Coalition Asks SEC for Climate Risk Disclosure

Petition: Firms must inform investors about risks of climate change

Update (1/27/2010) - In a landmark decision, the Securities and Exchange Commission will require that public companies disclose climate risks to their business operations, whether from new emissions policies or changing weather patterns. See EDF press release and fact sheet.

Environmental Defense Fund is joining with a broad coalition of investors, state officials and others to petition the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to clarify that publicly traded companies must assess and fully disclose their financial risks from climate change. (Read the petition [PDF], fact sheet [PDF] and related documents below.)

The petitioners also sent a letter to the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance [PDF], asking for immediate examination of climate disclosures under existing law.

Scientific, legal and regulatory developments make it unavoidably clear that the risks and opportunities many corporations face in connection with climate change fall squarely within the category of material information that is required to be analyzed in many corporate filings. Investors need disclosure of climate risks to make informed investment decisions.

Our 22 signatories represent $1.5 trillion in managed assets

• California State Controller, John Chiang;
• California Public Employees' Retirement System;
• California State Teachers’ Retirement System;
• California State Treasurer, Bill Lockyer;
• Ceres;
• Environmental Defense Fund;
• F&C Management;
• Florida Chief Financial Officer, Alex Sink;
• Friends of the Earth;
• Kentucky State Treasurer, Jonathan Miller;
• Maine State Treasurer, David G. Lemoine;
• Maryland State Treasurer, Nancy K. Kopp;
• The Nathan Cummings Foundation;
• New Jersey State Investment Council, Orin Kramer, Chair;
• New York City Comptroller, William C. Thompson, Jr.;
• New York State Comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli;
• New York State Attorney General, Andrew M. Cuomo;
• North Carolina State Treasurer, Richard Moore;
• Oregon State Treasurer, Randall Edwards;
• Pax World Management Corporation;
• Rhode Island General Treasurer, Frank T. Caprio;
• Vermont State Treasurer, Jeb Spaulding

Supporting materials regarding climate change

• Fifth Survey of Climate Change Disclosure in SEC Filings of Automobile, Insurance, Oil and Gas, Petrochemical, and Utilities Companies [PDF] (Friends Of The Earth, Michelle Chan-Fishel, October 2006)
• The Physical Science Basis [PDF], Summary for Policymakers (2007) - Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group I, Climate Change 2007
• Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability [PDF], Summary for Policymakers (2007) - Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group II, Climate Change 2007
• Mitigation of Climate Change [PDF], Summary for Policymakers (2007) - Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [PDF], Working Group III, Climate Change 2007

Posted: 01-Jan-1900; Updated: 18-Sep-2007