Pennsylvania Treasurer Joins With Investors Managing $2.3 Trillion to Call for Congressional...

Pennsylvania Treasurer Joins With Investors Managing $2.3 Trillion to Call for
Congressional Action on Global Climate Change

Group Says Lack of Clear Policy Undermines Long-Term Economic Competitiveness

WASHINGTON,May 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania Treasurer Robin L.
Wiessmann today joined more than 50 leading investors, including the nation's
largest public pension fund and the world's largest listed hedge fund, in
calling on the U.S. Senate to enact strong federal legislation to curb the
pollution causing global warming. The investor group issued a letter today to
Senate leaders calling for a national climate policy to reduce U.S. greenhouse
gas emissions by 60 to 90 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

"Enacting climate policy legislation and enforcing climate-related information
disclosure by businesses protects both our environment and our bottom line.
Investments that include or take advantage of environmental and technological
trends and developments will have significant influence on economic
performance and energy self-sufficiency," Wiessmann said. "The actions we
call for today will create new investment opportunities in the clean
technology sector and allow investors to thoroughly assess the opportunities
and risks associated with the companies with whom they do business."

The group of 52 investors, organized by Ceres and the Investor Network on
Climate Risk (INCR), includes institutional investors, asset managers,
treasurers and controllers such as the California Public Employees Retirement
System (CalPERS), F&C Asset Management, the Man Group (a hedge fund), and
state treasurers and controllers for California, Connecticut, Maryland, New
York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont.

In sending the letter, investors sent a strong message that climate policy
uncertainty and the lack of federal regulations may be undermining companies'
long-term competitiveness because it is preventing them from making
large-scale capital investments in clean energy and other low-carbon
technologies and practices.

Treasurer Wiessmann's signature on this letter comes after she made a
strategic investment of $15 million in publicly traded funds that hold stocks
of companies that provide solutions for environmental problems or operate in a
responsible manner with respect to the environment. These strategic
investments initiated Wiessmann's Keystone Green Investment Strategy, which
seeks superior returns for Commonwealth assets from clean technologies, such
as innovative alternative or renewable energy sources, and clean and green
technologies that enable companies to reduce their emissions to the
environment.

Treasurer Wiessmann's action was the result of the recently developed
Pennsylvania Investment Principles, which address the "next frontier of
investing" by weighing the impact of geopolitical, environmental, governance,
and other strategic factors on an investment's financial appropriateness.
These factors allow Treasury's investment decisions to be accompanied by
economic analysis of long-term considerations, including sustainability.

The investor letter also calls on Senate leaders to press U.S. regulatory
bodies -- specifically, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) -- to
issue specific guidance on what companies should disclose to investors on
risks they face from climate change. Investors made the same such request in a
petition they filed with the SEC last fall.

Wiessmann and her fellow signatories recognize that environmental factors are
already demonstrating a potentially pervasive impact on business and
investors. Examples include global climate change, which will have profound
impacts on many economic sectors including agriculture, shipping, insurance,
and real estate; volatility in price of carbon-based fuels, creating
opportunities and risks to sectors reliant on such fuels; and the likelihood
of carbon regulation has substantial transformational impacts.

Cognizant of these impacts as well as recent scientific reports concluding
that climate change is taking place and that human activities are the primary
contributor, investors are calling for the Senate to take the following three
actions:

-- Enact legislation that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25-40%
below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80-95% below 1990 levels by 2050 in line
with the targets and timetables laid out by the Intergovernmental
Panel
on Climate Change, the world's leading body of climate experts.
-- Realign national energy and transportation policies to stimulate
research, development and deployment of new and existing clean
technologies at the scale necessary to achieve greenhouse gas
reduction
goals.
-- Press the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to define the
material issues related to climate change that businesses should
disclose to help investors understand the risks and opportunities
related to climate.

"The recently developed Pennsylvania Investment Principles call upon Treasury
as an institutional investor to encourage appropriate changes in corporate
disclosure and governance practices with regard to environmental issues,"
Wiessmann said. "In the spirit of today's investor vigilance, Treasury will
pursue the release of information about management decisions that can expose
the company to, or help it avoid, material threats from environmental
factors."

Treasurer Wiessmann is directly responsible for investing money belonging to
nearly all Pennsylvania state agencies. Her broad authority to place these
funds in a wide range of investments, including equity securities and mutual
funds, is subject to well-established standards that prudent persons would
follow in the management of their own funds. As chief executive of the
Pennsylvania Treasury Department, Wiessmann serves as custodian of nearly $122
billion in public funds.

The Pennsylvania Treasury Department, under the leadership of Treasurer Robin
L. Wiessmann, is a leader in changing the way treasuries do business. The
Department and its employees are accountable for safeguarding the financial
assets of all Pennsylvanians, serving as custodians, investors and disbursers
of the Commonwealth's funds. Treasury also helps Pennsylvanians achieve
financial success through a variety of programs and services like the
Unclaimed Property program, the nowU College Savings Program, the KeystoneHELP
low-interest loan program, and the INVEST program for local governments and
nonprofits. For more information about Treasurer Wiessmann and the
Pennsylvania Treasury Department, visit www.patreasury.org.

Editor's note: For a copy of the letter, please log on to www.patreasury.org

SOURCE Pennsylvania Treasury Department

Carrie Fischer Lepore of Pennsylvania Treasury Department, +1-717-787-2991,
news@patreasury.org