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Energy CEOs sign joint statements at the Vatican on carbon pricing and climate risk disclosures
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Energy CEOs sign joint statements at the Vatican on carbon pricing and climate risk disclosures

Finalizing the joint statements at the Vatican Transition Dialogue (Photo credit: theelders.org)

Chief executive officers (CEOs) of major energy corporations and investment fund organizations, along with other institutions, signed joint statements on carbon pricing and climate risk disclosures, after a two-day summit and a meeting with Pope Francis who declared a climate emergency.

This gathering, titled the Vatican Dialogues on The Energy Transition and Care for Our Common Home: A Dialogue on Risks, Opportunities, Challenges, and Paths, was held 12 to 14 June 2019 at the Vatican and organized by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.  Last year, the energy executives also met with Pope Francis in June 2018 who asked for their contribution in the care for the poor and for the environment.

Participant Statement on Carbon Pricing

The environmental and climate challenge demands urgent action.  Pope Francis has strongly acknowledged this in his encyclical Laudato Si’ and in the Vatican Dialogues.  “The Energy Transition and Care for Our Common Home”.

As leaders in the energy sector, the global investment community and other organizations, we recognize that a significant acceleration of the transition to a low-carbon future beyond current projections requires sustained, large-scale action and additional technological solutions to keep global warming below 2ºC while advancing human and economic prosperity.

We, the undersigned, agree that:

  • Reliable and economically meaningful carbon pricing regimes, whether based on tax, trading mechanisms or other market-based measures, should be set by governments at a level that incentivizes business practices, consumer behavior, research, and investment to significantly advance the energy transition while minimizing the costs to vulnerable communities and supporting economic growth.
  • The combination of policies and carbon pricing mechanisms should be designed in a way that simultaneously delivers innovation and investment in low carbon solutions while assisting those who are least able to pay. This requires addressing the social, economic, and cross border impacts within the overall policy design.
  • Achieving government policy changes for effective carbon pricing requires transparency, the advocacy and ongoing engagement of the energy sector, the investment community, political leaders, and civil society.

    • Undeniably, the Earth is a single system and humanity is a single whole.  This requires a new level of cooperative leadership, trust-building, and commitment. We embrace this challenge.

    2019_06_15_N&E_Photo2Participant Statement on Climate Risk Disclosures

    The environmental and climate challenge demands urgent action.  Pope Francis has strongly acknowledged this in his encyclical Laudato Si’ and in the Vatican Dialogues.  “The Energy Transition and Care for Our Common Home”.

    As leaders in the energy sector, the global investment community and other organizations, we recognize that a significant acceleration of the transition to a low-carbon future beyond current projections requires sustained, large-scale action and additional technological solutions to keep global warming below 2ºC while advancing human and economic prosperity.

    We, the undersigned, agree that:

  • Companies should provide clarity for investors about how they are planning and investing for the energy transition. This includes issuing disclosures that provide meaningful and material information consistent with the reporting obligations in their particular jurisdictions.
  • In particular, we encourage companies to work with investors on the evolving recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), aligned with its four pillars of (1) governance, (2) strategy, (3) risk management, and (4) metrics and targets.
  • Further, we support scenario analysis as an important and useful tool for assessing how resilient company strategies are to climate-related risks and opportunities pertaining to the 2ºC or lower scenarios. We encourage companies to conduct a range of scenario analyses in line with the principles of TCFD.
  • It is important that board directors assess climate-related issues as part of their risk oversight function, as well as management’s role in evaluating and addressing these issues. These include sector and company-specific transition risks incorporating financial, policy and legal, technology, market, reputation and physical risks both acute and chronic.  Opportunities such as resource efficiencies, new energy sources, new products and services should also be considered.
  • Investors play a critical role through dialogue and feedback in supporting companies regarding appropriate disclosures on governance, strategy, and performance on climate-related risks.

    • Undeniably, the Earth is a single system and humanity is a single whole. This requires a new level of cooperative leadership, trust-building, and commitment. We embrace this challenge.

    Signed:

    Ben van Beurden, CEO, Royal Dutch Shell
    Lord Browne of Madingley, Executive Chairman, L1 Energy
    Mark Campanale, Founder & Executive Director, Carbon Tracker Initiative
    Greg Case, CEO, Aon plc
    Claudio Descalzi, CEO, Eni
    Gary Dirks, Director, Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University
    Robert Dudley, CEO, BP
    Michael M. Garland, CEO, Pattern Energy Group
    Vicki Hollub, CEO, Occidental Petroleum Corporation
    Josu Imaz, CEO, Repsol
    Frédéric Janbon, CEO, BNP Paribas Asset Management
    Fr. John Jenkins, CSC, President, University of Notre Dame
    Harry Keiley, Chair, Investment Committee, California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTERS)
    Georg Kell, Chair, Arabesque Asset Management
    John Kingman, Group Chairman, Legal and General Group
    Ryan M. Lance, Chairman & CEO, ConocoPhillips
    José Meijer, Vice Chair, ABP
    Ernest J. Moniz, President & CEO, Energy Futures Initiative
    Mark Moody-Stuart, Chairman, Global Compact Foundation
    Barbara Novick, Co-Founder, Vice Chairman, BlackRock
    Saker Anwar Nusseibeh, CEO, Hermes Investment
    Ronald P. O’Hanley, CEO, State Street
    Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman of the Board & CEO, Total
    Mary Robinson, Chair, The Elders
    Eldar Sætre, President & CEO, Equinor
    Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Founder, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
    Anne Simpson, Founder and Inaugural Chair, Climate Action 100+
    Michael K. Wirth, Chairman & CEO, Chevron Corporation
    Darren Woods, CEO, ExxonMobil
    Betty T. Yee, Controller, State of California
    Lei Zhang, CEO, Envision Group

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