"Many of those that filed reports with CDP said they believe climate change can bolster demand for their products," Bloomberg's Christopher Flavelle reports:

• "[M]ore people will get sick. 'As the climate changes, there will be expanded markets for products for tropical and weather related diseases including waterborne illness,' wrote Merck & Co."
• "More disasters will make iPhones even more vital to people’s lives, Apple predicted."

Axios health care editor Sam Baker rummaged through the reports and found that climate change could be big business for pharma:

• AbbVie: "Climate change may create a greater need for existing or even new products … higher temperatures and drought conditions are becoming extreme … Our immunology product line could see an increase in sales as a result."
• Eli Lilly: "These risks may drive an increased demand for ... our diabetes products."
• Pfizer: "There could be an increased demand for products related to diseases impacted by climate change."

These financial benefits are, of course, anomalies — most impact will be dire. Axios' Ben Geman points out that companies like Coca-Cola, which worries about water shortages, have long realized the risks to their operations.

• And a number of companies — including tech giants Apple, Google and Facebook — for years have been increasing clean energy procurement and making emissions-cutting plans and goals.

Why it matters, from Axios science editor Andrew Freedman: Polling indicates Americans are already recognizing the impacts of global warming in their own backyards, and the CDP disclosures make me think about what might happen once we start to factor climate change into our spending decisions.

• Intel is worried about water availability for chip production, while reinsurance giants have long worried that extreme weather events from climate change could threaten their bottom line. 

What we're watching ... The companies' reports show expected climate-change expenses that could become so big and detrimental that they provoke a real sea change in corporate America: More companies turning to governments, and lobbying for policies reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Go deeper:

• The anatomy of climate-change policy: A primer
• The cost of climate change for PG&E is a warning to big business
• 9 energy and climate issues to watch in 2019

• Yes, but: An Axios analysis shows shareholders weren't punishing these companies because of their exposure to China. Fourteen of the top 20 companies most exposed to China are semiconductors — an industry that suffered during this period, thanks to a sector-wide slowdown. Those stocks fared no worse than an exchange-traded fund tracking the industry, which fell 14%.
• Semiconductors were bound to suffer, regardless of a trade war, thanks to slowing demand for memory chips, rising inventory levels and falling prices, Sebastian Hou, an analyst at CLSA, told CNBC last year.

More consumer-focused companies like Nike (which nets 12% of of its revenue from Greater China) saw their stock prices increase, in line with the consumer discretionary sector which outperformed the broader market.

Rather than a broad-based China slowdown, data shows individual companies saw largely individual results.

• Shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), which generates about 30% of its sales in China, jumped almost 60% since last year — bucking the downtrend of its semiconductor counterparts. Analysts say the rise is largely due to the possibility that AMD was taking market share from longtime players like Intel.
• Qualcomm's stock suffered after its merger with Broadcom was killed by the Trump administration, showing its "aggressive stance on perceived threats from foreign investors and the growing technological might of China," as Axios reported last year.
• Wynn Resorts significantly underperformed other consumer discretionary stocks. But its shares took a major hit earlier last year after longtime CEO Steve Wynn resigned following sexual misconduct allegations.

What they're saying: Count executives at Texas Instruments — which gets 44% of its revenue from Greater China — among those who say the trade war isn't to blame for their struggles.

• After the company missed third quarter estimates, CFO Rafael Lizardi said the lackluster results were "mostly driven by a slowdown in semiconductors" and smartphone sales, not a macro-driven event, like trade. (Texas Instruments did better in its most recent quarter.)

The bottom line: Companies with big exposure to China can point to a wide range of issues, not necessarily the trade war, for the pain in their stocks.