The Securities and Exchange Commission has told Exxon Mobil it must include a resolution on its annual shareholder proxy that, if approved, would force the company to outline for investors how its profitability may be affected by climate change and the legislation that aims to combat it.

The decision was a defeat for the energy giant, which had fought against it. The proposal was introduced in December, after the Paris accord on climate change, by a coalition of investors led by New York State’s comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, who is the trustee of New York State Common Retirement Fund, and the Church of England.

Alan T. Jeffers, a spokesman for Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer, said on Wednesday that it would “provide the board’s position on the shareholder resolutions in our proxy document.”

It is not obvious that Exxon’s shareholders will embrace such an idea. Last year, they soundly rejected a proposal to add to the board an independent director with expertise in climate change.