U.S. government agency in charge of financial stability weighs in on climate change risks

October 25, 2021: On Thursday, the Treasury Department’s Financial Stability Oversight Council released a report that assessed the risks changes climate poses to the U.S. financial system and provided recommendations to protect the economy.

The council issued the report in response to President Joe Biden’s executive order that directed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the head of the FSOC, and financial regulators to produce a report on climate-related financial risk data.

The blueprint potentially moves forward new regulations and oversight related to climate-based financial risk on Wall Street.

Climate-related disasters such as heatwaves, drought, floods, and wildfires have grown more frequent and threaten to upend the financial system’s stability. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in 2020 alone, a record number of disasters caused $95 billion in damages.

The FSOC’s report also accounts for how climate change will likely create abrupt shocks to the financial system in the coming years. The report said that different sectors would experience stresses as policy, consumer sentiment, and technologies shift to mitigate climate change.

For instance, last year, a Commodity Futures Trading Commission panel cited data estimating that between $1 trillion and $4 trillion in global wealth connected to fossil fuels could be destroyed.

On Thursday, During a call with CNBC, a senior Treasury official said the FSOC anticipates all council members will sign on to the report and formally establish the Climate-related Financial Risk Committee with a charter.

Over 20 federal agencies published climate adaptation plans identifying the most significant threats climate change poses to their operations and facilities and planning to address them.

More recently, the Biden administration published a governmentwide roadmap to account for the way climate change could harm the companies invested in and protect American families’ savings with retirement plans.

In November, the president is set to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, or COP26, in Scotland. The U.S. has vowed to slash domestic greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2050.