Jun. 17, 2022
Mothers Others For Clean Air fully supports this SEC proposal to require public companies to disclose climate-related risks to investors. Climate change is a health emergency. The American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, the American Public Health Association, and numerous medical journals including the Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, and JAMA have declared that the climate crisis is a health emergency. Health and investing in publicly-traded companies intersect because what companies do to produce or eliminate greenhouse gases and air pollution directly affects human health. The climate crisis is causing more heatwaves and higher everyday temperatures that increase the risk of workers, the elderly, and infants having heat illness or heat stroke. The climate crisis is causing more intense hurricanes, storms, wildfires and droughts which are causing major dislocations and disruptions for people and for medical clinics and offices. Climate change and efforts to address it are having a major impact on people's mental health and creating anxiety about government officials' ability to deal with the crisis and about the future. These are just some of the myriad health problems made worse by climate change. These health risks not only impact the general population, they also impact workers at any given company and could affect its costs, productivity, and profits. Investors who want to protect health and address climate change need to know what risk a company faces in its operations what the company is doing to minimize its risk from climate change, what climate targets and goals the company has, and what the company's greenhouse gas emissions are. Investors who are concerned with profit alone need to know these risks because they impact company profits, health costs for workers and retirees, and productivity. All of these are relevant to current and future profits of a company and something that investors need to know. All of these are relevant to current and future health of everyday citizens, investors, and workers at a company. In addition to this, requiring these disclosures will bring out into the open risks of climate change and efforts by companies to address mitigation and adaptation regarding climate change. This will aid efforts to address greenhouse gases and climate change. We fully support this proposed rule, because it is good for companies costs and profits, it is good for workers, and it is good for the health and wellbeing of everyone in the U.S.