U.S. PIRG and others deliver 60,000 petitions urging the Federal Reserve to require big banks to take climate change seriously

U.S. PIRG and other advocates delivered a petition Tuesday signed by 60,888 people, urging the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to require big banks to take climate change seriously.

In particular the organizations called on the Federal Reserve (the Fed) to issue principles for assessing and addressing the risks of climate change to our finances and economy. 

The petitions were gathered by Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, Climate Hawks Vote, Positive Money, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, Stop the Money Pipeline, U.S. PIRG, and 350.org.

As the petition asserts:

“The Fed has a mandate and responsibility to address climate-related financial risks to banks.”

The petition calls for climate supervisory principles that advise banks to:

• Take a whole-of-business approach to mitigating climate risk;
• Consider appropriate time horizons for assessing and addressing climate risk;
• Conduct robust climate scenario analysis and review results with bank supervisors;
• Align internal strategies with their public climate commitments, both of which should be guided by science-based metrics and targets; 
• Respect Indigenous rights and ensure the projects and companies they fund uphold Free, Prior, and Informed Consent and tribal sovereignty; and
• Recognize where and how risk-management measures could have adverse effects on low-income and marginalized households and communities, and take steps to understand and fully mitigate these risks.

In addition to the petition, U.S. PIRG also joined a letter addressed to the Board of Governors of the Fed, calling for the climate principles. The letter was signed by Amazon Watch, Americans for Financial Reform, Center for American Progress, E3G, The Greenlining Institute, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, U.S. Pirg, and 350.org. 

As the groups wrote in the letter: 

“It is imperative that the Fed provide institutions with the guidance they need to firmly understand and address their climate-related financial risks and explain how the Fed intends to incorporate these risks into its examinations.”