Mark Carney: From Climate Finance Evangelist to Canadian Prime Minister
Few global leaders have bridged the worlds of high finance, central banking, and climate policy like Mark Carney. From restructuring post-Soviet Russia’s economy to launching global climate finance alliances, Carney’s journey to Canada’s top political job was decades in the making.
Early-Mid Career Evolution: From Financial Navigator to Climate-Focused Central Banker
Mark began his career with 13 years at Goldman Sachs, where he helped navigate the financial integration of post-apartheid South Africa and post-Soviet Russia into global bond markets. He then went on to lead two of the world’s most influential central banks — the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England — over a 12-year span.
Two years into his tenure as Governor of the Bank of England (BoE), he delivered his landmark 2015 speech, "Breaking the Tragedy of the Horizon," where he emphasized that climate change poses significant risks to financial stability. This was one of the first times a central banker framed climate risk as financial risk — a concept that would reshape ESG investing and central bank policy worldwide.
A few months later, he was a driving force behind the establishment of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) as Chair of the Financial Stability Board (under the G20 and Bank for International Settlements).
In 2016, he also guided the Bank of England’s first climate stress testing efforts and co-led the creation of the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) in 2017, alongside the Banque de France and the Dutch Central Bank.
Climate Finance Efforts (Post-Central Banking)
At the end of his BoE tenure in 2020, Carney pivoted further into global climate finance leadership:
Vice Chairman at Brookfield Asset Management (focused on ESG and Impact Investing)
Author of Value(s): Building a Better World for All (2021)
United Nations (UN) Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance
At the UN, he launched GFANZ (Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero) at COP26 — a bold attempt to align global finance with climate goals. However, GFANZ has since faced turbulence, with several major financial institutions withdrawing amid the global backlash against ESG investing, raising doubts about its long-term viability.
Rise to the Canadian Premiership
In March 2025, after Justin Trudeau announced his resignation as leader of the Liberal Party, Carney won the leadership contest and became the Canadian Prime Minister.
He ran on a climate finance-centered platform, promising to:
Replace the Consumer-Facing Carbon Tax
Eliminate the Capital Gains Tax
Introduce a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
On his first day as Prime Minister, he repealed the Consumer Carbon Tax. A week later, he abolished the Capital Gains Tax — a move that could influence the returns of climate-focused investments by Limited Partners (LPs).
However, no significant progress has yet been made on CBAM, despite mounting concerns over potential American tariffs under the Trump administration. A Canadian CBAM could tax U.S. imports based on their respective carbon intensity relative to Canadian industrial sectors — a bold but politically risky move.
Just two days after removing the Capital Gains Tax, Carney announced a snap federal election on March 23, 2025, and won the election on April 29, 2025. Many believe Donald Trump’s escalating rhetoric and aggressive trade posturing galvanized Canadian voter sentiment in Carney’s favor.
Future Conclusion?
Who better than Mark Carney to become Canadian Prime Minister in times of climate risk and trade war? In hindsight, Carney has been preparing for this moment for decades. His Oxford doctoral thesis — "The Dynamic Advantage of Competition" — explored the relationship between competition and national competitiveness.
Do you think that Mark Carney will effectively establish a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism? How will this affect the Global Trade Order? Please comment down below with your thoughts.
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