Washington, DC — Today, Senator Elizabeth Warren reintroduced legislation that would require public companies to disclose “critical information” regarding exposure and susceptibility to climate-related risks. 350.org is one of more than 30 organizations supporting the legislation.
The announcement follows a report from the Grantham Research Institute revealing that a quarter of the world’s highest-emitting, publicly listed companies fail to report greenhouse gas emissions, and nearly half don’t properly consider climate risk in decision-making.
This comes as the 2019 hurricane season begins with a torrential storm hitting the Gulf coast, and the day after Sen. Bernie Sanders and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Earl Blumenauer introduced a climate emergency resolution.
In response, Thanu Yakupitiyage, 350.org spokesperson, said:
“The Climate Risk Disclosure Act is what real climate leadership looks like, offering a powerful mechanism to hold fossil fuel companies accountable. By demanding transparency about their impact in causing and perpetuating the climate crisis, this legislation moves us closer to a total phaseout of fossil fuels. Any prudent investor living up to their fiduciary duty will divest from fossil fuel companies like Exxon continuing to block necessary climate action.
“Now, the 2019 hurricane season is unraveling with floods along the East Coast and a torrential storm brewing in the Gulf coast. With the reintroduction of this bill, we’re calling on all elected officials to wield every tool available to make fossil fuel billionaires — not our communities — pay for their climate destruction.”
Last month, a groundbreaking poll Yale University’s Program on Climate Change Communications found a majority of people in America support fossil fuel companies paying for climate destruction.
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Contact: Lindsay Meiman, [email protected], +1 (347) 460-9082