The fall of Pacific Gas & Electric illustrates how “climate change threatens to impose heavy costs on companies,” former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrote on Friday.

Bloomberg, billionaire founder of Bloomberg LP and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Action, wrote in the Los Angeles Times on Friday about PG&E, which declared bankruptcy because “it could no longer afford the increasing liability costs of wildfires fueled by the hotter, drier weather that climate change is bringing to California.”

The former mayor notes that “fifteen of the 20 largest wildfires in the state’s history have happened since 2000,” and that although PG&E is the largest company to go under because of these fires, it is “far from alone.”

“If companies don’t measure the financial risks they face from climate change, they can’t reduce their exposure to those risks, at least not effectively,” Bloomberg writes.

“If investors don’t know the potential liabilities a company is facing, they may overvalue it and lose their shirts,” he continues. “And by overvaluing companies that face serious climate risks, they undervalue companies and industries, such as renewable energy, that are designed to minimize warming.”

Bloomberg adds, “We can fix this. Improving climate risk disclosure is not a sexy, splashy subject… But it can do a lot to speed up our progress, and it’s something that people across the political spectrum, and across the public and private sectors, can agree on. It should be a part of any Green New Deal.”

• PG&E Files for Bankruptcy Over Wildfire Liabilities
• Insurance Claims From Deadly California Wildfires Top $11.4B