In recent years, roughly 30 nations have implemented regulatory regimes that mandate some type of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions disclosure from corporations. As GHG emissions disclosure regimes continue to take hold, several key questions arise: will they prompt meaningful and sustained GHG emissions reductions, or will they merely serve to […]
Climate Risk
8 posts
Commentators who advocate either for or against corporate and asset managers addressing climate risks often refer to “fiduciary duty” as justification for their claims. Yet no field of corporate or asset management actually imposes one standalone fiduciary duty. Nor do any two business-law fields impose the same fiduciary regime. […]
What will happen to the SEC’s March 2024 climate disclosure rule under the new federal administration? A paper published by Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) seeks to contribute to the upcoming debates on this question. In their joint report, […]
In recent years, climate experts and even regulators have increased attention on the financial sector as a driver of both emissions and capital formation in the low-carbon economy. There has been growing emphasis on “aligning” capital allocation by financial institutions to the transition to net zero greenhouse gases (GHG) in […]
This piece previously appeared in EDF’s Climate 411 Blog. Disasters that are fueled by climate change, like fires, floods, and hurricanes, increasingly pose risks to the U.S. financial system, including the derivatives market. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulates the derivatives market and is now considering updates to […]
In September 2015, then Bank of England Governor Mark Carney gave a landmark speech on the “Tragedy of the Horizon.” The concept was simple: climate change creates tremendous risk for financial markets, but these mounting risks are ignored by investors due to the market’s tendency towards myopia. The speech marked […]
The federal Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a final rule on Tuesday, November 22, allowing plan fiduciaries to consider climate change and other environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) characteristics when they choose investments and exercise shareholder rights, reversing a Trump-era rule that sought to constrain this type of risk […]
This post was co-authored by the Sabin Center’s Romany Webb and Stephanie Jones and Michael Panfil of Environmental Defense Fund. From pipelines destabilized by melting permafrost to power line-sparked wildfires exacerbated by drought, the impacts of climate change are affecting infrastructure across the U.S. and heightening the risks it poses […]