Calvert Leads U.S. Investor Push for Oil, Gas and Mining Revenue Transparency
Brookings Institution and Global Witness Event the Latest Effort in Support of Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Act
12/12/2011
On Tuesday, December 13, Bennett Freeman, Senior Vice President of Sustainability Research and Policy at Calvert Investments, will speak on a panel about the opportunities that the oil, gas and mining payment disclosure provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) create for investors and civil society. The panel will take place at the National Press Club in Washington, DC and is co-sponsored by the policy think tank the Brookings Institution and the natural resources governance advocacy group Global Witness.
Calvert played a key role in the development of the legislation that was enacted in 2010 as Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which requires disclosure of oil, gas and mining companies' payments to the governments where they operate around the world. Since then, Calvert has taken a leading role in engaging Congress, other investors, major companies, and international civil society in making the case for this critical reform. Disclosure of these revenue payments will help curb the corruption that has distorted the economies and governance of resource-rich countries while at the same time increasing investment risk across the sector.
Calvert's support for mandatory payment disclosure includes the April 2010 release of a briefing paper (PDF) on the materiality of extractive revenue payments that helped to shape the requirements set forth in Section 1504. The paper argues that such disclosure helps investors quantify significant risks that are obscured under current reporting requirements.
In December 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published proposed rules for the implementation of Section 1504 that balance the needs of investors and reporting issuers. Calvert previously contributed comments (external PDF) in November 2010 and subsequently in March 2011 outlining its view on how the specific rules can be of greatest utility to investors. Calvert looks forward to the conclusion of the SEC's rule-making process for Section 1504 and will continue to lead the investor community support for the statute.
#11829 (12/11)