Senator Warren calls for crackdown on Wall Street over climate change Business and Economic News

“The volume of greenhouse gas emissions from the financial services industry is staggering,” the U.S. senator said in a tweet.

Senator Elizabeth Warren complained that the financial services industry has made a significant contribution to climate change and called on U.S. regulators to hold them accountable.

Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, cited a study by the Sierra Club and the Center for American Progress showing that the U.S.’s eight largest banks and 10 of its largest asset managers finance about $ 2 trillion in carbon dioxide emissions. That is 1% less than what Russia produces.

“The volume of greenhouse gas emissions from the financial services industry is staggering,” he said in a tweet. “If it were a country, it would be one of the fifth largest emitters in the world.”

“Regulators,” he added, “must regulate.”

The volume of greenhouse gas emissions from the financial services industry is staggering. If it were a country, it would be among the fifth largest emitters in the world. Regulators need to strengthen their role in the financial sector #KlimaKrisi.https://t.co/jOQIYgpGZb

– Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) December 27, 2021

As part of the Biden administration’s efforts to address climate change, the Securities and Exchange Commission intends to propose rules for corporations to make their climate risks public.

Continued emissions from the financial industry mean that deadly fires, droughts, heat waves, hurricanes, floods and other extreme weather events will worsen, and “efforts to reduce emissions will be more difficult and costly,” the report said. .

The authors of the report called on the Biden administration to take a number of steps, including the introduction of stress tests to measure the potential losses of banks due to climate change.