Calvert Climate Advocacy Partnerships

In addition to filing company resolutions, Calvert has been actively working with other organizations to broaden the impact of our climate related advocacy efforts.

Legislative Call to Action - On March 19, 2007, Calvert joined over 60 leading investors, asset managers, and companies to formally call for a federal climate policy.  The call to action was organized by the Investor Network on Climate Risk and Ceres, a national network of investors, environmental organizations, and public interest groups working with companies and investors to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change. 

The institutional investors, which together manage $4 trillion in assets, seek a national policy to reduce GHG emissions and meet the targets scientists say are necessary in order to avoid the effects of global warming. Signatories to this call to action are concerned that the current US regulatory environment creates uncertainty and risks, thereby undermining their long-term competitiveness. Calvert's CEO Barbara Krumsiek signed the call to action on Calvert's behalf.

The Calvert news release for the call to action can be found here.

Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) -  Since its inception, we have been a signatory to the CDP, which asks the world's largest corporations to disclose investment-relevant information concerning their greenhouse gas emissions. Backed with $40 trillion in assets from 280 global investors, the CDP is likely one factor behind announcements by several major banks (including JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and Bank of America) of actions to address climate change through lending. In 2006, Calvert provided additional funding and in-kind support to CDP, through the Investor Network on Climate Risk, to extend the CDP to the entire S&P 500 Index, increasing the reach of CDP in the United States by more than 250 companies.

On January 31, 2007 Calvert and Ceres released the ground-breaking report, "Climate Risk Disclosure by the S&P 500", summarizing the findings (see related article).  We are also coordinating a group of investors that are signatories to CDP, members of the Global Warming Shareholder Campaign (GWSC), and who want to push the non-responding companies to disclose their climate change risk exposure and management.

Contacting Members of Congress - In March 2007, Calvert sent our recent CDP report to 13 members of Congress. The accompanying letter expressed Calvert's support of GHG regulation, summarized the CDP report's content, and suggested that the report's findings could be useful to those addressing the risks and opportunities presented by climate change. The letter was sent to Representatives John Dingell, Wayne Gilchrest, John Olver, Thomas Petri, Mark Udall, and Henry Waxman. Calvert also sent the letter to Senators Barbara Boxer, Thomas Carper, John Kerry, Frank Lautenberg, Joseph Lieberman, John McCain, and Olympia Snow.

Ceres Electric Utilities Dialogue - Calvert is a member of the Ceres Electric Utilities Dialogue which is a partnership of electric power companies, investors, and environmental groups that has made recommendations on the issue of global warming.  The Ceres Dialogue helped propel major utilities, including Cinergy and AEP, to call for national regulation of carbon dioxide emissions.

Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR) - Calvert is also a member of the INCR, which promotes better understanding of the risks of climate change among institutional investors. The INCR has brought together major state, city, and labor pension funds, and asset managers, who created a 10-point action plan addressing climate change through a variety of financial and public-policy mechanisms.  We will continue to work with INCR to encourage leading companies, institutional investors, and regulatory authorities to be mindful of the financial implications of climate change.

United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) - Calvert continues to play a key role in two UNEP-FI working groups, the Climate Change Working Group and the Asset Management Working Group. Both working groups are engaged in making the case for improved corporate disclosure and management of climate change impacts and are working to assess the financial and investment implications of climate change.

Responsible Property Investment Project
Calvert is part of a coalition of investors, real estate developers, labor unions, community development specialists, green-building experts, and academics that is looking for opportunities to increase investment in green building and highlighting best practices. Calvert is leading a benchmarking analysis of large U.S. homebuilders that will result in a public report. Given that residential buildings accounted for about one-fifth of energy consumed in the United States,¹ construction of energy efficient homes will be an important factor in our assessment of the companies' performance.

1. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Review 2005