(C) Common Dreams
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U.S. Warns Climate Poses ‘Emerging Threat’ to Financial System [1]
['Alan Rappeport', 'Christopher Flavelle']
Date: 2021-10-21
The report made a series of broad recommendations; however; it avoided the type of policy prescriptions that environmental groups and progressive Democrats have been demanding from the Biden administration. For instance, it did not recommend that banks be subjected to tougher rules such as assessing their ability to withstand climate-related losses, new capital requirements or curbs on extending financing to fossil fuel companies.
Nor did it include specific timelines or other milestones that it wants financial regulatory agencies to meet.
The report did recommend the formation of a financial risk committee, more rigorous analysis of the effects of climate change on the insurance industry and greater coordination with climate experts to better understand the economic and financial impact of the emerging threat.
The council did say it supports work that the Securities and Exchange Commission is doing to develop rules that could require companies to disclose how climate change risks could affect their operations or earnings. It added that regulators should review whether to require banks to report more information about their climate-related risks. The council includes the leaders of the S.E.C., the Federal Reserve and other banking regulators.
The Biden administration has previously said climate change is an existential crisis, but large portions of its climate agenda remain stalled in Congress. Environmental groups have argued that the Biden administration is not acting quickly or ambitiously enough after four years during which the Trump administration dismissed the threat of climate change and rolled back environmental safeguards.
Some environmental groups have suggested that the recommendations were scaled back because Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, the council’s chair, was seeking a consensus document that would be acceptable to all members. Two members — Jerome H. Powell from the Fed and Jelena McWilliams from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation — were appointed to lead their agencies by former President Donald J. Trump. Ms. McWilliams was the lone member of the council who abstained from voting to endorse the report on Thursday.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/us/politics/climate-change-cost-us.html
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