(ATF) The US central bank has asked lenders to start providing information on the measures they are taking to mitigate climate change-related risks to their balance sheets, as Joe Biden’s administration takes increasing notice of the phenomenon.
While European regulators are this year rolling-out climate-change “stress tests” for lenders, the Federal Reserve Board has lagged behind its peers.
Fed officials have previously said they want to understand how climate change may affect trillions of dollars’ worth of bank assets, but have not said how or when they would start to apply such tests.
However, Fed supervisors have begun pressing large lenders to detail the measures they are taking to understand how their loan books would perform under certain climate change scenarios, Reuters reported.
JPMorgan, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have been exploring the implications of climate change for some time,
WEATHER CHANGES
In a signal of the Biden administration’s new direction, the US Environmental Protection Administration has resumed publication of climate indicators, which show Americans’ health and safety are already affected.
The EPA data show heatwaves are more frequent, more intense and last longer while bushfires are burning more land. The East and Gulf Coasts are flooding more often, while ice sheets are disappearing and sea levels rising.
The data had been delayed or suppressed during the previous administration of Donald Trump. The figures are collected on the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate indicators website.
EPA administrator Michael Regan said the data relaunch was “long overdue”.
The website used data from more than 50 different organisations.
In addition to releasing fresh numbers on Wednesday, the organisation added new measurements, including heatwaves, permafrost and energy use.
With reporting by Reuters
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