President Biden yesterday issued an Executive Order directing the national climate adviser and director of the National Economic Council to develop a comprehensive, government-wide climate strategy by the end of September. The Order calls for a plan to identify and disclose financial risk to government programs, assets and liabilities, posed by climate risks, and determine the public and private financing needed to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Key Elements of the Order

• Financial regulators, including the Secretary of the Treasury, to consider assessing climate-related financial risk.
• Secretary of Labor to consider suspending, revising or rescinding any Trump administration-era rules barring investment firms from considering environmental, social and governance factors in their investment decisions.
• Federal financial management and reporting to be modernized to consider climate-related financial risk, especially risk related to federal lending programs. Regulators are encouraged to consider new disclosure requirements for major federal suppliers relating to greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risks.
• The federal government will be required to develop and publish annual assessments of its climate-related fiscal risk exposure.
• The Office of Management and Budget to diminish the federal government's exposure through the budget and oversight of its execution.