Environmental risks pose threats to corporate treasuries

Talk about environmental risk and the first thing that pops into most minds is global warming. Mention it to Satoru Hiraga, managing director of strategic risk advisory firm Marsh in Japan, and he thinks of the leading global risk to finance executives today.

First and foremost, all of us have to tackle the question of environmental risks, he said at The Economist's Japan chief financing officer roundtable in Tokyo earlier this month. How companies tackle environmental problems is not only the problem of the CFO, but the whole of the company.

Hiraga was speaking about the Global Risks 2010 report published by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Marsh and...