US financial regulators have made significant progress towards addressing climate risks over the past year, according to the second iteration of Ceres’ Climate Risk Scorecard. All regulators have now affirmed climate change as a systemic risk and most have appointed senior staff to lead their work to address it.
However, with the exception of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is preparing a rule that will require public companies to report on their climate-related risks, most regulators have taken limited steps to improve climate disclosures. The Federal Reserve, Office for the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and National Credit Union Association (NCUA) have taken no affirmative steps to incorporate such reporting into their regulations or guidance.
Notably, the scorecard also finds that progress has been patchy on addressing the impacts of climate change on financially vulnerable communities. Only one agency, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has taken significant action, while three – the CFTC, SEC, and NCUA – have not published details of any progress that has been made. This is despite the remits of those agencies including requirements to consider the needs of financially vulnerable people.
Ceres published its first scorecard in April 2021 as part of its report Turning Up the Heat. Progress in the past 12 months has been assisted by the publication of the Financial Stability Oversight Council report on climate risks, which has now been endorsed by all top regulators.
This page was last updated June 30, 2022
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