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Global warming heats up the SEC

This week, by a margin divided along party lines, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted to encourage companies to disclose the effects of climate change on their business. Hold up—so that means global warming is real?? Some Republican commissioners equate the vote with a kind of political endorsement of an environmentalist agenda, but social investment groups say investors have a right to know whether changing sea levels might increase the risk of claims in some areas, or if certain goods produce significantly higher greenhouse gases. Is this a mandate that gives real incentive to green investing, and if so, how much money with flow?

Guests:

Dan Bakal, Director of Electric Power Programs at Ceres, an NGO that coordinates a group of institutional investors representing more than $8 trillion in assets under management; they’ve been pushing the SEC to take this step for years

Mark Calabria, Director of Financial Regulation studies for the Cato Institute