As chairman of the Financial Stability Board from 2011 to 2018, former Bank of Canada head Mark Carney led escalating requirements for companies to include detailed climate change-related disclosures in their financial reporting to enable better business and investment decisions. Leaving the Bank of England in January, Carney is continuing the push for financial accounting reforms in a new role as the UN special envoy on climate action, as he explained on December 1st at the opening of the COP 25 climate change conference in Madrid:
“This provides a platform to bring the risks from climate change and the opportunities from the transition to a net-zero economy into the heart of financial decision-making.”
Growing up in the Canadian north, Carney has a unique understanding of Canada’s economy and vulnerability in this transition, and he pulls no punches on the business case urgency at hand, explaining in a speech last July:
“The most important thing is to move capital from where it is today to where it needs to be tomorrow. Companies that don’t adapt – including companies in the financial system – will go bankrupt without question.”
Carney has international stature and his new UN role continues that, but it’s his Canadian roots and insider knowledge of financial markets that make him such an important resource for Canada. Not to help maintain the status quo, but to help us manage the massive evolution urgently needed in our economy, public and private policies. See The challenges facing former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney:
He is in a position to make a forthright case for a far-sighted, planned transition away from fossil fuels, including a strategy to support laid-off Alberta oil-patch workers as they shift to new livelihoods.
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