Companies behaving badly suffer in the long run, according to research from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. "Is dirty business more efficient than ethically sound business?" asked Julian Kölbel, a masters student in the department of management, technology and economics at ETH. He looked for a correlation between negative publicity on environmental and social issues and a company's share price.

Using a reputational risk index compiled by Ecofact, Mr Kölbel found companies scoring highly in the index (critical press coverage) outperformed in the short term but underperformed over a longer period.

This underlines the need for more information. HSBC Global Markets has launcheda climate change research facilitation programme by which fund managers can access research on climate change from Ernst & Young, New Energy Finance, Risk Management Solutions and the UK Met Office through HSBC, which operates a commission sharing agreement with these partners.