Friday, July 22, 2016

Three former Treasury secretaries call on SEC to require climate risk disclosure

Former US Treasury Secretaries, Hank Paulson (R), Robert Rubin (D), and George Schultz (R) issued a letter to the SEC urging it to require companies to disclose how they are accounting for and preparing for risks posed by climate change -- calling it "the biggest economic risk the world faces today."

The Secretaries praised the SEC's 2010 guidance on the materiality of climate risks, but said it did not go far enough, and most companies have not been disclosing their exposure to these risks well, using boilerplate language that was not helpful.  The called for "mandatory and meaningful disclosures of the material effects of climate change on issuers."

It's hard to imagine a more credible group calling for such action -- and another strong signal that companies and investors need to be doing more to understand and mitigate climate risks.

The letter stems from the work of the Risky Business Project.  Learn more about the letter in this article from Scientific American.

Stay going.

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