According to NACD BoardTalk’s “Curbing Climate Chaos Will Require Innovation, Leadership from Boards,” NACD Summit climate panelists, including Global Head of BlackRock's Investment Stewardship team, Managing Director, Michelle Edkins; Climate Governance Initiative Chair and board member Karina Litvak; Newmont Corp. President and CEO, Tom Palmer; and Value Reporting Foundation Head of Americas Policy and Outreach, Granville Martin, agreed that companies should not look to appointing a climate expert to the board to achieve the increasingly important attribute of “climate fluency.” Rather, boards should be composed of directors who are eager to learn and willing to challenge management’s assumptions and approaches:
The key to climate fluency is a “learn-it-all” board that is willing to ask the right questions and understand the answers well enough to rigorously test assumptions and approaches. This requires that directors be proactive in learning about climate change, innovations made necessary or possible by new science and technology in response to climate change, and what corporate governance practices are most effective. There also needs to be recognition by the board of a shared responsibility for climate fluency.
Notably, while views varied as to boards’ preparedness to address climate change, Michelle Edkins said that “most boards do seem to understand the seriousness of climate change as a disruptor and are making the necessary shifts to meet climate-related challenges to their businesses.”
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!