LONDON, July 10 (Reuters) - Mark Carney, the United Nations
special envoy for climate and finance, has called on stock
exchanges across the world to back a drive to improve the
environmental data shared by companies.
Carney, who until recently was the governor of the Bank of
England, has championed a framework from the Task Force on
Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), which helps
companies figure out what information to share.
While the TCFD is currently voluntary, Carney has floated
the idea of making it compulsory and is keen to see greater
adoption to help investors make more informed decisions when
assessing climate-related risks.
Ahead of the next round of U.N. climate talks in Scotland
next year - COP26 - Carney and David Schwimmer, the chief
executive of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSE),
have written to a number of stock exchanges to urge them to
help.
In jointly signed letters to an unspecified number of
exchanges, dated July 8, the pair asked them to support a new
initiative with the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges
(UN SSE) set to launch in September.
The initiative, to be chaired by the LSE, aims to draw up
best practice reporting guidance on climate disclosures, which
can be used by companies wherever they are listed, to ensure
globally consistent disclosures in line with TCFD.
"Ensuring that every professional financial decision takes
the risks and opportunities of climate change into account is a
core objective of COP 26," said the letter, seen by Reuters.
"The work of stock exchanges in supporting the widespread
adoption of TCFD reporting is critical in this regard."
Jack Ehnes, chief executive of U.S. pension scheme CalSTRS,
also backed the move.
"Institutional investors like CalSTRS need globally
consistent high quality climate and sustainability data to
inform investment decisions.
"Exchanges can play a critical role to improve the data and
reinforce global standards."
(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Mark Potter)