Listen to Bennett Freeman, former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
This episode Frankly Speaking is focusing on the United States, where the Securities and Exchange Commission is about to issue binding rules for US companies to report on climate.
But where there's been the so-called ESG backlash, with 17 states having passed legislation banning ESG investment and where President Biden's first veto was against an attempt to block this at the federal level.
We welcome Bennett Freeman, former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, to explain what’s happening. Bennett is also a former Senior Vice President at Calvert Investments, one of the largest responsible investors in the United States and whose many activities today include serving as Associate Fellow at the think tank Chatham House.
“The fact that ESG has come under such attack reflects the mainstream traction and momentum that it has gained. I'm reminded of a wonderful Arab or Turkic proverb: ‘The dogs bark, the caravan moves on.’ And the dogs are certainly barking in the US. But the caravan will move on with some stops, some detours now and then. But it is moving on, even in the US and certainly around the world.”
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Is product-level reporting rather than firm-level reporting better for the competitiveness of European industry? Listen to Brian Hill, Academic Director of the Inclusive Economy Center in Sustainability and Organisations Institute at HEC Paris, and Research Director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, CNRS.
What’s the verdict on how well first-wave companies have been reporting according to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive? Listen to Frank Bold’s own Lorena Bisignano and Louis Establet
What will Omnibus 1 mean for the future of sustainability reporting in the EU and beyond? Listen to Julia Otten, Senior Policy Officer at Frank Bold and Andreas Rasche, Assistant Dean and Professor of Business in Society at Copenhagen Business School
