Bank of England's Carney to become U.N. climate finance envoy

[webfact]

Bank of England's Carney to become U.N. climate finance envoy

By Isla Binnie

 

Governor of the Bank of England Mark Joseph Carney makes remarks during a "Governor Talks" session of the IMF and World Bank's 2019 Annual Meetings of finance ministers and bank governors, in Washington, October 18, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Theiler

 

MADRID (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney will lead a push by the United Nations to make the finance sector take proper account of the risks posed by climate change, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday.

 

Guterres said the Canadian, due to leave the bank on Jan. 31, was "a remarkable pioneer in pushing the financial sector to work on climate".

 

He told a news conference before a U.N. climate summit in Madrid beginning on Monday that Carney would be the U.N. special envoy on climate action and climate finance from next year.

 

Michael Bloomberg, billionaire owner of the Bloomberg financial data and news service and former New York City mayor, was the U.N. special envoy for climate action until he stepped down in November, shortly before filing paperwork to run for U.S. president.

 

Carney first spoke of the risks that climate change poses to finance in 2015, and since then has urged better risk management, supervision and disclosure.

 

He has spoken of "stranded assets" - deposits of coal, oil and gas that might lose their value if the world shifts away from carbon - and decried a lack of transparency about the effect on global warming of trillions of dollars of potential investments.

 

The 54-year-old has spent nearly seven years at the head of the bank, and previously led the Bank of Canada and worked for Goldman Sachs.

 

The Bank of England said Carney would seek to make the impact of climate change central to financial reporting, risk management and the calculation of returns ahead of a global summit in Glasgow in November 2020.

 

"The disclosures of climate risk must become comprehensive, climate risk management must be transformed, and investing for a net-zero world must go mainstream," Carney said in a statement.

 

Some 70 countries have promised to go 'net zero' - offsetting their greenhouse gas emissions with measures such as carbon capture or planting trees - by 2050.

 

Last week, Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann said addressing climate change was a job for governments.

 

But the new head of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, has promised to discuss sustainability considerations in an impending strategic review.

 

The Band of England said Carney would earn $1 a year in his new role, nearly 900,000 pounds ($1.15 million) less than his annual package at the British central bank.

 

Carney was originally due to leave in 2018 but stayed on to help steer Britain's economy through the Brexit transition. His successor has not yet been named and Carney has signaled that he would extend his stay beyond Jan. 31 - the date Britain is due to leave the EU - if necessary.

 

Carney had been seen as a contender to lead the International Monetary Fund, but the job went instead to Kristalina Georgieva, former World Bank chief executive.

 

($1 = 0.7794 pounds)

 

(Reporting by Isla Binnie, Writing by William Schomberg and Paul Sandle; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-12-02

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[Krataiboy]

The Band of England said Carney would earn $1 a year in his new role

 

Worth every penny.

[jesimps]

Thank goodness that horrible lefty little turnip's leaving the BoE. The UN's welcome to him and his new job as Climate Finance Envoy just about sums him up; although I wouldn't be surprised if he beggars that up too.

[Magenta408]

There you go. The roving Goldman-Sachs carnage machine, Mike Carney with "the scam of the century". After screwing up Canada as best as he could, he went on to Jolly Old England to spread the gloom. Nothing but good things can come out where Carney has sat.

[ballpoint]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

The Band of England said Carney would earn $1 a year in his new role, nearly 900,000 pounds ($1.15 million) less than his annual package at the British central bank

But, following Brexit, his $1 will be about equal to what he earned in pounds at the British central bank.

 

(Leaving aside the question of just who the "band of England" is (The Beatles?  The Stones?  Pink Floyd?  Queen?))