While the US is often criticised for its reticence to act on sustainability issue, this week, the US House Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets has held the first US Congressional hearing on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
The meeting focused on reporting requirements for US public companies.
It comes a week after US senator and presidential hopeful, Elizabeth Warren, reintroduced a piece of legislation that would require all publicly held companies to disclose critical information on climate-related risks in their operations and supply chains.
The Climate Risk Disclosure Act, announced last year, would require issuers to disclose in their annual reports information concerning physical and transition risks posed by climate change, as well as mitigation efforts undertaken to reduce the impact of such risks.
Sustainability and climate risk were an important feature of last year’s Insurance Asset Risk Americas conference. Peter Uhlenbruch, research and engagement manager at ShareAction warned that insurers’ and other institutional investors’ actions were closely scrutinised to see if their efforts matched their rhetoric.
If the transition fails, investors and all asset classes will suffer, while a failure to factor in the transition would also negatively impact them, he said.
Climate change will again feature at Insurance Asset Risk America 2019 in New York on 16 September, more information on the event can be found here.
