Soon, two other climate hawks may be at the helm of major financial institutions.
It is increasingly expected that President Biden will appoint two other climate-conscious officials to lead independent financial institutions to help mitigate the impact of global warming on the US financial system.
According to news reports, Rostin Behnam, acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, may be nominated to permanently lead the CFTC, which is responsible for overseeing the US derivatives market. In addition, Cornell University law professor Saule Omarova is a major competitor in the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, which oversees major US banks.
These appointments will mark a major victory for Democrats, activists, and experts who warn of the systemic threats posed by rising temperatures and call on financial regulators to address these issues.
Behnam is especially praised for accelerating these efforts.
In 2019-Behnam’s second year as a member of the CFTC-he took the lead in forming a climate-focused subcommittee to prepare a report on climate-related financial risks and solvable policies.
This Landmark document Released in September last year. This marks the first time that a federal agency has formally warned that climate change may overturn US financial stability.
Biden appointed Benham as the agency’s acting chairman in January. In this position, he continues to address challenges, including creating a “climate risk department” responsible for studying how to use the derivatives market to reduce climate risk and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.
The White House’s plan to make Behnam the chairman of the CFTC was first reported by Bloomberg and is not expected to happen immediately. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Omarova has not received as much attention as climate finance.But climate finance advocates welcome Recent report The financial supervision expert is considered to be the top spot of the OCC, partly because of her frank attitude towards various emerging financial risks such as cryptocurrency and climate change.
according to This New York TimesThe first to report the news was that the White House was in the early stages of reviewing Omarova. It may take several months for the official nominee to be announced.
Omarova has been a major supporter of the idea that Congress should establish a National Investment Agency, a permanent federal entity responsible for determining and implementing long-term economic development goals.
She outlined the proposal in a report Paper Last year, it will “fill the institutional gap between the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve” by investing public and private funds in projects that lack funding—including climate-related projects.
“It is not advisable to give this work to private participants and the market,” Omarova wrote In the article describing the proposal.
“NIA will take action directly in the financial market and actively allocate public and private capital to where it is most needed to deal with climate change, inequality and other structural ills,” she added. “We can call it industrial policy or development policy, which is an important supplement to fiscal and monetary policy.”
As the news broke, the Biden administration was working hard to prepare two highly anticipated reports on the financial threat of climate change. Biden requested the two documents in an executive order in May, which called on senior government officials and cabinet secretaries to give priority to this issue.
A report requires the development of a government-wide strategy to measure, disclose, and mitigate the federal government’s climate risks.
The other will assess how financial regulators are now responding to the challenges — and what else they can do. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (Janet Yellen) is responsible for completing the report by mid-November with members of the Financial Stability Oversight Board, which is composed of heads of all financial regulatory agencies including the OCC and CFTC.Climate line, May 21).
Eric Juzenas, an adviser to the Undersecretary of Domestic Finance at the Ministry of Finance, told climate advocates at a meeting last week that the report is ongoing and the government expects to complete it before the November deadline.
forward from Electronics News With permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2021. E&E News provides important news for energy and environmental professionals.