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Large companies view climate change as an increasing risk to their bottom lines and reputations among consumers and investors, according to a new analysis by CDP, the not-for-profit global system for disclosures about climate-change risks.

About 7,000 companies globally, as well as 750 of the world’s largest municipalities and administrative regions, disclose information about climate risks and opportunities to the CDP, formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project.

The CDP sends out annual questionnaires on behalf of investors with $87 trillion in assets under management, as well as on behalf of companies such as Walmart (ticker: WMT) that want to assess their suppliers.

In the U.S., 70% of the S&P 500 companies disclose information to the CDP. Most of them include the information in their corporate social-responsibility disclosures, says Sara Law, vice president of global initiatives at CDP.

The latest analysis, based on data received at the end of 2017, is called “State by state: An analysis of U.S. companies and cities across seven states.” It examines the impact of climate change on businesses in four U.S. regions, mainly looking at Florida and Texas, Arizona and Colorado, California, and Ohio and Illinois.

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“The climate of policy uncertainty in the U.S. is a distraction for companies and cities that see the problem of climate change and want to be focused on handling these costly and material risks,” says Law, an author of the report.

While the U.S. has withdrawn from the Paris agreement for countries to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, nations are meeting now in Poland for what has been dubbed Paris 2.0 to discuss cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. States, however, have very different approaches to climate change, creating an “incoherent” policy landscape that poses risks to companies, says Law.

Companies see climate change as both an opportunity and a danger, extracts from the report indicate.

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“Over half of Californian companies pointed to corporate reputation and changing consumer behaviors as drivers of business opportunities,” the organization reported. “Alphabet, Google’s parent company recognized reputational benefits in the form of potential brand equity gains amounting to at least $133 million from addressing climate change risks.” CDP did not elaborate on what forms the brand-equity gains could take.

Also on the West Coast, Unilever (ULVR.LN) told CDP that ice-cream brands like Breyer, Ben & Jerry’s, Klondike, and Good Humor, could likely see disruptions in production if water levels continued to drop in Lake Mead, the giant reservoir that provides water for southern California.

“Companies in the Southwest operating within the Colorado River Basin have reported more than 70 serious water risks to their operations, and that more than 70% of the risks were linked to higher operating costs and plant disruption,” CDP said. The defense contractor Raytheon (RTN), which has large operations in Colorado, told CDP that a large chunk of its global revenue could be affected by water risk.

This year’s report looks at disclosures by cities for the first time. Since 2014, disclosures to CDP by U.S. cities have grown three-fold to 127 cities across 36 states. The trend toward local policy leadership and innovation has accelerated as well, CDP said.

Write to Leslie P. Norton at leslie.norton@barrons.com