Senator Warren urges SEC to tackle systemic risk of climate change and mandate climate risk disclosure, citing Ceres report

Letter to SEC cites significant investor concern over systemic risks posed by climate

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to tackle climate change as a systemic financial risk, and to heed the recommendations in a report from the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets in a letter that “adds an important voice to the growing chorus calling on financial regulators to act on climate change,” said Steven Rothstein, Managing Director of the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets.

Senator Warren sent a letter to SEC chairman Jay Clayton yesterday,  urging the agency to require climate risk disclosures to address the financial and economic threats posed by climate change. "Investors and the public currently lack sufficient information about the threats of the climate crisis on their investments,” the letter states, “though the risks to our economy posed by the climate crisis continue to grow." 

The letter also points to significant engagement from investors on the issue. Nearly $1 trillion in assets under management joined with businesses, former members of Congress from both major political parties, and former regulators to urge financial regulators to act on climate change as a systemic financial risk to markets, and to heed the recommendations of Ceres' report Addressing Climate as a Systemic Risk: A call to action for U.S. financial regulators. The report features more than 50 specific recommendations that financial regulators can take right now, all of which fall within their existing mandate.

Rothstein continued: "Senator Warren understands that climate change poses a systemic threat to our economy and we applaud her statement and echo her in urging Chairman Clayton to take up this critical issue immediately."