BOSTON, January 8 /PRNewswire/ --

- Study Includes 16 US, 15 European, 3 Canadian and 5 Asian Banks; Unprecedented Look at How World's Largest Publicly Traded Banks Are Addressing Global Warming

A first-ever comprehensive assessment of 40 of the world's largest banks on their handling of climate change risks and opportunities is the subject of a major new report to be released at 10 a.m. ET on January 10, 2008 by the Ceres investor coalition. Report authors used a "Climate Change Governance Index" to evaluate how 16 U.S. and 24 non-U.S. banks are addressing climate change through board oversight, management performance, public disclosure, greenhouse gas emissions management and strategic planning. Each of the 40 companies is given a 1- to 100-point score.

U.S. banks in the study include Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and 10 others.

Information was gathered over the past six months from securities filings, company reports, company web sites and third-party questionnaires.

News event speakers will include:

-- Lord Nicholas Stern, Renowned British economist and academic and former adviser to the British Government on the economics of climate change and development; -- Russell Read, chief investment officer at the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS); -- Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres and director of Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR); -- Douglas Cogan, report author and director of climate change research at the RiskMetrics Group; and -- Jon Williams, head of Group Sustainable Development, HSBC Holdings plc.

TO PARTICIPATE IN THE NEWS EVENT: In the U.S., reporters can join this live, phone-based global news conference at 10:00 a.m. ET on January 10, 2008 by dialing +1-800-860-2442. (Media in and around London should dial +0800-028-0531. All other reporters outside of the U.S. and the London area should dial +001-412-858-4600, which is not a toll-free line.) Ask for the "Ranking Banks on Climate Issues" news event.

CAN'T PARTICIPATE ON A LIVE BASIS?: streaming audio replay of the news event will be available on the Web at http://www.ceres.org as of 6 p.m. ET/11 p.m. GMT on January 10, 2008.

Ceres (http://www.ceres.org) is a national coalition of investors and environmental groups working with companies to address sustainability challenges such as climate change. Ceres directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), a network of 60 institutional investors in the U.S. and Europe that collectively manage over US$4 trillion in assets.

Web site: http://www.ceres.org

Peyton Fleming of Ceres, +1-617-247-0700, ext. 20, fleming@ceres.org; or Patrick Mitchell, +1-703-276-3266, pmitchell@hastingsgroup.com, for Ceres