Ceres issues guidance to directors about climate engagement

Ceres has issued this 13-pages of guidance about how directors can participate in stakeholder engagement about climate issues. Here’s the press release.

The appendix includes three pages of questions that investors might ask directors. For example, here are four questions that could be asked about climate lobbying:

1. How does your board oversee the company’s direct and indirect lobbying activities?
2. How does your board review the company’s lobbying activities (direct or indirect through industry associations and similar collaborations) and their consistency with the Paris Agreement or the company’s public statements (including targets and goals) concerning climate-related issues?
3. If not already done, would your board consider encouraging the company’s senior management team to establish forward-looking climate-related public policy priorities that would align with and support the company’s ability to meet its GHG emission reduction targets or other climate-related goals?
4. If not already done, would your board encourage the company’s senior management team to privately share the results of a third-party independent assessment of the company’s climate policy influence activities and the alignment of such activities with the company’s own climate-related commitments and policy priorities, as other public companies have done?