The Fed entered the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System, or NGFS, in December 2020, praising it at the time as a place to exchange ideas about the development of environment and climate risk management policies for the financial sector.

The NGFS currently includes more than 100 major central banks and regulatory authorities from more than 90 countries, including the People's Bank of China and the European Central Bank.

In a statement, the Fed said it was withdrawing from the group because it had "increasingly broadened in scope, covering a wider range of issues that are outside of the Board's statutory mandate."

The Federal Reserve has a dual mandate from Congress to act independently to tackle inflation and employment, and also carries responsibilities for banking regulation and supervision in the United States.

In contrast to other central banks, Fed officials have bristled at requests by lawmakers and activists for it to play a bigger role in tackling climate change, which is a politically charged topic in the United States.

"Fed policymakers are often pressed to take a position on issues that are arguably relevant to the economy but are not within our mandate," Fed chair Jerome Powell told a conference in California in early 2024.

"Policies to address climate change are the business of elected officials and those agencies that they have charged with this responsibility," he said, adding: "The Fed has received no such charge."