(Pensions & Investments) The Department of Labor under the Biden administration has made environmental, social and governance investing a key focus during its first year-plus in office and is now seeking public input on a wide array of questions around climate change and retirement savings that could lead to further guidance or requirements, industry sources said.
Following a May 2021 executive order from President Joe Biden that directed federal agencies to assess and mitigate financial risks related to climate change, the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration issued a request for information last month asking the public what it should do to “protect retirement savings and pensions from risks associated with changes in climate.”
The RFI comes after the Labor Department in October unveiled a proposed rule — called “Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights” — that makes clear “that climate change and other ESG factors are often material and that in many instances fiduciaries … should consider climate change and other ESG factors in the assessment of investment risks and returns.”
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