Publication Date
7-28-2022
Abstract
Climate change presents an existential threat to the future of humanity and our planet and will require a coordinated global response to prevent its most catastrophic effects. In recognition of this threat, global leaders created an international regime designed to prevent further dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate. Since its inception, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has recognized that achieving this goal will require substantial global resources. While contributions from countries will comprise the bulk of international funding, public resources alone are insufficient to meet the investment requirements necessary to accomplish climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives. World leaders have called on the private sector to fill this gap. This Article explores how sustainability reporting frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) can encourage greater contribution from the private sector to meet international climate change goals. The GRI and other reporting initiatives have substantially increased access to sustainability and climate-related investment information. Yet access to information has not achieved a meaningful increase in private sector investment. Indeed, too much information may be part of the problem. Major obstacles such as a lack of standardized reporting requirements and lack of transparency inhibit higher levels of private sector involvement. This Article identifies problems as they relate to the GRI and how sustainability reporting frameworks can promote greater contribution from the private sector to meet international climate change goals by addressing investor concerns and filling current data gaps.
First Page
635
Recommended Citation
Adam Cribari, Climate Change and the Private Sector: The Role of International Reporting Frameworks in Promoting Private Sustainable Investment, 99 DENV. L. REV. 635 (2022).