Today, President Biden issued an executive order on climate change, announcing that it is "the policy of my Administration to advance consistent, clear, intelligible, comparable, and accurate disclosure of climate-related financial risk."

Notably, this executive order requires that "FSOC member agencies" (which includes the SEC) "issu[e] a report . . . [concerning] efforts . . . to integrate consideration of climate-related financial risk in their policies and programs, including a discussion of (A) the necessity of any actions to enhance climate-related disclosures by regulated entities to mitigate climate-related financial risk to the financial system or assets and a recommended implementation plan for taking those actions; [and] (B) any current approaches to incorporating the consideration of climate-related financial risk into their respective regulatory and supervisory activities . . . ."  

In effect, this executive order provides the imprimatur of the White House to the SEC's recent efforts to mandate financial disclosures concerning the risks of climate change--particularly as the report also invites agencies to specify "new or revised regulatory standards" that "identif[y] [how] climate-related financial risk can be mitigated." 

This executive order also directs other agencies to incorporate climate-change considerations into their regulatory activities.  For example, this order "direct[s] the Federal Insurance Office to assess climate-related issues or gaps in the supervision and regulation of insurers."  Further, the executive order encourages efforts to "require major Federal suppliers to publicly disclose greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risk and to set science-based reduction targets," which would implicate vast swathes of the economy. 

President Biden's executive order represents one of the more significant regulatory initiatives by his administration concerning climate change--and emphasizes that regulatory action concerning climate change disclosures, particularly in the financial sector, will be a preferred tool of the Biden Administration in achieving climate-change related goals. 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/05/20/executive-order-on-climate-related-financial-risk/