THE TIME IS NOW

Big Investors Warn Climate Change Could Upend Economy and Financial Markets

Some of the biggest figures in American investments wrote they fear financial chaos and urge stronger regulatory oversight of companies’ effects on the environment.

An influential group of large investors, including asset managers and pension-fund executives, have signed a letter warning top U.S. economic officials that climate change is threatening to create turmoil in the financial markets. The letter, organized by the group Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets, urged the Federal Reserve and other U.S. regulators to “explicitly integrate climate change across your mandates” to avoid an economic disaster. “The climate crisis poses a systemic threat to financial markets and the real economy, with significant disruptive consequences on asset valuations and our nation’s economic stability,” reads the letter, which was signed by more than three-dozen pension plans, fund managers, and other financial institutions that together manage almost $1 trillion in assets. Ceres makes two core recommendations: that agencies treat climate change as a systemic risk, and that the Securities and Exchange Commission ensures mandatory and consistent disclosure of climate threats facing companies.