Stand up for ESG

ESG refers to a set of criteria -- Environmental, Social, and Governance -- that are used by investors to assess a company’s commitment to social goals, including its commitment to fighting climate change.

Giving investors the tools to assess a company's commitment to society should be a good thing, right? Not in the view of some conservatives, who have made this into a culture war issue and have launched a full-scale attack on ESG.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has led the charge against "woke corporations" by banning the state's pension funds from investing in any ESG assets. Indiana is considering legislation to do the same. 21 Republican Attorneys General are going after financial advising firms like MorningStar that recommend ESG funds, accusing them of violating state law. The House GOP just announced the creation of an anti-ESG working group.

This is the backdrop for the latest attack against efforts to hold corporations accountable for their impact on climate -- a concerted effort by Republican state attorneys general and big businesses to roll back a game-changing climate-risk disclosure rule proposed by the SEC.

The most contentious part of the rule would require large public companies to report their scope 3 emissions which, when combined with scope 1 and 2 emissions, constitute the entirety of their emissions.

The backlash is causing the SEC is to consider scaling back this game-changing rule, according to PoliticoPro.

Determining scope 3 emissions will undoubtedly be difficult, expensive, and messy, but so will a planet with failing crops, cataclysmic floods, fires, drought, and hundreds of millions of climate refugees on the move. Investors and consumers have a right to know the climate impact of the companies we invest in and whose products we buy.

The ESG movement is not a fad or a woke conspiracy. It is evidence that investors are waking up to the terrible toll a monomaniacal focus on profit has taken on the planet. It is a movement that deserves our full-throated support.

The town of Port Arthur, Texas (pop. 55,000) is downwind and downstream from some of the most toxic and polluting refineries in the country.

It is typical of many communities where the fossil fuel industry builds their polluting facilities. The industry knows that the largely black and disadvantaged populations are least able to push back and receive just treatment. This is one of the primary ways the industry externalizes the costs of its pollution, by dumping it on neighboring communities and requiring them and the rest of us to foot the bill.

It’s time to make the polluters pay for their mess. Join us for an hour of action and learning to help the community of Port Arthur get justice.

Date: February 15, 2023
Time: 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET
Location: Zoom, registration required

India, the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, announced it will spend $4.3 billion on clean energy and jobs programs—including green energy, green farming, and green buildings. The announcement shows growing momentum for India’s shift to cleaner energy after a major slowdown during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Grist)

199 new oil and gas drilling permits have been blocked near Chaco Canyon! A three-judge panel ruled that the Trump administration’s Interior Department violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it approved the permits, because it failed to account for the drilling projects’ impacts on human health. The judges called the agency’s analysis “arbitrary and capricious.” (Sierra Club)

In the six months since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, clean energy companies have announced more than 100,000 new green jobs for electricians, mechanics, technicians, and others. These jobs will support more than 90 new clean energy projects that have been announced across the United States, representing nearly $90 billion in new investments. (Climate Power)