climate finance archive 2024
This page reflects the way the class develops.
Here are the Class Policies
Week 5
As of Friday morning I am still working on completing the assignments for next week. I plan to add some notes for next Thursday’s class. Also, I am thinking about how to define some questions for you to think about based on the materials we have studied to help you prepare for the exam. The questions I included on the Sample Exam do, I think, cover a lot of the ground we have discussed – although the materials we have read this semester have often been different, the issues are largely the same.
Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court decided a case on April 12, Macquarie Infrastructure Corp v Moab Partners which, I think, is relevant to the question what difference the SEC’s Climate Disclosure Rules make to securities disclosure obligations and liability. I am not assigning the case, but include the link to the judgment in case you are interested. The Court holds that there is no liability for pure omissions under Rule 10b-5. The Court notes that whereas Section 11(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 prohibits any registration statement that “omit[s] to state a material fact required to be stated therein.”, and therefore creates liability for failure to speak, §10(b) and Rule 10b–5(b) do not contain this language. SEC disclosure rules requiring disclosure of material facts relating to climate change and emissions create the duty to disclose the Supreme Court says is important in this case.
This week we will be thinking about the role of lawyers in climate finance and climate litigation.
Class Tuesday April 16: Documentation for climate finance; climate bonds
Documentation for Climate Finance and Climate Bonds: Materials for Class on Tuesday April 16
Quinn Curtis, Mark C.Weidemaier, & Mitu Gulati, Green Bonds, Empty Promises, 102 N. Carolina L. Rev. 131 (2023).
Class Thursday April 18: Climate litigation and finance
Climate Litigation and Finance: Materials for Class on Thursday April 18
Anna A. Mance, How Private Enforcement Exacerbates Climate Change, 44 Cardozo Law Review 1493(2023)
Week 4
Next week we are going to focus on issues relating to disclosure and information. Meanwhile the SEC has announced that it is staying its climate disclosure rules pending judicial review. The SEC states:
In issuing a stay, the Commission is not departing from its view that the Final Rules are consistent with applicable law and within the Commission’s long-standing authority to require the disclosure of information important to investors in making investment and voting decisions. Thus, the Commission will continue vigorously defending the Final Rules’ validity in court and looks forward to expeditious resolution of the litigation. But the Commission finds that, under the particular circumstances presented, a stay of the Final Rules meets the statutory standard. Among other things, given the procedural complexities accompanying the consolidation and litigation of the large number of petitions for review of the Final Rules, a Commission stay will facilitate the orderly judicial resolution of those challenges and allow the court of appeals to focus on deciding the merits. Further, a stay avoids potential regulatory uncertainty if registrants were to become subject to the Final Rules’ requirements during the pendency of the challenges to their validity. The Commission has previously stayed its rules pending judicial review in similar circumstances.
Class Tuesday April 9: Securities regulation and disclosure
Securities Regulation and Disclosure: Materials for Class on Tuesday April 9
Sullivan & Cromwell Memo, Key Implications of SEC’s Climate-Related Disclosure Rules for Public Companies (Mar. 12, 2024)
Complaint in US Chamber of Commerce v. California Air Resources Board (C.D. Cal.)
Class Thursday April 11: Data issues, accountability, audit, ratings
Data Issues, Accountability, Audit, Ratings : Materials for Class on Thursday April 11
Annie Brett, Information as Power: Democratizing Environmental Data, 2022 Utah L. Rev. 127 (2022)
Heather Lovell & Donald Mackenzie, Accounting for Carbon: The Role of Accounting Professional Organisations in Governing Climate Change, 43:3 Antipode 704 (2011) (you can access this article through the UM library e-resources)
Additional resource: ESG Data Convergence Initiative
April 9, 2024: Here’s a link to information about Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz v. Switzerland, a case in which the European Court of Human Rights held today that the European Convention on Human Rights encompasses a right to effective protection by the State authorities from the serious adverse effects of climate change on lives, health, well-being and quality of life.
Week 3
Next week we will continue to focus on different sectors of financial activity. As we will see, there are some similar issues in banking to those we looked at with respect to insurance, but we are going to focus in some more detail on risk management. Asset management raises issues that are common to all investors, so relevant to all investment decision-making. We will focus on pension fund investment because it allows us to think about how fiduciary duties affect investment decision-making.
Class Tuesday April 2: Banking
Banking: Materials for Class on Tuesday April 2
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Treasury; Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board); and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Principles for Climate-Related Financial Risk Management for Large Financial Institutions, 88 Fed. Reg. 74183 (Oct. 30, 2023).
NYDFS, Guidance for New York State Regulated Banking and Mortgage Institutions Relating to Management of Material Financial and Operational Risks from Climate Change (Dec. 2023)
Class Thursday April 4: Asset management and greenwashing
Asset Management and Greenwashing: Materials for Class on Thursday April 4
Financial Markets Law Committee, Pension Fund Trustees and Fiduciary Duties: Decision-making in the Context of Sustainability and the Subject of Climate Change (Feb. 6, 2024).
Week 2
Here are the reading assignments for next week. Have a good weekend.
Class Tuesday March 26: Measuring Carbon and Net Zero; taxonomies
Measuring Carbon, Net Zero, Taxonomies: Materials for Class on Tuesday March 26
Allegra Dawes, Voluntary Carbon Markets: A Review of Global Initiatives and Evolving Models, CSIS Brief (May 31, 2023)
Allegra Dawes, What’s Plaguing Voluntary Carbon Markets ?, CSIS Commentary (Feb. 2, 2024)
IOSCO, Voluntary Carbon Markets Consultation (Dec. 3,2023)
Class Thursday March 28: Insurance
Insurance: Materials for Class on Thursday March 28
Felicia Khoo & Jeffery Yong, Too Hot to Insure – Avoiding the Insurability Tipping Point, FSI Insights No. 54 (Nov. 20, 2023)
Class Tuesday March 19: Framing: why climate finance
Why (and Why Not) Climate Finance?
Neil Gunningham, A Quiet Revolution, Central Banks, Financial Regulators and Climate Finance, Sustainability (2020) (this article does a very good job of framing issues in the area of climate finance (especially focusing on regulation))
Class Thursday March 21: Divestment and Against ESG
Divestment and Against ESG: Materials for Class on Thursday March 21
Julie Ayling & Neil Gunningham, Non-state Governance and Climate Policy: the Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement, Climate Policy (2015)
Here is a Sample Exam I wrote last Spring.
And here is the actual Climate Finance Exam 2023