Jun. 09, 2022
Dear Chair Gary Gensler,
I am writing because you are our government's chief financial regulator, your agency is responsible for ensuring public companies respond to investors’ need for information that helps them protect their investments. Passage of your agency’s new rule on the Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors (S7-10-22) is a critical step in fulfilling your mandate.
I am writing as a survivor of Superstorm Sandy who has witnessed the destruction that is the result of our climate change disaster crisis, which continues to worsen in our country and the world on a daily basis. At this time, I am extremely concerned about the fact that heat-trapping emissions and rapidly worsening climate impacts pose a significant risk across many areas of human society, including to our financial and economic systems.
To begin the process of combating and reversing our climate change disaster crisis, I strongly urge the Commission to please adopt a strong, comprehensive final rule without delay that will mandate and standardize disclosure by publicly listed companies of ALL heat-trapping emissions associated with corporate operations, products, and supply chains. I support this action because Scope 3 emissions can account for 80-90 percent of companies’ total emissions in some sectors.
At this time, I thank you for your consideration of my letter and request. It is very important to understand that swift adoption, implementation, and enforcement of a strong rule will help businesses meet the demands of international capital markets and ensure investors have consistent and comparable data to make fully informed decisions and hold corporations accountable for their impact on the climate, their plans to mitigate those impacts, and their progress in achieving climate-related goals and targets.
Sincerely,
Jean Marie Naples, MD-Ph.D.
Please protect our financial system from climate-induced risk by passing a strong, science-based climate disclosure rule as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jean Naples