Brown Calls on Banks and Financial Regulators to Take Action on Climate Risks

United States Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) recently delivered a statement at an event titled “The Financial System & Climate Change: A Regulatory Imperative” at the Center for American Progress (CAP). As ranking member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Brown called on financial regulators and banks to take action on climate change.

“We have to ensure that banks and insurance companies are factoring the catastrophic risks of climate change in their investments and on their balance sheets—not just cynically passing the risk on to their customers, shareholders, and, ultimately, taxpayers,” he said.

The Senator praised President-elect Joe Biden and his administration for prioritizing climate change and making it “very clear that it was going to be one of his top priorities as president.”

Brown also remarked that climate change will take an all-of-government approach because it not only affects the environment, but also whole communities and Americans’ lives.

“It’s about housing policy and transit policy and financial policy,” he said. “Maybe more than most, you know that fundamentally, fighting climate change isn’t just an environmental issue—it’s an economic one. And I don’t just mean economic in the sense of sterile statistics about risk calculations. It’s about communities, and how people live and work.” 

During his remarks, Brown committed to encouraging financial regulators to see climate as an opportunity to establish a sustainable economy that improves peoples’ lives.

“We have to think about the political risk of our country becoming more divided if we allow fighting climate to come at the expense of entire communities,” he said.

Click here for the Senator’s full remarks.