By Ross Kerber

BOSTON (Reuters] – The upcoming United Nations summit on climate will provide world leaders with an opportunity to promote standardised measures for areas such corporate carbon emission, according to the chief of the biggest U.S. pension funds.

Marcie Frost is the chief executive officer of California Public Employees Retirement System. She said that she believes the leaders at “COP26,” which will be held in Paris, will make an important contribution to slowing down global warming. The event, also known as the “COP26”, will help investors choose the best companies to invest their money.

“When institutional funds like Calpers are making allocation decisions on this data, we believe that will be a bit of an inflection point,” said Frost, speaking in an interview at  the  Reuters Impact conference.

Calpers, with $469 billion in assets as of June 30, has played a significant role in driving adoption standards for measuring corporations’ ESG impacts on governance, environmental and social topics.

Investors have a variety of ESG rating systems available from private firms to evaluate areas such as greenhouse gas emissions and diversity. Frost stated that corporations have the right to make statements which sound lofty but aren’t worthy of scrutiny.

She said that sometimes, you can ask three questions to get the best of it.

Frost stated that it might still take a year before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issues official standards on how companies should report audited data.

Frost also suggested other steps that could be helpful: governments should eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, and adopt carbon pricing systems.

Some pension funds of other Democratic-led countries have made the decision to stop using fossil fuels. Calpers has chosen to resist such demands and instead have adopted a strategy that pushes for change from the inside.

Frost noted Calpers’ role in Climate Action 100+. It is an investor network that was established to put pressure on companies. This group also supported the activism campaign that saw ExxonMobil Corp (NYSE:) Corp elected to its new board of directors.

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