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US lags further after British Treasury issues new fossil fuel finance standards

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 3, 2021

Contact: Jackie Fielder, jackie@stopthemoneypipeline.com

    Jason Schwartz, jason.schwartz@thesunriseproject.org

US lags further after British Treasury issues new fossil fuel finance standards


GLASGOW — Today UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, announced new requirements for firms to publish net zero transition and decarbonization plans in alignment with the goals of Paris. Member organizations of the Stop the Money Pipeline coalition released the following statements in reaction to the news:

David Arkush, Director of Public Citizen’s Climate Program: “The contrast between US regulators and their international peers could hardly be clearer. While the UK, ECB, and others are taking steps toward decarbonizing finance, US regulators recently announced that they plan to do little more than study climate-related financial risk. President Biden has the opportunity to turn the Fed around with a new majority that takes systemic risk and climate threats seriously, and he needs to seize it.”

Adele Shraiman, Fossil-Free Finance Campaign Representative, Sierra Club: “As UK financial regulators are taking promising steps to hold financial institutions accountable for their contribution to the climate crisis, their US counterparts should be taking note. Last month, US regulators took an important first step by affirming the connection between climate risk and financial risk, but they’re still falling behind their global peers by failing to actually address the problem. That means forcing Wall Street to account for its toxic, risky investments that threaten to turn the climate crisis into a financial crisis.”

Brooke Harper, Fossil Free Fed Campaign Manager, 350.org: “We echo the sentiments of the movement in the UK. It’s good that financial institutions will have to publish transition plans to show how they’re going to stop being part of the problem and become part of the solution – but what really matters isn’t what they’re planning to do in 2050, but what they do now and in the next few years. Importantly, for President Biden, this shows how vital it is to replace Federal Reserve Chair Powell with someone like Lael Brainard, who will take the climate crisis seriously.”

Akiksha Chatterji, Digital Campaigner, Positive Money US: “With the UK and other nations taking steps forward to regulate fossil fuel financing, the US presents itself as a laggard. The latest Financial Stability Oversight Council report stops short of any concrete steps to reduce climate risk in the economy. And under the leadership of Chair Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve is falling behind other central banks in preparing the financial system for the climate crisis. US regulators have identified that climate change poses a systemic risk to the financial system. Now, they must urgently move from words to action. President Biden can start by replacing Powell with someone who takes climate risk seriously.”

The Stop the Money Pipeline coalition is a coalition of more than 175 organizations working to hold the financial backers of climate chaos accountable. 

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