CFTC commissioner: Three ways to address climate-related financial risks

A commissioner with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recommended three action items to help the agency and regulated entities “measure, understand, and address climate-related financial risk.”

In a speech delivered Friday during a sustainable finance conference at Yale University, CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero said the agency has a responsibility to understand the climate risks posed to the commodities market. Doing so helps the market remain resilient, she said.

“Climate change poses an evolving, systemic risk to U.S. financial stability and markets that financial regulators have a responsibility to monitor,” she said. “… We need to evolve our understanding of climate risk. We need to ensure that there is appropriate climate risk management so there is not a threat to financial stability.”