47. Part II. 2023 Climate Risk Scorecard Tracks Climate Action Among U.S. Financial Regulatory Agencies
Our 279 kW low-income community solar project at the House of Praise in Washington D.C.
In March 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a proposal that would require publicly traded companies to disclose their climate-related risks. Shortly after, Ceres, who has been tracking and informing SEC climate-risk disclosure policy for over a decade, published their inaugural 2022 Climate Risk Scorecard to assess federal agencies’ actions towards mitigating climate-related risks to capital markets and institutions. At a time when all eyes were on U.S. regulatory agencies for how they’d take climate-related action, this scorecard provided a meaningful look into what progress had been made so far, and what still needs to be done. The 2023 Climate Risk Scorecard, released in July, updates and expands on these findings across ten federal agencies.
Source: Ceres
The Ceres 2023 Scorecard assesses nine categories, growing from the six evaluated last year. Ceres found that collectively, the assessed agencies have taken over 100 actions in the past year to address climate-related financial risk. In their executive summary of the scorecard, Ceres describes, “Most of the agencies assessed made meaningful strides in producing research and data on climate financial risk, and all but two have made critical progress in integrating climate risk into their supervision of regulated entities.” Notably, the U.S. Treasury implemented more than 30 agency actions and made significant progress in five categories. The Treasury’s progress continues with last week’s announcement of their new Climate Counselor appointee.
While some regulators have taken innovative steps—such as the Fed’s announcement of the federal government’s first climate-related scenario analysis exercise—others have failed to take some of the most foundational actions. Ceres also asserts that the agencies with responsibilities related to financially vulnerable communities failed to make significant progress assessing climate risks for these communities.
Regardless of how the SEC rules in the fall, partnering with Sunwealth is an apt opportunity. Investing in solar tax equity with Sunwealth provides an opportunity for banks and financial institutions to develop portfolio stability and resilience, get exposure to projects that could potentially provide CRA credits, and build wealth, sustainability, and resilience in local communities. We put capital to work across the country, providing communities with meaningful energy savings, emissions reductions, and local green jobs, while delivering strong financial returns to our investors.
View the 2023 Ceres Climate Risk Scorecard here.
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