WASHINGTON, D.C. | June 21, 2021— On June 14th, National Whistleblower Center (NWC) joined the Duke University Climate Risk Disclosure Lab and a coalition led by Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and Public Citizen in comments submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in response to the agency’s call for public comment. The letters, posted on the SEC website today, support mandatory climate and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures, highlighting the impact these requirements would have on the SEC Whistleblower Program and climate-related whistleblower claims.
NWC fully supports mandatory ESG disclosures particularly as these would result in strengthened protections for whistleblowers making climate-related disclosures and emphasizes this point in the organization’s contributions to these letters.
“NWC proudly worked with Duke University’s Climate Risk Disclosure Lab and supports the Financial Reform Education Fund’s impressive coalition of nearly 60 organizations concerned with mitigating the climate crisis and protecting taxpayers from the economic fallout of climate-related fraud. With such public outcry from some of the top names in climate advocacy, the SEC would have our full support if it were to require ESG and climate-risk disclosures and work to strengthen incentives for whistleblowers best positioned to report this type of fraud,” said Siri Nelson, NWC Executive Director.
These groundbreaking letters are the first to call on the SEC’s Division of Enforcement to prioritize climate-related cases specifically emphasizing the importance of creating reporting standards that would enable the agency to ensure market stability and support the SEC Whistleblower Program in processing climate-related whistleblower reports. NWC’s participation in the submission of the comments are a part of NWC’s larger campaign to Combat Corruption in Banking and Securities. Whistleblowers with reports about climate-related violations can learn more at NWC’s Climate Campaign website and make reports using the Climate Disclosure Form.
For more information, please contact Nick Younger at nick.younger@whistleblowers.org.
