Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday reintroduced a plan that would force corporations to disclose how climate change could affect their businesses, saying she wants to use “the power of public markets” to accelerate the adoption of “clean energy.”
The Democratic presidential hopeful said in a Medium post that companies could be hurt by the likely environmental effects of climate change, and that global efforts to combat it could force coal, gas, and oil reserves to go unused in the coming decades.
Ms. Warren said the plan would direct the Securities and Exchange Commission to craft rules that make every public company disclose the likely effects on the company if climate change continues “at its current pace” and if the world meets the greenhouse gas emission targets outlined in the Paris Agreement of 2015.
Fossil fuel companies would have to make more detailed disclosures, she said.
The Massachusetts Democrat reintroduced the Climate Risk Disclosure Act of 2019 on Wednesday after she had first announced it last year.
“It’s time to wake up and fight back against giant corporations that want to pollute our environment and ask taxpayers to clean up the mess,” Ms. Warren said in a statement. “I’m reintroducing the Climate Risk Disclosure Act to give investors, and the American public, the power to hold corporations accountable for their role in the climate crisis.”
Most of the other U.S. senators running for president have signed on as co-sponsors, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is backing a House version.
The announcement comes a day after Ms. Ocasio-Cortez teamed up with Sen. Bernard Sanders, another 2020 presidential contender, to announce a new resolution seeking to declare a climate emergency in the U.S.
Ms. Warren and most of the other U.S. senators running for president signed on as co-sponsors of the resolution.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has offered recent praise for both Mr. Sanders and Ms. Warren, but has not yet endorsed a presidential candidate.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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