Of the 199 businesses surveyed in the Protiviti Business Risk Index for quarter four 2009, 48 per cent said that as a result of regulatory uncertainty they were unable to undertake long-term business planning, and 44 per cent had delayed implementing a comprehensive carbon risk management framework for their organisation.

However despite this inaction, it appears businesses do consider climate change regulation to be a serious business risk, with 44 per cent of respondents rating the risk posed by the CPRS to their businesses as either medium, high or extreme - up 10 per cent from quarter three 2009.

Gary Anderson, managing director of Protiviti, said that the findings suggested businesses were not willing to commit to climate change initiatives until they had legislative certainty.

"As long as politicians keep wavering about carbon policy, it will be 'business-as-usual' for Australian companies, who will continue to put off making real changes to the way they operate. The unpredictability of the legislation is currently so extreme that many companies think their best option is to just 'wait and see'," he said.