Carney's Climate Fight Gets $6.3 Trillion Boost From Firms

(Bloomberg) -- Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said the number of companies pledging to increase financial reporting standards to fend off risk from climate change has doubled in five months.

Companies with a combined market capitalization of more than $6.3 trillion have thrown their weight behind Carney’s recommendations on climate change disclosure, up from $3.3 trillion in June when the report was first released, according to a statement Tuesday from a task force led by Carney.

The support of 237 companies including JP Morgan Chase &CO, HSBC Holdings Plc, and Total SA may help the Financial Stability Board dull the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the landmark Paris Agreement signed two years ago. While the Paris deal on climate change and the work of Carney’s task force aren’t directly linked, they both rely on support from companies for steps to combat global warming, which ultimately requires limits on fossil-fuel pollution.

“Who sees risk? Who sees opportunity? Who is managing against those?” Carney said in an interview with Bloomberg TV from a climate summit in Paris. “There are certain companies that are way out in front on this and they get a benefit from consumer demand as a consequence.”

The report was commissioned by the Group of 20 leading economies in 2015, which asked Carney to compile a study weighing the financial risks implied by global warming.

--With assistance from Tom Keene

To contact the reporter on this story: Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Mark Deen

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