Heat in the heartland: climate change and economic risk

Three former secretaries of the U.S. Treasury yesterday forcefully urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to manage financial disclosures related to climate change.

In a letter to the SEC, the bipartisan trio of secretaries Henry Paulson (R), Robert Rubin (D) and George Shultz (R) applauded the agency for issuing in 2010 a blueprint to help businesses explain how climate change affects them. But, they said, that measure isn't enough.

"We recommend that the Commission now move to promote and enforce mandatory and meaningful disclosures of the material effects of climate change on issuers," they wrote.

Paulson, Rubin and Shultz, all members of climate research group the Risky Business Project, said investors deserve to know how the private sector is preparing for climate change hazards.

Read the ClimateWire story by Benjamin Hulac - “Former Treasury chiefs tell SEC to crack down on climate.”