Friends of Science Society New Reports Challenge SHARE on Climate Change Risk and Denial for Pension Fund Trustees and Corporate Boards

USA - English

• USA - English

Calgary, Alberta, Canada (PRWEB) February 01, 2017 -- Friends of Science Society today released two new reports, the first entitled “Climate Change Risk Clouds Boardroom Competency” that challenges a recent report by SHARE – Shareholder Association for Research and Education claiming corporate energy and utility boards should have ‘climate change competent’ directors, as reported in Canadian Business of Jan. 10, 2017 .

“Our new reports discuss the problem that, in our opinion, taxpayers are being forced to accept policies based on climate change ideology, not evidence. These investor-promoted policies will enrich tax-free pension funds and offshore Sovereign Wealth Funds at the expense of non-beneficiary taxpayers,” says Michelle Stirling, Communications Manager for Friends of Science.

CBC reported Sept. 29, 2016 that 63% of Albertans opposed the carbon tax and 53% opposed the climate plan.

By Dec. 14, 2016, the Alberta government was reporting on Climate Plan progress to the unaccountable UNPRI.

A second report entitled “Climate Change Insights for Pension Fund Trustees and Beneficiaries” disputes the claims of an earlier SHARE report by law firm Koskie Minsky LLP, reported in the Toronto Star Sept 9th, 2015, which advises pension fund trustees that “climate change denial is not an option.”

Friends of Science Society says this is a nonsensical, unscientific statement that defies the concept of prudent governance in considering all possibilities, including that of global cooling.

This SHARE report was funded by the West Coast Environmental Law Foundation, an environmental group supported by some of the same foundations that are signatory to a letter to Premier Notley on climate policy.

Stirling notes a specific example: “The Alberta coal phase-out policy, which signatory activist investors like the Church of Sweden supports, will destroy 30 communities and put 7,000 people out of work and cause power prices to rise for all Albertans. How is it Sweden’s business to make our people jobless and poor?”

Friends of Science says that concurrent to the release of the SHARE legal report, NEI Investments issued an influential, collaborative letter on Sept. 8, 2015 to Premier Rachel Notley of Alberta. Some 120 institutional investors holding $4.6 trillion in assets under management, many from offshore, were signatories. In a subsequent Jan. 2016 NEI Investments document they claimed success in influencing the government climate plan.

Friends of Science Society question the propriety of unelected, unaccountable tax-free activist investor groups with huge blocks of beneficiaries, collaborating to change public policy, holding sway over the preferences of the electorate.

About
Friends of Science has spent a decade reviewing a broad spectrum of literature on climate change and have concluded the sun is the main driver of climate change, not carbon dioxide (CO2). Friends of Science is made up of a growing group of earth, atmospheric and solar scientists, engineers, and citizens.

Friends of Science Society
P.O. Box 23167, Mission P.O.
Calgary, Alberta
Canada T2S 3B1
Toll-free Telephone: 1-888-789-9597
Web: friendsofscience.org
E-mail: contact(at)friendsofscience(dot)org
Web: climatechange101.ca

Michelle Stirling, Friends of Science, http://www.friendsofscience.org/, +1 (888) 789-9597, [email protected]