"EU Investment Groups Worth $140 Trillion Urge For Stricter Corporate Climate Change Disclosures" - Zero Hedge

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EXCERPT  The groups, called Responsible Investment and the European Sustainable Investment Forum (sigh), are urging that the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive require companies to prepare "transition plans". 

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/eu-investment-groups-worth-140-trillion-urge-stricter-corporate-climate-change-disclosures

EU Investment Groups Worth $140 Trillion Urge For Stricter Corporate Climate Change Disclosures

by Tyler Durden

Tuesday, Apr 12, 2022 - 01:45 AM

Investors managing a combined $140 trillion have come together to put pressure on corporations to disclose their plans on how to deal with climate change in the future. 

Investment groups have combined not only to seek out more disclosure about adaptations to climate change, but also to demand that companies meet pledges to become carbon neutral by 2050, Bloomberg reported Monday morning.

The groups, called Responsible Investment and the European Sustainable Investment Forum (sigh), are urging that the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive require companies to prepare "transition plans". 

They made their request known "in a letter to Mairead McGuinness, the top financial services official at the European Commission," Bloomberg reported. 

The letter says these plans will provide investors “with the tools they need to finance the net-zero transition” and that they should extend “as a bare minimum” to companies who have said they would be carbon neutral by 2050, the report says. 

The EU parliament is currently working on legislation to provide investors with more transparency as to environmental, social and governance risks that companies may face. Coming disclosures will identify what climate scenarios company plans are based on and assumptions that companies are making. 

Recall, back in February, we published a piece from contributors at The Epoch Times called "ESG Investing - The Great Wall Street Money Heist". 

ESG refers to the Environmental, Social, and Governance risk theoretically embedded in a business. However, while ESG investing is about taking these risks into account in investment decisions, these are all the things NOT on a company’s balance sheet or earnings statements. Such is the inherent problem.

However, as is also the case, with the recent surge in liberal policies, woke activism, and demand for social justice, Wall Street is more than willing to sell products to fill a need. Not surprisingly, with plenty of media coverage, ESG investing has become an enormous business.

Following the financial crisis, ESG funds had roughly a ZERO market share of total assets under management. Today, ESG-labelled funds in the United States exceed $16 trillion.