Treasurer Lemoine Joins other Institutional Investors in Praising the SEC for Issuing Climate Disclosure Guidance Rules

March 3, 2010

Augusta, Maine – State Treasurer David Lemoine has joined 56 leading investors in a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) supporting the recent issuance of guidance on what publicly-traded companies need to disclose to investors in terms of climate change-related material risks and opportunities they face.

"The SEC was founded on the principle that the purchase and sale of securities should be an honest bargain based on full and fair disclosure," wrote the investors. "The climate change disclosure guidance carries that tradition and legal requirement forward to a pressing challenge facing businesses in this century." "Corporate assessments of the regulatory, physical and litigation risks from climate change are critical in understanding the value of our investments," the investor letter concluded.

“Analyzing investment risks and opportunities is difficult enough even when all relevant perils and possibilities are revealed,” said Treasurer Lemoine, “but these new disclosures will help expand the capacity of investors to understand what may happen with their money once they have committed to a corporation.” Other investors have noted that the SEC action strengthens transparency about key issues affecting corporate performance, which is vital to investors’ equal access to a fair and effective marketplace.

The investors’ letter was organized by the Ceres' Investor Network on Climate Risk, a network of more than 80 institutional investors focused on the business impacts of climate change.