Greens Look to Yellen on Climate

by Kelsey Tamborrino (Politico's Morning Energy) --President-elect Joe Biden is expected to officially tap Janet Yellen for Treasury secretary, a job with significant climate implications. --And former Secretary of State John Kerry will serve as Biden's special presidential envoy for climate.

STOCKING UP THE CABINET: President-elect Joe Biden is expected to name Janet Yellen to be his Treasury secretary. The formal announcement — a historic move intended to satisfy competing factions within the Democratic Party — could come as soon as today, as Biden pledged to name his Treasury pick around Thanksgiving. If named and confirmed, Yellen would be the first woman to hold the position.

Biden's pick for Treasury secretary is one of several key positions closely watched by green activists, who see it as crucial to tackling climate change amid concerns about the risks it poses to the financial system. Yellen, who is not the first choice of many environmentalists to head Treasury, has been more outspoken in recent weeks on the role that central banks and other financial regulators must play, Pro's Zack Colman reports.

"She was clearly trying to burnish her climate credentials, which is a good sign that they see this as a top priority," said Jamie Henn, founder and director of Fossil Free Media. "She's someone we can work with, but someone we will have to push farther than her previous comments."

Yellen has called a carbon tax a "textbook solution" to addressing greenhouse gas emissions. She's a member of the Climate Leadership Council, a group that advocates putting a price on carbon emissions and returning the revenues to households as a dividend, and last month Yellen and Mark Carney, a former Bank of England governor, published a report detailing how financial regulators can limit climate risk, while noting that "the scale of the challenge means that carbon prices alone are not enough."

As Zack notes, Treasury can set a climate agenda through the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which is made up of Treasury and the chiefs of other financial regulators, by asking other agencies what steps they're taking to address climate risk. Environmentalists also argue that the Dodd-Frank Act gives Treasury the authority to clamp down on the risks that banks, insurers and taxpayers face from the burning of fossil fuels. But a Treasury chief would have to be willing to use the full scale of those powers.

KERRY PICKED: Already, Biden on Monday announced a slate of nominations and appointments to his foreign policy and national security team, including John Kerry as the first special presidential envoy for climate to sit on the National Security Council. The position puts Kerry, a familiar name in international climate efforts, in charge of Biden's push to put the U.S. back at the forefront of international climate diplomacy, as Zack also reports.

In the role, Kerry will also be a key player promoting Biden's vision that national economic recoveries in the wake of the coronavirus should prioritize sustainability, much as the European Union and United Nations have championed. The New York Times reported that Biden intends to name a White House climate policy coordinator in December who will help streamline domestic climate policies throughout federal agencies. READ MORE