Investors at UN Summit: Disclose Climate Costs
Date: 24-Nov-03
Country: UN
Author: Mark McSherry
Eight U.S. state and city treasurers and comptrollers and the leaders of two large labor pension funds issued a "call for action" at a day-long Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk held at U.N. headquarters. Executives from top Wall Street banks and fund management firms also attended the meeting.
The plan basically asks the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to impose tighter disclosure, reporting and risk assessment requirements on corporations so that public pension funds can assess more accurately the potential financial risk to their shareholdings from climate change.
The pension funds said a broad swath of industries could be vulnerable to new global warming regulations or possible future legal action.
As an example, fund officials said any new regulation capping emissions of carbon dioxide by industrial firms could increase their costs substantially as they would have to use cleaner and more expensive fuels.
In light of financial scandals at firms like Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc., which have blindsided investors, "what we want is no surprises," said Nappier, who as the Connecticut treasurer helps oversee $19 billion.
"We have certainly had enough of the unexpected, and this time we want to know up front and early on, we want to know what exposure is down the road and what damage is being done to our investments and to our economy," she said.
'THE DATA IS PILING UP'
"Most of Wall Street today seems to ignore climate risk and feels more comfortable pretending that global warming will not affect their portfolios," said Leon Panetta, former director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
"The data is piling up and the trends are clear. In 2003, it is irresponsible for any major investor or fiduciary to ignore the risks of global warming," Panetta said, suggesting the lawyers who filed the first lawsuits against tobacco and asbestos firms were now looking at global warming.
"How long will it take before someone takes a swing at an oil company or a power company?" he asked.
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, now vice chairman of Metropolitan West Financial, attended the summit. He noted a recent report that China was drafting ambitious fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, to cut down on fuel use.
"We could be in a situation where they are providing cars to markets through the years that greatly exceed the environment standards that we (in the United States) are used to building toward," Gore said. "We will be behind the curve in every way."
Pressed on whether the public pension funds would divest companies that did not comply with their demands, New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi said: "Divesting is the last thing you want to do .... Once you divest you no longer have an influence over the company."
However, he added: "You might have to divest at the end of a process and say 'this company is beyond the pale'."
