Title
Calling on the City of Philadelphia Board of Pensions and Retirement to adopt Environmental Social Governance criteria and request and disclose climate risk information from all relevant parties.
Body
WHEREAS, The principal purpose of the Municipal Pension Fund is and shall always be to maintain and ensure adequate resources to provide for the retirement benefits of its members and their beneficiaries or survivors; and
WHEREAS, The City of Philadelphia has committed to the terms of the Paris Climate Accord, to limit the increase of global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels; and
WHEREAS, A 2018 briefing from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Research found the cost of 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming at $54 trillion in damage, 2 degrees Celsius of warming at $69 trillion in damage, and 3.7 degrees Celsius of warming at $551 trillion in damage, more than all the wealth existing in the world at the time of the briefing's release; and
WHEREAS, Climate-related risks - both physical and transition risks - will likely affect how the global financial system operates and may lead to unanticipated risk across a wide range of assets; and
WHEREAS, Disclosure of information relating to direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, total amount of fossil-fuel related assets that are owned or managed, how valuation would be affected if climate change continues at its current pace or is held to the terms of the Paris Climate Accords, and risk management strategies related to the transition and physical risks posed by climate change will allow the Pension Board to make more informed long-term investment decisions; and
WHEREAS, Climate change ranks among the issues of greatest concern in the financial sector with many investors incorporating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria into investment strategies and taking on active ownership activities, such as proxy voting, engagement, and shareholder resolutions, to ensure those crite...
Click here for full text