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Government Dialogues

How investors can engage with regulators and policymakers to improve policies and regulations to incentivize cleaner and renewable energy sources, reduce carbon and other emissions, and provide long-term stability of industries and investments.

INCR supports investors in the building of more sustainable capital markets by leading engagement with policy makers and regulators at all levels of government.

INCR aggregates the power of investor voices, enabling North American investors to join investors globally in calling on world governments to pass climate policies that would reduce global carbon emissions and transition us to a low-carbon, sustainable economy.

INCR also works with with federal and state policymakers to strengthen regional and national legislation that would reduce carbon emissions and other pollution, protect water supplies and ecosystems and unlock financing for low-carbon energy sources and technologies like wind, solar and biofuels.

INCR members also take a lead role in the annual investor and corporate summit meetings at UN Global Climate Treaty talks.

INCR Members in Action

Protecting Clean Air Standards

EPA Building In April 2011, four amendments to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gases failed in the Senate days after INCR member Calvert Asset Management delivered a letter signed by 44 investors representing $546 billion in assets supporting the EPA's authority to regulate carbon emissions. The letter is the latest expression of growing investor support for the EPA's regulation of greenhouse gases, which experts say will increase investment in clean energy and generate American jobs.

For more information, read the Ceres report New Jobs-Cleaner Air: Employment Effects under Planned Changes to EPA’s Air Pollution Rules.

Climate Disclosure Requirement

SEC Building Logo In 2010, through the leadership of Ceres and the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), the Securities and Exchange Commission issued ground-breaking interpretive guidance requiring corporate disclosure of material climate change risks and opportunities. This legally-binding guidance outlines the types of climate-related disclosure publicly-traded companies must provide to investors in financial filings. It is the first economy-wide climate risk disclosure requirement in the world.

INCR also encouraged Canadian securities regulators to issue formal guidance on climate change-related disclosure that companies must provide to investors in their financial filings.

Canada's Oil Sands

Photo of worker holding handful of oilsand. INCR members including investors from Asia, Europe and the United States met with regulators and business leaders as well as U.S. and Canadian government officials in an effort to better disclose and manage the far-reaching risks and opportunities from this enormous undertaking.

Read the Ceres report "Canada's Oil Sands: Shrinking Window of Opportunity" for more about the risks of this energy source for investors.

Proposition 23 vs. California's Clean Energy Law

Prop 23. Schwarzenegger INCR members joined other major investors in issuing a joint statement urging a “No” vote on Proposition 23, the November 2010 California ballot initiative that would halt implementation of the state’s landmark, bipartisan clean energy law.

Investors warned policymakers that passage of Proposition 23 could negatively effect California's economy in terms of job growth, private investment, energy pricing and stability and public health due to air pollution. Proposition 23 failed, resulting in a victory for investors, businesses and the people of California.