Document Actions
Shanna Cleveland
Director, Carbon Asset Risk (CAR) Initiative
- email: cleveland@ceres.org
- twitter: @shannacleveland
Shanna Cleveland is a Director at Ceres where she leads the work on the Carbon Asset Risk (CAR) Initiative. The CAR Initiative, launched in 2013 in collaboration with the Carbon Tracker Initiative and with the support of the Global Investor Coalition on Climate Change, aims to prevent shareholder capital from being wasted on developing high-carbon, high-cost fossil fuel reserves that cannot be burned if the world is to avoid catastrophic climate change and drive fossil fuel companies to acknowledge and plan for the escalating physical impacts of climate change such as sea level rise, stronger storms and more severe droughts. Recent studies have confirmed that achieving the international goal of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius will require leaving significant quantities of fossil fuel reserves in the ground, yet none of the major fossil fuel companies have taken steps to adequately quantify and disclose the enormous risks of continuing to invest capital in this unburnable carbon.
Prior to joining Ceres, Shanna led successful advocacy initiatives as a Senior Attorney at Conservation Law Foundation. Her work focused on reducing reliance on fossil fuels and increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy. Shanna’s work included reaching a landmark settlement agreement with a developer of a proposed natural gas power plant to limit and phase out greenhouse gas emissions from the facility, a first-of-its-kind decision from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding compensation for reliability, and a nationally recognized analysis of the impacts of and policy options for reducing fugitive emissions from the natural gas distribution system. Shanna has almost a decade of experience working with the utility, coal and natural gas industries.
Shanna earned her law degree at the University of Virginia where she served as an Executive Editor of the Virginia Law Review, an LL.M. in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School, magna cum laude, and her undergraduate degree from Harvard University, magna cum laude.
Recent Blog Posts
Oil Companies Now Have New Tools For Navigating The Low-Carbon Transition
Although many companies already use scenario planning, questions still remain on how to conduct a two-degree scenario analysis. That’s why the TCFD and Ceres have both developed tools to help companies conduct scenario analysis and meet increasing calls for robust climate risk disclosure.
Seven Key Actions in Steering the Oil and Gas Sector to a Low-Carbon Future
Achieving the agreement’s target of limiting global average temperature rise to well below two-degrees requires nothing less than a transformation of our energy systems, markets and industry towards low-carbon energy and away from high-carbon fossil fuels. With that in mind, it is encouraging to see how much has changed – especially in the massive oil and gas sector – in the last year.
The Reality Behind Exxon's Claims on Item 12
See Ceres' point-by-point response to a shareholder letter sent by ExxonMobil's Vice President of Investor Relations and Secretary, Jeffrey J. Woodbury.
Statement on the AES Shareholder Vote
Yesterday at the annual meeting of utility AES, shareholders had their first chance to vote on a resolution asking a U.S. based company to stress test its investments against the low carbon future that the Paris agreement will help bring about. The resolution received support from 42% of investors, the highest vote ever for a 2 degree stress testing resolution in the U.S.
After Paris: Ignoring 2 Degree Planning Is No Longer An Option
The Paris Agreement increases carbon risk for fossil fuel companies. After Paris, companies that stress test capital expenditures for a 2 degree or 1.5 degree future will have the competitive edge. The impacts of the oil price downturn illustrate how unprepared most fossil fuel companies are to manage the risks of the energy transition.
