Financial Regulators and Climate Change Risk
Securities and Exchange Commission Disclosure Requirements
Potential risks to the U.S. financial system from climate change have attracted growing attention in government, academia and media, raising questions about the roles of financial regulators in addressing such risks. Scientific assessments have concluded that human activities — and particularly carbon dioxide and methane emitted by fossil fuels, agriculture and land use change — are extremely likely [>95% likelihood] the primary driver of the rise of global average temperature since 1950. Climate change — defined by the Federal Reserve as “the trend toward higher average global temperatures and accompanying environmental shifts such as rising sea levels and more severe…
