Labor Department ready to roll back climate investing rule

By Lesley Clark | 06/03/2025 06:16 AM EDT

The administration intends to issue new guidelines after a Trump-appointed judge twice upheld a Biden-era rule that lets investors consider climate costs.

Specialist Gennaro Saporito (left) and trader Patrick Casey work the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Specialist Gennaro Saporito (left) and trader Patrick Casey work the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. Richard Drew/AP

The Trump administration likely will jettison one of the Biden administration’s more unconventional strategies to curb climate change — and says it will come up with its own.

The Labor Department last week informed the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it would issue its own rule on how retirement plan sponsors account for climate risks in investing.

The department intends to move through the rulemaking process “as expeditiously as possible” and the rulemaking will appear on the Labor Department’s spring regulatory agenda, Trump’s Justice Department told the court.

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Under the Biden administration rule, retirement fund managers were allowed to take environmental, social and governance, or ESG, factors into account in the case of a tiebreaker between two financially equal investment options.

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