How things have changed.

Executives expect environmental issues, including climate change, to affect shareholder value far more than any other societal issue during the next five years. Their concern now exceeds that of consumers, according to a new McKinsey study. More than half nominated climate change, compared with 31 per cent in the previous survey.

It coincides with reports of corporations asking politicians to agree on a comprehensive, legally binding framework to tackle climate change during the ongoing international conference in Bali.

The change in business attitudes is not surprising. Climate change has dominated political and legal debates over the last year, carbon is set to become one of the world's biggest commodity markets, businesses around the world are coming under increasing regulation controlling greenhouse gas emissions, and there is the prospect of rising seas, storms and droughts hurting the bottom line. It's something I have covered here.

Now there is the warning by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that the number of people threatened by coastal flooding could more than triple by 2070 due to climate change and the financial impact of flooding could increase by tens of trillions of dollars. Miami is the only city in a developed country on the report's list of the 10 top cities at risk due to population exposure but it leads the list of cities with the highest value of property and infrastructure assets at risk.

Scientists are warning that the US heartland faces hotter and wetter summers with climate change generating wildfires in the west, floods and Katrina-style storm surges on the Gulf coast and extreme storms in the mid-west. Environment America has just released a report on its web site indicating that storms with heavy rainfall are now 24 per cent more frequent in the U.S. than they were 60 years ago

Still, businesses in certain sectors will have to do a lot more to address climate change. The mining, energy and aviation sectors, for example, will have to look to greater innovation to compete with potentially higher operating costs.