In the coming months, U.S. companies that sell their shares on public stock exchanges will be filing annual reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In part, those SEC filings aim to allow investors to see the company's prospects from management's perspective. In their filings, management describes developments it sees on the horizon that have the potential to affect their companies' operations--and profits.

Many will be intently reading the filings to see what insights they shed on managements' perception of how climate change will affect their businesses. The smart money is on marginally greater disclosure than in preceding years. This will continue a trend we have seen in each of the past few years' disclosures.

What more might we reasonably expect to read in those disclosures? And will those disclosures satisfy those that have asked the SEC to provide guidance on what those disclosures should reveal?