The board overseeing the largest public retirement plan in the United States has not comprehensively assessed the risks climate change poses to its investments, a U.S. federal agency says, sparking fears retirement savings pots could be at risk.

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The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) says its investment strategies already price in such risks to its portfolio as they track broader indices of companies coming under new pressure to disclose climate risks.

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But federal investigators tasked with ensuring climate risks are accounted for in all areas of the government say the board “has not assessed the potential investment risks that climate change poses” to the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP).

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The TSP, established by Congress in 1986, is a pension-like fund for the U.S. federal workforce and has about 6 million participants and $735 billion in assets as of April.

The striking findings, detailed in a government watchdog report released last month in response to a congressional inquiry, threaten to impede President Joe Biden’s push for a “whole of government” approach on climate change.

They also run counter to efforts in a growing number of U.S. states and cities to ditch fossil fuel investments in their own pension funds to try to lower risks.

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