[ad_1]
The global financial system is facing an existential threat of climate change and must take urgent measures to reform itself, warned the governors of the Bank of England and the French Central Bank, writing in the Guardian.
In an article published Wednesday in the Guardian newspaper and intended for the international financial community, Mark Carney, governor of the bank, and Villeroy de Galhau, governor of the Banque de France, said that financial regulators, banks and insurers All over the world owed the bar "to avoid disaster.
They said, "As financial decision makers and prudential supervisors, we can not ignore the obvious physical risks that come our way. Climate change is a global problem that calls for global solutions, in which the entire financial sector has a central role to play. "
The warning comes as the impact of climate change is worrisome and urgent measures are on the rise, as evidenced by the manifestations of the rebellion of extinction and the strikes of schoolchildren around the world.
Leaders of two of the world's most influential central banks have urged other financial regulators around the world to conduct climate change resilience tests to detect risks, while calling for more collaboration among countries in this area. They warned that a "mbadive reallocation of capital" was needed to prevent global warming beyond the 2 ° C target set by the Paris climate agreement, the banking system to play a central role.
"If some companies and industries fail to adapt to this new world, they will not exist," said Carney and De Galhau.
Climate change poses significant risks to banks and insurers due to the growing number of weather-related catastrophic events, such as heat waves, air currents and floods, which could cause them to be disrupted. Large losses.
There are also risks for financial firms, as governments accept the need to fight climate change, as banks that have lent money to fossil fuel-dependent companies may suffer heavy financial losses.
Carney has already warned that declining sales of diesel cars, due to new vehicle emissions tests and changes in the tax system, have had repercussions on automakers and on the economy in general, are an example.
Banks might find that they have bankrupt badets that prove worthless if they depend on the burning of fossil fuels. Threadneedle Street said that climate change could wipe out up to $ 20 billion of badets, provided it does not fix it effectively.
The open letter from Carney and De Galhau accompanies the launch of a report from the International Network for Financial System Revitalization (NGFS), an international group of central banks and financial regulators, outlining the steps needed for financiers to tackle climate change.
Global warming has generally been a secondary concern of central banks since the 2008 financial crisis, as they were grappling with the immediate threat of bank failures. However, there is growing recognition that action is needed to address the risks it poses.
Although they have been praised for advancing the climate change debate, Carney, central bankers and financiers have been criticized for waiting for the banking sector to reform without a hurricane. stricter regulations are put in place.
Frank van Lerven, Senior Economist of the New Economics Foundation think tank, said: "The central banks of the world and the United Kingdom have identified the problem very well. The question is whether they have the right balance of being opinion leaders on this issue and identifying problems and taking action. "
Source link
