As the Obama Administration seeks to overhaul financial regulation, a multi-trillion-dollar coalition of investors has argued that the government should require corporate disclosure of climate change-related risks. Climate Risk Disclosure in SEC Filings – a deceptively modest title – calls for replacing the current hodgepodge of voluntary disclosure with a federally mandated reporting regime.

Ceres, the Environmental Defense Fund, and other sponsors of this Corporate Library-produced study formally presented their findings to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a June 12 letter.

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Miller-McCune is a new magazine whose tagline is “Turning Research into Solutions.” On its website, it reports on a 30-year study of green attitudes among adolescents. The results are sobering.

“A research team led by Laura Wray-Lake of the Pennsylvania State University’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies examined data from the ‘Monitoring the Future‘ study, a sophisticated survey of the beliefs and behaviors of American secondary school students. The scholars mapped trends in a variety of environment-related areas, including conservation-conscious behaviors, feelings of responsibility for the environment and faith in technology.

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In May, the Obama Administration announced new fuel economy standards for cars sold in the US. According to activist Daniel Becker, as quoted in the New York Times, “This is the single biggest step the American government has ever taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions.”

More big steps are to come. The EPA has been soliciting public comments for “the first comprehensive national system for reporting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG) produced by major sources in the United States.”

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On May 26, Responsible Investor reported on a new study calling for pension funds to better prepare for climate change. Pension trustees may even have a fiduciary duty to account for climate-related risk, according to study authors Craig Mackenzie and Francisco Ascui of the University of Edinburgh Business School.

Investor Leadership on Climate Change, written on behalf of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), explores the role of investors in reducing global carbon emissions. As reported by RI’s Hugh Wheelan, the study finds that this role will be immense:

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Only 24% of voters know that “cap and trade” describes an environmental policy proposal, according to a new Rasmussen poll. Matthew Yglesias at ThinkProgress cited the results this week, and also noted that 46% of respondents guessed that cap and trade involves Wall Street regulation or health care.

The KLD Blog is not typically concerned with opinion polls, but this survey hits close to home. As stated on our “About” page, “KLD analysts stay apprised of economic, financial and political developments worldwide, and the KLD Blog shares our expertise with you.”

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The British journal Responsible Investor has published an interview with Gro Nystuen, chair of the Norwegian state investment fund’s Council of Ethics. Norway’s government is a leading advocate and practitioner of sustainable/socially responsible investing (SRI).

Ms. Nystuen speaks frankly about how the Norwegian state pension fund puts its good intentions into practice. “The Council consists of five persons who are all experts in the different areas covered by our guidelines,” she says. “This expertise means that we know what we are talking about. It is not a ‘prominent-persons-have-been-politicians’ kind of council, as it could easily have been.”

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The mining and refining of metal is an industry with ancient roots, and it remains essential to the global economy. Even supposedly “clean” industries like electronics depend on mining and smelting, as gold, tin and other metals are found in cell phones, computers and other ubiquitous consumer products.

Industrial mining can have a dramatic impact on the environment, and metals profits also help finance violent unrest in poor nations like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Developing nations such as Indonesia, Colombia, and the DRC bear the brunt of mining’s costs, yet downstream consumers – and investors – share responsibility for industry practices.

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Carbon Counts USA, a new report from research firm (and KLD partner) Trucost, studies the “carbon intensity” of 91 major mutual funds. Trucost found wide variation in funds’ carbon footprint, as the highest-carbon fund they studied was 38 times as carbon-intensive as the best performer.

Perhaps due to the Obama Administration’s stated commitment to a national carbon emissions market, Carbon Counts USA (available here) has attracted attention from the business press. Dow Jones’ Daisy Maxey writes that major fund managers are “responding cautiously” to the implication that they should consider companies’ carbon footprints:

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Ceres, the Boston-based activist investor group, has joined governments, trade organizations and global investors in calling for automakers to measure and disclose their products’ greenhouse gas (GHG) output. Autos account for 10% of global carbon emissions, according to International Energy Agency figures cited by Ceres. Despite this, “it is extremely difficult for investors to assess properly the risks and opportunities posed by climate change policy to individual companies,” according to Ceres’ new report.

Shareholder and environmental advocacy groups have long called for better transparency and more disclosure of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Now state and federal governments are poised to require automakers and other industries to report their GHG emissions. Environmental Leader reports that a new EPA rule will affect 13,000 industrial facilities, including chemical plants, utilities and the paper industry, as well as automakers. According to the EPA, these sources account for as much as 90 percent of greenhouse gases emitted nationwide.

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On February 11, a team from American Electric Power (AEP), including CEO Mike Morris, spoke to KLD about its preparations for a carbon-constrained US economy. The KLD Blog article “Coal is Still King, For Now” presented an overview of AEP’s presentation, including the company’s positions on utilities regulation, carbon credits trading, and the prospects for “clean coal” technology.

As Alan Petrillo wrote in “Part One”:

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