US investment bank Lehman Brothers has warned that companies inadequately prepared to tackle the challenges posed by a changing climate will face extinction, in a detailed examination of the potential impact of global warming on business and the capital markets.

In a comprehensive, 150-page analysis of the impact of climate change, the bank said: "The pace of a firm's adaptation to climate change is likely to prove to be another of the forces that will influence whether, over the next several years, any given firm survives and prospers; or withers and, quite possibly, dies."