Let me start by asking a question. What do China Steel, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Nestle, Walmart, CalSTRS, and the ACCA all have in common?

I will accept answers on a postcard, but for those who want to find out sooner, they are all signatories of the “Statement on Fiduciary Duty and Climate Change Disclosure (The Climate Statement),” a collective commitment by a group of leading companies and investors to strengthen and align climate change reporting to the investment community through a common framework. And if you haven’t heard of it, then it’s worth reading on.

The Climate Statement was launched in 2014 at the UN Climate Change Summit in New York with a fundamental recognition that, because climate change is increasingly impacting economic activities in various ways, it has become a relevant matter for consideration by fiduciaries from a core business perspective.

“In the build-up to COP21, we had a very successful campaign in getting companies to sign up to the Climate Statement, both in terms of numbers but also the caliber of those organizations. Paris was a clear demonstration of how seriously many global corporations now pay attention to the climate issue.”

As Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of the global retail company H&M recently said, “Acting now on climate change is a must for all actors in society. Transparently reporting on climate-related information and finding new ideas for reducing greenhouse gas emissions makes clear business sense.”

The initial idea of the Climate Statement came from the Chairman of the CDSB and Managing Director of the World Economic Forum, Richard Samans. “There was a growing realization that although world governments were making climate pledges, a key missing piece of the jigsaw was the corporate sector,” says Michael Zimonyi, Senior Project Officer at the CDSB. “Over the years, it became increasingly understood that Governments alone cannot achieve necessary reductions in emissions, and that businesses needed to be brought into the discussion and make them part of the solution.”

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