Another Climate Lead

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England recently gave a speech at Lloyd’s of London. His focus was on informing those in the business of business that although many are far-sighted and understand the impacts climate change will have on international monetary balances, there isn’t much in place to ensure that plans are being executed at the rate required to respond to future imperatives. He pointed out that if weather events like those we’ve seen recently become the new norm, pressure on insurance and fiscal groups would only continue to grow. He warned “once climate change becomes a defining issue for financial stability, it may already be too late.” So what’s the solution? Carney suggests one approach is recommending that “more be done to develop consistent, comparable, reliable and clear disclosure around the carbon intensity of different assets”. He also advocates for the creation of an industry led task force, and ideally have it lead to a standard for disclosure from carbon emitting companies. The narrative around how best to balance the reality of climate change and its effect on global economic imperatives, and the need for more focused discourse and rapid change will be met by financial leaders such as Carney. It need no longer be the politics of division rearing its ugly head when business leaders, climate scientists, civil society leaders and politicians are all working from the same page.