Biden orders climate risk strategy for US financial assets

The executive order represents an early step in the Biden administration’s efforts to reduce the risks to financial stability posed by climate change and to meet its longer-term goal of reducing US greenhouse gas emissions.

President Joe Biden is ordering his administration to create a strategy to quantify the risks climate change poses to both public and private financial assets. In a four-page executive order that he signed Thursday, the president is asking Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in her role as head of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, to recommend steps to reduce climate risks to financial stability, according to the administration. That assessment, which would be provided within six months, would also detail plans financial regulators have for bolstering disclosures. A separate government-wide strategy for identifying and disclosing climate risk to government programs, assets and liabilities is set to be developed within 120 days. It will be drafted by National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy in coordination with Yellen and the Office of Management and Budget. The Labor Department will be directed to analyze how to protect pensions from climate change risk.