Treasurer Read's Decarbonization Plan is a critical milestone in protecting the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund (OPERF) from the systematic risk of climate change and the probability that global warming will surpass the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's projected safe boundaries.

This update, the first monthly edition, highlights recent developments regarding ESG initiatives in various U.S. states, particularly in the context of pension plans. We see states taking bold strides toward sustainability and intentional stewardship, redefining how pension funds are invested.

Bob Eccles is a leading authority on how companies and investors can create sustainable strategies. He recently interviewed our Executive Director, Mary Cerulli, for his website.

July is shaping up to be an exciting month with multiple hearings on ESG in the House Financial Services Committee. This roundtable on the importance of empowering shareholders and stakeholders cut through the political theater to share the truth about investment risk.

We had the honor of sitting with Rev. Abby Mohaupt to talk about climate finance, the role of asset managers, and how people of faith can influence the climate crisis through pensions and assets.

We recently created some resources to people understand how pension funds are used to fuel the climate crisis and the solutions. You can find these videos on our new Pension Resources page.

In 2023 Republican lawmakers in 37 states introduced 165 pieces of legislation to weaponize government funds, contracts, and pensions to prevent companies and investors from considering commonplace risk factors in making responsible, risk-adjusted investment decisions. This report is the first comprehensive look at this legislative campaign and the broad effort to counter it.

Shareholder proposals seek to push corporations to disclose climate impacts, set emissions reduction goals and align their lobbying with their climate commitments. We are sharing links to key organizations who aggregate and flag these proposals as a tool for shareholders who want to vote for climate.

Mindy Lubber with Ceres takes the TED stage to show us the path to address the climate crisis. Spoiler alert! 100 companies are responsible for 80% of industrial greenhouse gas emissions. Let's start there.

Conservatives pushing anti-sustainable legislation and directives in six states could result in taxpayers wasting hundreds of millions in higher municipal bond interest payments

The new rule by the Department of Labor, allows retirement plans to treat sustainability as any other relevant factor, based on the fiduciary standards of prudence and loyalty. But some states have passed their own laws, which could have effects outside their own states. These crosscurrents will challenge investors and the fiduciaries who serve them and could have consequences for younger employees just beginning to save for retirement.

Spencer Glendon of Probable Futures connects the climate crisis to financial markets and talks through data in a way that we can imagine and prepare for the impacts of climate change.

Our friend and coalition partner Ben Cushing, Campaign Manager of the Sierra Club's Fossil-Free Finance campaign, does an excellent job explaining what's behind the fight against ESG and sustainable investing. Check out the article here.

CFA’s own Mary Cerulli has been appointed to the first ever Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board’s ESG Committee.

Do ESG metrics have zero impact long-term shareholder returns? To answer this question, we drank lots of coffee and dug into recent research.

Awareness and understanding of the term “ESG” is fairly low in the US, according to the newly released ESG Monitor report. In spite of that, expectations are high.

Climate Finance Action’s Mary Cerulli and others talk through how shareholder season works.