気候変動という大義名分　　　　　　　気ままなリライト８３

〈株主総会2023〉気候変動開示、強まる監視 - 日本経済新聞

Amid the prevalent mindset among investors championing the man-made climate change theory for greater good that anyone questioning the global warming theory is a selfish antagonist endangering the planet, major Japanese corporations are bearing the brunt of the psychological warfare, standing against the power mongers benefiting from the so-called carbon credit scheme. The Japanese corporate leadership is defying the doomsday climate scenario propagated by the United Nations, all the while maintaining their independence in corporate governance.

As climate activists and Western governments are flagging the carbon emissions generated by Japanese companies as a threat to be eliminated by 2050, two major US-based corporations, instrumental in guiding institutional investors’ voting decisions and shaping global corporate governance practices and trends, are exerting pressure on the Japanese corporate management skeptic about their climate change narratives. Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis &Co are advising shareholders of Japanese companies to consider dismissing board members who are unwilling to embrace the global warming as a common enemy to unify humanity under a single shared cause through the Paris Accord.

A key influencer of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis &Co is Climate Action 100 plus, a leading global investor initiative advocating the anti-carbon propaganda, aimed at ensuring the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters take necessary action on climate change. This initiative is backed by more than 500 global investors managing over 47 trillion dollars in assets. Climate Action 100+ is focusing on 100 'priority' companies responsible for two-thirds of annual global industrial emissions. This list is including ten Japanese companies such as Toyota, Nippon Steel, Eneos Holdings and Hitachi. Those targeted companies are being asked to take a transparent approach to how effectively their business plans will tackle climate change risks, as reflected in their climate-related financial disclosures.

Considering the growing emphasis among institutional investors on the environmental footprint of their portfolios, several domestic and international asset management firms are putting pressure on their Japanese investment targets for decarbonization, compelling those companies to comply stringently with carbon limitations. Starting in 2023, SMBC Nikko Securities is nudging its shareholders to weigh the company's commitment to incorporating climate change considerations into its business strategy when voting on the approval of current board members. Asset Management One is urging companies to present their shareholders with a clear roadmap of how they plan to get through and ensure sustainable growth while shifting away from carbon-based energy throughout their value chain.

Advocating the long-standing global warming agenda set by the United Nations, which in 1989 warned of entire nations disappearing due to rising sea levels unless global warming trends were reversed by 2000, two preeminent asset managers, Holland's APG for the Dutch civil servants' pension fund, and Amundi Asset Management based in France are poised to restrict the discretion of the Japanese companies with their stakes in, including Toyota, in deciding how far those companies go along with the global warming narratives through a shareholder meeting. They are urging those Japanese companies to be transparent about how to regulate greenhouse gas emissions across their operations.

Toyota, steadfast in its independence and averse to foreign meddling, has rejected revealing the details of its approach to making Toyota’s investors feel free from carbon guilt. Although transitioning from the fossil energy is politically correct, for Toyota’s management, the potential cost of conforming to the global warming theory feels unconvincing as the price to pay, given a lack of significant difference in storm patterns when comparing today with those a century ago, suggesting no apparent increase in perilous weather events due to global warming. Moreover, the global average temperature has not escalated to a dangerous point. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has highlighted that over the last century, Earth's temperature has risen by less than one degree Fahrenheit. In term of Earth’s vast geological timescale, our planet's temperatures have been significantly higher than current levels, long before debates over human-induced carbon emissions began. It seems to them that the main purpose of the United Nations, primarily through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is to generate trillions of dollars via the carbon credit commodity market by forcing polluters to buy carbon credit or pay a carbon tax through each government signing up for the Paris Accord as a public relation engine, thereby, exaggerating the risks associated with a rising level of anthropogenic CO2 emissions.