Countries around the world are tuning in and exploring ways to guide companies to report on ever more important climate related disclosures. Embracing of the Task Force recommendations is a key policy move by governments.
After the 2008 global financial crisis, the major economies that are member-nations of the “G20” formed the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to serve a think tank and forum for the world’s leading developed countries to develop strong regulatory, supervisory, and other financial sector policies.
Seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the great promise of the 21st Century – the Paris Accord. Can you believe, it is now five years on (260 weeks or so this December) since the meeting in the “City of Lights” of the Conference of Parties (“COP 21”, a/k/a the U.N. Paris Climate Conference). This was the 21st meeting of the global assemblage focused on climate change challenges.
Seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the great promise of the 21st Century – the Paris Accord. Can you believe, it is now five years on (260 weeks or so this December) since the meeting in the “City of Lights” of the Conference of Parties (“COP 21”, a/k/a the U.N. Paris Climate Conference). This was the 21st meeting of the global assemblage focused on climate change challenges.
Looking back 90+ years to the 1920s, corporate financial disclosure was in essence, a joke. (Why, said one public company leadership, would we ever tell investors what our real financial condition is!) Financial reporting was voluntary! And then…came the 1929 market crash.
Change is a-coming – quite quickly now – for corporate sustainability reporting frameworks and standards organizations.
Before the disastrous October 1929 stock market crash, there was little in the way of disclosure and reporting requirements for companies with public stockholders. The State of New York had The Martin Act, passed in 1921, a “blue sky law” that regulates the sales and trades of public companies to address fraud issues.
As 2020 Began, $1-in-$3 of Professionally Managed AUM in the United States Had ESG Analysis and/or Portfolio Management Strategies Applied…US$17.1 Trillion Total
Every two years, since 1996, the influential trade organization for sustainable, responsible and impact investment (US SIF) conducts a year-long survey of professional asset managers to determine the total of USA-based assets under management (“AUM”) that have ESG analysis and/or portfolio management applied.
Indexes – Indices - Benchmarks – these are very important analysis and portfolio management tools for asset owners and their internal and external managers. We can think of them as a sort of report card; fiduciaries can track their performance against the funds they manage; financial sector players can develop products for investment (mutual funds, Exchange Traded Funds, separate accounts and so on) to market to investors.
The United Nations projection is for today’s global population of an estimated 7.6 billion people to expand to a global population of 8.6B by 2030 and 9.8B by 2050...and then to 11.2 billion in 2100 (says the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs report, June 2017). Each year, says the UN, 83 million more people are added to the world’s population.
Banks have long been at the center of the U.S. economy, and federal policies (legislation, rules) for the last century have been designed to support, encourage and protect banking institutions, and the customers the banks serve.
39% of Companies in Smaller Half by Market Cap of Russell 1000 Index Published Sustainability Reports in 2019 - Up From 34% in 2018
Press Release
NEW YORK, October 26, 2020 /3BL Media/ — Governance & Accountability Institute (G&A Institute), a leading consulting and research firm focused on ESG and sustainability, issued its 2020 Russell 1000 Research Report on sustainability reporting trends of the companies in the Russell 1000 Index®.
