• The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) recently opposed legislation that would require divestment from fossil fuel companies despite the agency’s support of the environmental, social, and corporate governance movement, also known as ESG.
• A bill submitted earlier this year by three California Democrats asserts that “efforts to obstruct climate stabilization policies” from fossil fuel companies are “incompatible” with the state’s climate policies. Board members for CalPERS voted to recommend against the passage of the bill, saying divestment would “create a ripple effect on our ability to produce the investment returns needed to fulfill our members’ retirement promises” and have little impact on fossil fuel companies’ operations, thereby doing “nothing to reduce greenhouse emissions.”
• Despite the opposition to fossil fuel divestment, a hallmark of ESG investment proposals, CalPERS was one of the entities which prompted the Securities and Exchange Commission to consider rules mandating that companies include climate-related information, such as carbon emissions levels and climate-related risks, in their financial statements and annual reports.

Tagged: Climate