A flagship report found that acting on climate change and improving the economy go hand in hand, which was reported by business media outlets across the globe. But three prominent outliers left their audiences in the dark: CNBC, Fox Business, and The Wall Street Journal.*

On September 16, many major business media outlets from Fortune Magazine to BusinessWeek reported on a recent analysis finding that the next 15 years are essential for acting on climate change, and that it is possible to do so while simultaneously growing the global economy. The report, titled “The New Climate Economy” and carried out by the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, refutes the “false dilemma” between economic growth and climate change mitigation -- an important finding for businesses that want to thrive in the decades ahead. From Reuters:

Investments to help fight climate change can also spur economic growth, rather than slow it as widely feared, but time is running short for a trillion-dollar shift to transform cities and energy use, an international report said on Tuesday.

Yet the report was ignored by three prominent business media outlets -- a disservice to their business audiences who deserve to know the economic risks of global warming. The outlets that ignored the findings of the “New Climate Economy” report may not come as a surprise: CNBC, Fox Business, and The Wall Street Journal all have a sordid history with reporting on climate change.

When the "Risky Business" report was released earlier this year -- another report detailing the economic costs of climate change inaction -- CNBC was caught soliciting a writer to talk about “global warming being a hoax” to rebut the report's findings. The network's on-air coverage of “Risky Business” featured Squawk Box co-host Joe Kernen criticizing the acceptance of global warming as “Orwellian groupthink.” Media Matters analyses found that CNBC misled their audience on global warming in the majority of their reporting on the topic in 2013.

Fox Business also regularly offers demonstrably false reporting on global warming. Co-hosts have often claimed that global warming is over, or even that we are in a period of global cooling. When the Risky Business report was released, Fox Business mocked its findings of heat-related mortalities and dismissed the report entirely as using “scare tactics.”

Similarly, Wall Street Journal dismissed the findings of the Risky Business report, with its editorial board calling one of its authors' suggestions for a carbon tax as economically harmful as the 2008 financial crisis. The Journal has downplayed and dismissed the impacts of climate change and other environmental threats for decades, and gives a frequent platform to “skeptics” that urge inaction on climate change and dismiss the basic science behind the consensus.

The New Climate Economy was heralded by political leaders around the world advocating a transformation in the global economy. By ignoring it, these outlets are showing that their priorities are at odds with businesses that want to prosper in a changing climate.

*Based on a search of internal video archives from September 15 to 12 p.m. September 17 for “climate” for Fox Business and CNBC, and a Factiva search for “climate” for Wall Street Journal.