DiPERNA TESTIFIES IN HOUSE

U.S. Companies

Seeing Profit

In Climate Change

Editor’s Note: Paula DiPerna of Cooperstown, a special adviser with CDP-North America (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project), which tracks companies’ environmental performance, testified Wednesday, Feb. 6, before the House Committee on Natural Resources.  Here is an excerpt, discussing opportunities for business among Climate Change’s challenges.

The withdrawal (from the Paris Agreement) has left the U.S. as the
only nation on earth to stand outside the circle of consensus that Climate Change must be addressed, not only because of the risks it poses, but the extraordinary
opportunities that addressing it represents as we redesign, retool, rebuild and refit almost all our critical infrastructure, generating jobs and helping the U.S. regain dominance of 21st century technological innovation and manufacturing.
For example, in Maryland,
Lockheed Martin Corp., which has more than 590 facilities in 50 states and employs 100,000 people worldwide, … identified
the use of lower-emission energy sources as a $21
billion opportunity.
…Sometimes it is said that American companies are worried about regulation on Climate Change hurting business.
On the contrary, companies are quite concerned about Climate Change itself, and what they do need, above all, is the certainty
of a level playing field established by public policy, especially as all the other nations in the world enact rules that could hamper the ability of U.S. companies to compete as they struggle to smooth out uneven legal and operational requirements across global operations.
… Recognizing that
addressing Climate Change is essential to long-term financial value creation, mainstream investors are also recognizing the significant upside of shifting capital to companies that take environmental and social factors into strategic account in their business management.
According to the Sustainable Investment Forum of the U.S.: “‘Sustainable, responsible and impact’ (SRI) investing in the United States continues to expand at a healthy pace.
The total U.S.-domiciled assets under management using SRI strategies grew from $8.7 trillion at the start of 2016 to $12 trillion at the start of 2018, an increase of 38 percent. This represents 26 percent – or one in four dollars – of the $46.6 trillion in total U.S. assets under professional management.”
And, in a basic core indication of how integrated low-carbon efficiency has become, the S&P 500
carbon efficient index, which over-weights carbon-efficient companies and under-weights carbon-intensive companies, is now tracking virtually to “a T” with the venerable classic S&P500, an alignment that indicates if nothing else that it does not cost mainstream companies or their shareholders, if low-carbon intensity and energy efficiency are prioritized.
On the contrary.