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NEW YORK, NY, THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2024 – The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) today announced it had sent a letter to board members of the Business Roundtable (BRT), a business trade association meant to advocate in the interests of its 200+ CEO members, calling out conflicts arising from an Amicus Brief it filed opposing the SEC’s Climate Disclosure Rule (the Rule).

ICCR is a coalition of over 300 institutional investors that engage their portfolio companies to mitigate adverse environmental and social impacts including the significant and material risks caused by the climate crisis.

The letter challenged the disconnect between the stated positions of many BRT members who acknowledge the market risks of climate change and the value of a to investors, and the actions of their trade association which run counter to those positions.

ICCR’s letter highlighted this misalignment and questioned the governance process surrounding the submission of the amicus brief asking whether BRT members were made aware the brief was being submitted and supported the action.

Said ICCR’s Board Chair, Rob Fohr, “The substance of the amicus brief filed by the BRT represents a position that does not appear to be completely aligned with the positions of many of its members. We wonder if the broader BRT membership was consulted for their input in advance of the vote. Since the BRT speaks with considerable authority for the business community it is important to understand the process behind this very public position.”

ICCR’s letter also challenged the BRT’s position that the SEC does not have the necessary authority to promulgate the Rule. In its Answering Brief, the SEC affirmed the length of the comment period, the fairness of the Rulemaking process, and its “well-established statutory authority to require the disclosure of information important to investors in making investment and voting decisions.”

An April 2024 study in the journal Nature led by Potsdam Institute climate economist Maximilian Kotz estimated that climate damage costs by 2050 will be six times larger than the cost of reducing carbon pollution consistent with targets under the Paris Climate Agreement over the same time frame. Investors see consistent and comparable corporate disclosure on climate risk, as outlined in the Rule, to be highly material and critical to investment decision-making. Investors representing tens of trillions of dollars in AUM supported the Rule via comment letters during its drafting and an Amicus Brief further articulating this support was filed by institutional investors last week.

According to ICCR’s letter: Many BRT members are active leaders in addressing the challenges of climate change and regularly disclose detailed reports on their policies and actions to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the expectations of the Rule. In contrast, the BRT and the U.S. Chamber appear to have aligned their legal actions with some of the most forceful opponents of the Rule, namely oil and gas companies.

Said ICCR’s CEO Josh Zinner, “In our experience engaging companies on a range of environmental and social risks there is a corporate appetite for standardization in disclosure and reporting regimes that will level the playing field and take the guesswork out of the process: That is what the SEC’s Rule is meant to do. It is hard to reconcile our experience with the strident opposition of business trade associations like the BRT and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who seem to be speaking only for a subset of its members seeking to thwart progress towards the clean energy transition we all know is inevitable. The appropriate way for the BRT to celebrate the 5th anniversary of its Statement of the Purpose of a Corporation would be to act on behalf of all its stakeholders by supporting climate-forward policy and regulation.”

ICCR said it has asked for a call with BRT Board members to discuss the issue.

CONTACT:

Susana McDermott
Director of Communications
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
201-417-9060 (mobile)
smcdermott@iccr.org

About the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is a broad coalition of more than 300 institutional investors collectively representing over $4 trillion in invested capital. ICCR members, a cross-section of faith-based investors, asset managers, pension funds, foundations, and other long-term institutional investors, have over 50 years of experience engaging with companies on environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) issues that are critical to long-term value creation.  ICCR members engage hundreds of corporations annually in an effort to foster greater corporate accountability. Visit our website www.iccr.org and follow us on Twitter/X (@iccronline), LinkedIn, and Facebook.