Investing lessons from corporate America's $87 trillion carbon footprint

Three out of four companies have carbon burdens that exceed their value

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(Mark Hulbert, an author and longtime investment columnist, is the founder of the Hulbert Financial Digest; his Hulbert Ratings audits investment newsletter returns.)

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (Callaway Climate Insights) — Corporate America would be bankrupt if it had to pay for the damages caused by its greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s the implication of just-completed research into the present value of the social cost of corporations’ future carbon emissions. Titled “Carbon Burden,” the study was conducted by Luboš Pástor of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and Robert Stambaugh and Lucian Taylor of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. They estimated that corporate America’s total carbon burden is $87 trillion, which is 1.3 times its total market capitalization as of the end of 2023.