By: Karen E. Torrent Policy Counsel, National Whistleblower Center Prior to the global financial crisis of 2008, alarm bells rang out warning of the impending burst of the mortgage bubble. No action was taken to avert this crisis, and as a result, the U.S. lost $648 billion in economic growth, $3.4 trillion in real estate Continue Reading »
New essay by Juliana Bolzani argues that climate disclosure is a necessary condition for assessing climate risk and making financial and capital markets greener, by describing existing policies and regulations in Brazil.
By: Charlie Wowk, Research Assistant, Climate Risk Disclosure Lab The physical effects of climate change are wreaking havoc across the United States as extreme weather events are increasing in severity and frequency. The 2020 summer wildfires in the western U.S. broke “almost every record there is to break,” and there has been a notable increase Continue Reading »
By: Karen E. Torrent, Policy Counsel, National Whistleblower Center As the 117th Congress commences, the United States is facing several immense and immediate challenges: the COVID-19 pandemic, its resulting economic crisis, and climate change among them. Against this backdrop, the House of Representatives has made protecting whistleblowers one of their first legislative actions. Every Congress starts Continue Reading »
By Lee Reiners, Executive Director at the Global Financial Markets Center & Charlie Wowk, Research Assistant at the Global Financial Markets Center Several major announcements over the past two weeks indicate U.S. financial regulators are finally starting to take climate change seriously. The timing is no coincidence. The election of Joe Biden as our next Continue Reading »
By Laura Peterson, Senior Research Advisor, National Whistleblower Center The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is due to vote this year on a rule intended to increase transparency of companies that extract oil, gas, and minerals around the world. If the SEC takes the needed steps, it could make meaningful progress reducing the risk Continue Reading »
By: Karen E. Torrent, Policy Counsel, National Whistleblower Center Building upon prior European Union (“EU”) disclosure initiatives including the 2010 Timber Regulation and the 2017 Conflict Minerals Regulation, the EU is on course to introduce a new regulation mandating the disclosure of corporate risks associated with climate, environmental, governance and human rights. The EU is Continue Reading »
A new report published by the Climate Risk Disclosure Lab highlights the need for a thorough, robust, and mandatory disclosure framework for climate-related information. The report exposes the failure of U.S. regulators to properly incorporate climate change into their mandates and assesses the threats that the vacuum of climate-related information poses to financial markets and Continue Reading »
By: Karen E. Torrent, Policy Counsel, National Whistleblowers Center On June 23, 2020, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a proposed regulation for public comment aimed at discouraging sustainable investing in retirement plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). DOL wants to limit the ability of plan managers to consider Continue Reading »