says will make it easier for investors to compare individual companies on their climate risks and policies, Environmental Finance reports.

The guidelines recommend that electric utilities exercise greater transparency in climate change strategy and provide quantitative data on electricity generation capacity and production, as well as total carbon emissions and credits. Included are standardized formats for data reporting.