Keeling Curve

Primary Project Category:

Secondary Project Category:

Project Summary / Description:

Established in November 2019, the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets works to address the challenge of moving massive amounts of capital resources in our society by engaging banks and insurance companies and activating their regulators. Over the last two years, U.S. financial regulators have made notable progress when it comes to managing the systemic risks posed by the climate crisis. From the Federal Reserve to the SEC, to the Financial Stability Oversight Council, risk from climate change is becoming a priority. Yet despite these initial steps, many U.S. federal agencies still lag far behind their global peers. As a result, the U.S. economy is particularly exposed to climate risks. By not getting in front of this issue, the U.S. economy is largely operating in the dark on an issue that creates profound risks for banks, insurers and other key financial institutions that underpin the economy. 

The last two years were also marked by a national reckoning on systemic racism and its longstanding linkages to the American economy. Astonishing wealth gaps, damages from climate disasters, and broader social and economic inequities were laid bare. Financial regulators can no longer afford to look at systemic racism, climate change or the pandemic in isolation. Each feeds into the other, with significant populations, especially communities of color, bearing the most severe burdens. The interplay between climate change as a systemic financial risk to the U.S. economy, systemic racism, and the Covid-19 pandemic recovery illustrates how none of these issues exist in isolation.

Regions of Operations:

Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

Over the past two years, the Ceres Accelerator team has endeavored to ensure the integration of a just and inclusive economy (JIE) as a core element in our programmatic work. Throughout our regulatory work, we sought to focus on specific initiatives to address the systemic racism that exists in our society. A few of the most impactful elements of our work include our submission to the Federal Reserve on the update of the Community Reinvestment Act to encourage a more proactive approach to environmental justice issues and our lengthy filing with the Federal Housing Finance Agency regarding risks on mortgages, with disproportionate impact on low- and moderate-income communities. 

In pushing regulators, the Ceres Accelerator team has worked with community development advocates including in preparing comments submitted to the Federal Reserve on the Community Reinvestment Act and encouraging a more proactive approach to environmental justice issues. Similarly, they are engaging insurance commissioners and affected stakeholders on flood risks‚Äîwhich have outsized impacts on disadvantaged communities‚Äîand will publish a whitepaper later this year.

Sub-Categories: