Biden’s Financial Risk Roadmap, Focused on Climate, Omits Worst Federal Offenders

WASHINGTON — Today the White House released the first Roadmap to Build a Climate-Resilient Economy, required under President Biden’s Executive Order on Climate-Related Financial Risk. The Roadmap commits to addressing the impacts of climate change borne by several government finance programs like flood and crop insurance, loans for home ownership, infrastructure and education. Actions identified in the Roadmap include “incorporating climate-related financial risk into Federal lending and underwriting.”

However, the new Roadmap fully omits any reference to two federal finance agencies responsible for the worst climate damages caused by the government, the US Export-Import Bank (EXIM) and US International Development Finance Corporation. The Roadmap’s exclusion of reforms to these agencies is conspicuous by its absence. Together these agencies annually provide billions of dollars in financing for fossil fuel projects abroad. This financing contributes to climate-related financial risks at the global scale, including threats to the US federal government and financial system.

On October 7, the White House also released a list of 20 climate adaptation and resilience plans of agencies across the federal government, as required by the President Biden’s Executive Order on Tackling Climate Change at Home and Abroad. Despite the Executive Order requiring the head of each agency to submit a draft action plan, no plan for EXIM was released.

Kate DeAngelis, International Finance Program Manager for Friends of the Earth, issued this statement:

The Roadmap released today is a sham. President Biden promised a ‘comprehensive, all of government approach to climate change,’ yet plans are conspicuously absent for the most climate-damaging agency in the federal government. This president’s climate commitment rings hollow if it refuses to reign in the biggest federal climate offenders.

Communications contact: Kerry Skiff, [email protected], 202-222-0723