FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Dorothy Slater, [email protected]
Biden’s Climate Finance Convening Is Necessarily Incomplete Without Fully-Staffed Agencies
On the occasion of President Biden’s meeting with top financial regulators to discuss the health of the financial system, including climate-related risk, Revolving Door Project Executive Director Jeff Hauser issued the following statement:
“Biden should absolutely be meeting with U.S. financial regulators to discuss the impact of climate change on financial stability, but it is telling and dangerous that so many top financial regulatory jobs remain unfilled as he’s holding this meeting.”
“Biden directed individual financial regulators and the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to create government-wide strategies regarding climate risk within 120 and 180 days, respectively. Yet he has failed to adequately staff these agencies and inter-agency councils, and the clock continues to tick. How can he reasonably expect his regulators to meet the enormous goal he’s put in front of them when they’re still trying to get back to pre-Trump professional staff levels, and in many cases, don’t even have permanent directors to lead the agencies? This is not at all to say that Biden should stop pushing for climate-focused financial regulation or legislation. But the agencies are being set up to fail on the most important task since their creation.”
“Currently, there is no Deputy Assistant Secretary for FSOC; the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission continue to be run by Acting officials; many of the Assistant Secretary positions within the Treasury Department, including for Financial Institutions, remain empty; the Independent Insurance Expert on FSOC is a Republican holdover; and the Office of Financial Research is led by a climate denying Trump appointee. Each of these positions are crucial to fulfilling the direction of Biden’s Executive Order.”
“Climate change is an existential threat to the global financial system, not to mention the health and survival of the planet. Biden, and when applicable other members of his administration, should quickly move to appoint climate leaders throughout the financial regulatory system. There is no time to waste.”
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Photo: “Joe Biden” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0