Are asset managers stepping up on climate change?
In an article for ESG Magazine, Preventable Surprises Raj Thamotheram and David Murray ask why ‘Some of the biggest names in the investment world backed the TCFD work with people and resources, but their management didn’t sign-on to the outcome’ (The mystery of the missing CEO signatories to the TCFD report):
“A close comparison of the impressive list of companies that supported the Task Force (notably, with considerable staff time) to the stellar roster of 103 companies whose CEOs signed a letter in support of its recommendations reveals some curious discrepancies. In the financial sector, for example, missing from the CEO signatories were BlackRock, Banco Bradesco, JP Morgan and Mercer. …
Preventable Surprises would have preferred the TCFD to go further and encourage investors to also assess how companies affect warming, not just how they are affected by it, and to this end we back AGM resolutions asking for transition plans. Our particular focus is on the energy utility sector, and in 2018 we hope to heave shareholder votes over the 50% mark, as happened this year with PPL Corporation. …
Our hope in writing this piece is that the missing leaders hear the disappointment from their clients, staff and trusted peers loud and clear, and then correct their mistake quickly. Learning from failure needs to become a core skill for top management in this sector. Mis-managed climate change systemic risk offers the perfect opportunity.” The group make a similar point in a letter to the editor in the Financial Times.
The article is part of a special in-depth issue reporting on the final guidelines of the TCFD, including articles on What does the future hold for scenario analysis, The EU has the TCFD firmly in its plans for a sustainable Capital Markets Union, and a look at what will happen to the 400 different frameworks for climate reporting the TCFD unearthed.
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