# Tracking business opportunities for climate solutions using AI in regulated accounting reports

**Authors:** Shirley Lu, George Serafeim, Simon Xu, MarcAntonio Awada

PMC · DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-64723-1 · Nature Communications · 2025-11-05

## TL;DR

This study uses AI to analyze business reports and identify companies working on climate solutions, finding links to revenue growth and political trends.

## Contribution

A novel AI-based metric to quantify firms' engagement in climate solutions using regulatory filings.

## Key findings

- Firms engaged in climate solutions show higher revenue growth, especially in sectors with strong IP and high abatement potential.
- A modest political divide exists, with Republican-leaning states showing lower climate solutions engagement.
- Industries converge around shared technologies, reflected in higher stock return synchronicity.

## Abstract

The transition to a low-carbon economy offers substantial business opportunities, yet most research focuses on risks. This study develops a metric to identify firms advancing “climate solutions” by applying large language models to 39,710 10-K filings from 4,483 U.S. firms (2005-2022). The metric reveals a rising emphasis on climate solutions, validated by its responsiveness to policy shocks (e.g., Inflation Reduction Act) and correlation with green revenues and innovation indicators. We apply the measure to three inquiries: (i) firms engaged in climate solutions experience higher revenue growth, especially in sectors with strong intellectual property protection and technologies with high abatement potential; (ii) a modest political divide exists, with firms located in states with predominantly Republican voting patterns exhibiting lower climate solutions—a gap that narrows for low-cost technologies; and (iii) seemingly unrelated industries converge around shared technologies, reflected in higher stock return synchronicity. These results illustrate the value of AI-based analysis of regulatory filings for uncovering climate-related business opportunities.

This study applies AI to 10-K filings to measure firms advancing climate solutions across 88 technology topics. Analysis reveals growing climate solutions, with links to revenue growth, modest political divides, and cross-industry convergence.

## Full-text entities

- **Chemicals:** carbon (MESH:D002244)

## Full text

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## Figures

10 figures with captions in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC12589618/full.md

## References

9 references — full list in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC12589618/full.md

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC12589618