US Central Bank's Leading Climate Advisor Departs, According to Bloomberg's Reporting

In a significant move, Kevin Stiroh, the Federal Reserve's most senior official focused on climate change, has left the US central bank. Stiroh, who was co-chair of the Basel Committee's Task Force on Climate-related Financial Risks, moved from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to the Fed's board of governors in 2021 to take on a leadership role on climate.

Stiroh's departure comes at a time when the Fed is navigating hostility from the US president Donald Trump towards any green transition efforts. Trump's attacks on Fed chair Jerome Powell over his decision to keep interest rates on hold have threatened the central bank's independence.

Stiroh's tenure at the Fed was marked by his advocacy for the use of forward-looking scenario analysis to assess bank exposures to climate risk. He also called for research using more sophisticated models to examine how climate change impacts bank risk.

Stiroh's departure signifies the Fed is walking away from the important work of evaluating the financial risks of climate change, according to Graham Steele, a policy expert and former Treasury official who served as a senior adviser to Michael Gibson at the Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve's supervision climate committee, which brought together senior staff from across the Fed system, was closed earlier this year. Other internal climate groups focused on financial stability and economic impacts were also shut down.

The move to close these committees and Stiroh's departure have raised concerns among analysts. They suggest that the Fed is trying to placate the anti-climate views of the Trump administration. This comes after the Fed left the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), a global group of central banks trying to help the financial sector mitigate the risks of climate change, in January.

Tensions erupted during a Financial Stability Board meeting in June, highlighting the ongoing disagreements between the US and its counterparts in Europe and Asia on climate action.

Michael Gibson, who is set to leave the central bank following more than three decades there, has been a key figure in the Fed's efforts to address climate change. Fed governor Michael Barr recently said the central bank needs to ensure that banks are measuring and managing climate-related risk as they do other risks.

As the world continues to grapple with the challenges posed by climate change, the departure of Stiroh and the closure of climate committees at the Fed raise questions about the US's commitment to addressing this critical issue. The incoming Co-Chair of the Basel Committee's Task Force on Climate-related Financial Risks, who succeeds Stiroh, has not been explicitly mentioned in the search results.

US Central Bank's Leading Climate Advisor Departs, According to Bloomberg's Reporting