[MCN] Worried Investors Push Companies to Open up About Climate Change

[Lance Olsen]

Scientific American May 3, 2018
Powerful Investors Push Big Companies to Plan for Climate Change <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/powerful-investors-push-big-companies-to-plan-for-climate-change/>
This spring, Wall Street seems more accepting of climate science as shareholders demand plans to reduce risks
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/powerful-investors-push-big-companies-to-plan-for-climate-change/ <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/powerful-investors-push-big-companies-to-plan-for-climate-change/>

Excerpts

“It’s now widely recognized that climate change is a legitimate risk.” Still, some observers caution corporate reports do not equal policy changes.

But continued shareholder pressure can lead to actual changes in how a company does business, Logan says. He points to British-Dutch oil-and-gas giant Shell. In recent years growing investor alarm about climate change risks have led the company to sell off carbon-heavy oil sands assets. Last year shareholders voted—and the company agreed—to tie 10 percent of executive bonuses to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
In the U.S., Logan says, investors are  pushing for disclosures, for the most part, but that push still has an effect. The reports create competition within an industry, as companies vie with one another for investor dollars that go with the more aggressive climate-related plans. “Disclosure has real implications that these companies are going to have to follow through to actually mitigate risks,” Logan says.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/powerful-investors-push-big-companies-to-plan-for-climate-change/ <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/powerful-investors-push-big-companies-to-plan-for-climate-change/>

===============================================================================
“ 'Friends,' said he, 'the taxes are indeed very heavy, and, if those laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly  ....   "   

"Away then with your expensive follies, and you will not then have so much cause to complain of hard times, heavy taxes, and chargeable families   ....  "      

Benjamin Franklin, “The Way to Wealth” (1758). [The classic Franklin summary of his advice from Poor Richard's Almanac.] 
http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/52-fra.html

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://bigskynet.org/pipermail/missoula-community-news_bigskynet.org/attachments/20180505/d0443724/attachment.html>