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Peyton Fleming Ceres, 617-247-0700 x120 | fleming@ceres.org
Investors praise U.S. Senate leaders for pushing SEC to require full corporate disclosure of climate change risksDecember 7, 2007 WASHINGTON DC -- Investors today praised Senate leaders, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., for sending a letter yesterday to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox urging the SEC to issue guidance on information companies should be disclosing about financial risks they face from climate change. Dodd is chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and Reed is chairman of the Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment. The letter comes after 18 leading investors filed a petition in October asking the SEC to require companies to assess and disclose “material” climate risks, such as the impacts from emerging carbon-reducing regulations, climate-related physical events and growing global demand for low-carbon technologies and products. The petitioners included $1.5 trillion of investors, including state treasurers and other pension fund leaders in California, Florida, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island. "We are pleased with Senator Dodd and Senator Reed's leadership in recogizing the important of climate disclosure to investors," said Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres and director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), an alliance of 60 investors which includes many of the investors who signed the petition. "Information companies are providing on climate change is not adequate and is not at the level investors need to make informed investment decisions." "Leadership from Senator Dodd and Senator Reed will be a tremendous boost towards greater transparency of the risks corporations face due to climate change," said New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, sole trustee of the $154.5 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund. "National attention on climate change issues is leading to a changing business and regulatory landscape. Some form of carbon pricing is coming, and it will have a dramatic impact on business models and profitability. Companies should be taking a long-term view on this trend, and they should disclose those risks to investors." "Getting support from key Congressional leaders like Senators Dodd and Reed is a huge step towards convincing the SEC to act on this critical issue," added Oregon State Treasurer Randall Edwards. A group of investors, including representatives from the New York Comptroller's Office, Oregon State Treasurer's office and the California Pubic Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), met with the SEC staff on Tuesday of this week to discuss the petition. The meeting was very productive but no decisions were made. For more information about the petition, click here.
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