Should Issuers Be Required to Improve their Climate-related Financial Disclosures?
November 28, 2017
Following the Global Task Force of the Financial Stability Board report issued in June of 2017 calling for issuers to include climate-related financial disclosures in their annual financial filings and the CSA launch of a disclosure review project, the CMI hosted a ½ day conference to explore investor concern regarding the risks and financial impacts associated with climate change.
Investor concern regarding the risks and financial impacts associated with climate change has motivated market monitors and regulators to consider requiring issuers to improve and mainstream the quality of their climate-related financial disclosures. A Global Task Force of the Financial Stability Board, in an influential report issued in June of 2017, called on issuers to include climate-related financial disclosures in their annual financial filings. The report recommends issuers provide specific information so investors can assess the potential financial implications of a changing climate for their firm. In March 2017, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) launched a climate disclosure review project. This forum introduced evidence on the state of environmental disclosures by Canadian issuers, the rationale behind demands for improved disclosure, and concerns with mainstreaming climate-related financial disclosures.
Is the Voluntary Reporting Regime for Environmental Performance Working: Canadian and Global Evidence?
- Alexander Dyck, Director, Capital Markets Institute and Manulife Financial Chair in Financial Services, Rotman School of Management
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- Gordon D. Richardson, KPMG Professor of Accounting, Rotman School of Management
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Insights & Recommendations from the FSB Task Force on Climate-related Disclosure
- Stephanie Leaist, Managing Director, Head of Sustainable Investing CPPIB & FSB Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure view presentation (link to Leaist.pdf)
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Early Observations from the CSA Climate Change Disclosure Review Project
- Jo-Anne Matear, Manager, Corporate Finance Branch, Ontario Securities Commission
Additional Resources
Panel Discussion moderated by Professor Alexander Dyck including Panelists:
- Bindu Dhaliwal, BMO Financial Group
- Dan Hanson, Jarislowsky, Fraser
- Stephanie Leaist, CPPIB & FSB Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure
- Jo-Anne Matear, Corporate Finance, Ontario Securities Commission
- Gordon Richardson, Rotman School of Management
Additional Resources:
- Financial Stability Board (FSB) Task Force on Climate-related Disclosure
- Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) Climate Change Disclosure Review Project
- Summary: Environmental Performance of Canadian Firms, Dyck and Roth
- Backgrounder: Environmental Performance of Canadian Firms, Dyck and Roth
- Do Institutional Investors Drive Corporate Social Responsibility? International Evidence, Dyck, Lins, Roth and Wagner
- Revisiting the Relation between Environmental Performance and Environmental Disclosure, Clarkson, P., Y. Li, G. Richardson and F. Vasvari
- The Relevance of Environmental Disclosures: Are Such Disclosures Incrementally Informative, Clarkson, P., Y. Li, G. Richardson and X. Fang
- The Valuation Relevance of Greenhouse Gas Emissions under the European Union Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme, Clarkson, P., Y. Li, M. Pinnuck and G. Richardson