Mandatory climate risk disclosure is a helpful, if insufficient, step in the race to avoid runaway climate change.
In response to statements from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink welcoming the move by the UK to make the disclosure of climate-related financial risk mandatory, Moira Birss, Climate Finance Director at Amazon watch, core partner of the BlackRock’s Big Problem campaign, and Co-Coordinator of the Stop the Money Pipeline Policy Team, said:
“Larry Fink is right: climate risk disclosure should be mandatory. Smart investors have an incentive to disclose their climate risk to help avoid financial losses. Yet disclosure is in no way sufficient to avoid the catastrophic impacts of runaway climate change — to the financial system, to the global economy, and to the planet. Since Larry Fink himself has indicated that integrating sustainability throughout BlackRock’s business is necessary, he should actively remove that risk from BlackRock’s portfolios, and advocate for regulatory policies that would push other financial firms to do the same.”
The incoming Biden Administration has numerous avenues at its disposal to set a higher bar than requiring climate-risk disclosure. For instance, a recent paper by Graham Steele at Stanford examined how Dodd-Frank provides a pathway for the U.S. government to address Wall Street’s role in tackling climate change.
If you would like to speak with Moira Birss or other representatives of the BlackRock’s Big Problem Campaign, reach out to Jason Schwartz at jasondanielschwartz@gmail.com or +1-347-452-3752.
