Would emissions disclosure even be helpful? Depends.

Emissions Helpful YouTube Thumbnail

Here is this note from Harald Walkate about this article that he wrote:

Emissions disclosure is an ESG Thing now. And especially since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules on climate-related disclosures in March, it has become a Big ESG Thing. Expectations of what it will do to help manage climate-investment risk, perhaps even to avert climate change, are high.

But how necessary, or helpful, is it? It depends what you want to use it for. But also it depends on the specific framing of the question.

illuminem asked me to write an article based on my 1-slide-Powerpoint “Emissions Disclosure: Sense or Nonsense?”, where I walk you through the 4 kinds of “why” questions you need to ask about emissions disclosure to determine if it’s worth spending so much time, money and effort on.

The 4 frames are:
-> Accuracy: do we need more accurate data? How accurate is the data we already have?
-> Attributality: can we attribute emissions to specific companies? Should we?
-> Agency: can the companies or investors whose emissions we want to know even do anything about climate change?
-> Distraction: does the attention going into emissions disclosure mean our attention is NOT going to other – perhaps more meaningful – measures?

Oh, and I also talk about the Dog Food Manufacturers’ Scope 3 Emissions Disclosure Requirement. What, you haven’t heard about this? Well read on!