Feb. 11, 2008 – Few companies have set concrete targets for emissions reduction, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of executives expect “some form of climate regulation” to soon take effect in the country where their business is headquartered. These are the findings of a new study published in McKinsey Quarterly, which reports that four out of five executives anticipate new climate regulations to be enacted within five years, and one out of three think such legislation may be just one or two years away.

Among companies that consider environmental issues “at least somewhat important,” better than 60% have yet to set emissions targets, according to the survey. An additional 15% of respondents said they didn’t know whether their companies had set targets or not.

These results seem counterintuitive, given that the broad majority of those surveyed think climate regulations are more likely to have a negative than positive effect on profits. Forty percent of respondents said they expect new emissions will have “no material effect” on their company’s bottom line.

Three-quarters of respondents said that their company is unlikely to relocate to avoid emissions regulation, although the chances of relocation appear slightly higher among companies in the high-tech and manufacturing industries.

Read the complete findings of the McKinsey Quarterly study, including data on corporate attitudes on climate by company location, size, and sector, here.