"Scared Central Banks Face Up to Threats From Climate Change"

"Bank of England Governor Mark Carney was in no mood for laughter as he stood in his tuxedo before the great and good of the British insurance industry.

“I’m going to give you a speech without a joke, I’m afraid,” Carney began his remarks on the night of Sept. 29, 2015, at Lloyd’s of London. “So charge your glasses and prepare yourself because I’m going to talk about a serious subject.”

Not Brexit, which Britons were still nine months from voting for. Instead Carney put investors and insurers on notice that they risked underestimating the “huge” threat climate change posed to global financial stability. He described a “tragedy of the horizon” where such dangers aren’t within the normal field of view of businesses, politicians and technocrats.

It was a warning shot that took time to echo in policy-making corridors. But what Carney did was to start conversations at the highest levels of financial services about global warming, as almost every major central bank began a dialog with the institutions they work with."

Jill Ward reports for Bloomberg September 23, 2019.

Source: Bloomberg, 09/24/2019