and climate change can also affect companies' external and internal economic-financial indicators, mainly in companies that depend on the use of natural inputs as their core resources. Therefore, companies classified as "socially responsible" should incorporate management practices focused on the idea of socio-environmental responsibility into their organizational structures, thereby establishing corporate activities based on the concept of sustainability. This focus assumes that companies have a social function to play, outlined by the objective of protecting and preserving the environment, health, and occupational safety, in a broader sense (Cosenza, Andrade and Laurencel, 2009). In this context, the main objective of this study is to discuss the issue of global climate change, called GCCs here, by (a) identifying how it could affect the internal and external indicators of hydroelectric energy producers and (b) analyzing how these companies could include in their strategic planning the answers to the possible risks the phenomenon could entail for their social, economic, and operational performance. This research is justified by three fundamental questions: i) given that these companies need to disseminate the facts and risks associated with their activities in the reports provided to their stakeholders, the study contributes by encouraging the incorporation Revista de Contabilidade e Organizações 17 (2013) 98-114 www.rco.usp.br This paper is aimed at identifying economic and environmental evidence related to strategic risk caused by global climate change issues. To achieve this objective, descriptive and exploratory research was carried out, in the form of a case study, aiming to delimit the variables observed, the geographic area and the result of their possible interactions, in the context of a large company in the Brazilian hydroelectric energy industry. To characterize the importance of adapting its strategic planning in light of possible impacts from global climate changes, the Expert Panel, the Delphi Method and the SWOT Matrix were used as research techniques. The combined use of these three methods permitted further refinement of the research including the construction of long-term scenarios that could be inferred with regards to the research questions. The results obtained demonstrate that the reduction of water flow and reservoir levels, due to climate change, represent the main strategic environmental risks for the company being researched, which could threaten its corporate competitiveness and negatively compromise its operational, economic, and social performance until the year 2050.