Posts Tagged ‘climate change’
‘Climate Risk Compliance’ Coming for Banks
It’s a double shot of news today for regulatory compliance officers in the banking world: two major regulators promising a more rigorous review of climate risks within the coming year. Michael Hsu, head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Michael Barr, vice chair for supervision at the Federal Reserve, both gave…
Read MoreMore Messages From SEC on Climate
Compliance professionals watching the SEC’s actions on climate risk have one more item for the radar screen. Last week the agency ruled that Amazon.com must include a shareholder resolution in its proxy statement asking the company to prepare a report about whether its employee retirement plans align with Amazon’s stated climate goals. Why is that…
Read MoreProposed Greenhouse Gas Disclosures
Today let’s return to the SEC’s proposed requirement that companies disclose their climate risks, and specifically the greenhouse gas emissions that arise from a company’s operations and supply chain. Tracking and reporting such information could be quite difficult — so what’s the rationale here, and how might companies get started to fulfill such a requirement?…
Read MoreSEC Proposes Climate Risk Disclosure Rule
The Securities and Exchange Commission today unveiled its long-awaited proposal for disclosure of risks related to climate change, including disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions stemming from a company’s supply chain as well as audit and attestation requirements for larger companies’ disclosures. The SEC adopted the proposed rule on a 3-1 vote, with lone Republican commissioner…
Read MoreSEC Comment Letters on Climate
At long last, the Securities and Exchange Commission is starting to provide a glimpse of the questions that SEC staffers are asking companies about the risks of climate change — and so far, the companies receiving such questions are doing their best to give the usual imprecise answers. That glimpse came in the form of…
Read MoreOCC Nudges Banks on Climate Change
One of the country’s top banking regulators has outlined five questions that large banks’ boards should be asking about climate change, with a notable nudge that the banks’ management teams “hopefully should be able to answer these questions with greater accuracy and confidence” within 12 months. In other words, get on with things, banking industry.…
Read MoreMore on Reporting Climate Change Risks
A nor’easter is blowing through Radical Compliance headquarters today here in New England, so what better time to talk about climate change? We have a few items about climate change risk assessment and disclosure that are worth noting. First is a speech given last week by SEC commissioner Allison Herren Lee, who has spoken about…
Read MoreGensler: Climate Risk Proposal by Year-End
SEC chairman Gary Gensler said today that he wants a draft proposal for mandatory climate risk disclosures by the end of this year, and dropped more hints than ever before about what that proposal might entail. Gensler made his remarks on a webinar hosted by Principles for Responsible Investment, a think tank that supports more…
Read MoreThe ESG Plans Keep Ramping Up
Don’t look now, but the Biden Administration continues to position its pieces on the regulatory chessboard to advance the administration’s plans for more corporate disclosure of ESG risks. First, last Thursday the president issued an executive order on the subject, addressing climate change and how the administration might use financial regulation to further enhance climate-change…
Read MoreClimate Action Heats Up at SEC!
More news this week about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s approach to climate change: the Enforcement Division has created a new task force to examine corporate disclosures about climate and ESG issues; and the two Republican commissioners on the SEC published a warning shot against the agency’s new climate change enthusiasm. Let’s start with the…
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