DITCHED: A Dire Warning for Financial Markets

“Climate change poses a major risk to the stability of the U.S. financial system and to its ability to sustain the American economy.” That’s the top line takeaway from a landmark new report from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. While the core finding isn’t entirely new, the CFTC report carries weight. “Managing Climate Risk in the U.S. Financial System,” commissioned by a panel of President Trump appointed federal regulators, is the first comprehensive federal government study to focus on the risks climate change presents to Wall Street. Divya Mankikar is an investment manager at the California Public Employees' Retirement System, or CalPERS, where she works to shed light on integrating environmental, social and governance factors across the roughly 400 billion fund — the largest public pension fund in the U.S. She’s also a member of the subcommittee that authored the recently released CFTC climate risk report. In this episode, Divya outlines the report’s main findings and details how CalPERS and other large investors are acting on a growing body of climate risk information. This is the fifth episode in the Political Climate miniseries called DITCHED: fossil fuels, money flows and the greening of finance. Listen and subscribe to Political Climate wherever you get podcasts! Recommended reading: CFTC: Managing Climate Risk in the U.S. Financial System Responsible Investor: CalPERS says it plans to align with TCFD amid new California climate legislation Guardian: Investors that manage US $47tn demand world’s biggest polluters back plan for net-zero emissions Guardian: New Zealand minister calls for finance sector to disclose climate crisis risks in world first Catch all DITCHED episodes in addition to our regular Thursday shows! Listen and subscribe to Political Climate on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play or wherever you get podcasts! This episode is brought to you with support from Lyft. Lyft is leading the transition to zero emissions vehicles with a commitment to achieve 100% electric vehicles on the Lyft platform by 2030. Learn more at lyftimpact.com/electric.