section_path: Political beginnings
section_name: Political beginnings
paragraph_text: Political beginnings
  
  According to Carney, in 2012, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked Carney—who was then governor of the Bank of Canada—if he would join the Conservative government as minister of finance. Carney declined, stating in a February 2025 interview with the CBC that he felt it "wasn't appropriate" for him to proceed with the offer because he felt it was not right to "go directly from being governor into elective politics."
  
  Carney was approached by the Liberal Party to run for leader in their 2013 leadership election. He ultimately declined to do so.
  
  As he prepared to step down as governor of the Bank of England, Carney was appointed as United Nations special envoy for climate action and finance in March 2020. In January 2020, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed Carney to the position of finance advisor for the UK presidency of the COP26 United Nations Climate Change conference in Glasgow. At that time the conference was scheduled for November 2020, but it was later postponed to November 2021.
  
  In 2021, Carney spoke at the Liberal Party policy convention, declaring his support of the party but stopping short of pledging to run under its banner. Later that year, he ruled himself out as a candidate in the then-speculated 2021 Canadian federal election, owing to his COP26 commitments.
  
  Carney endorsed Catherine McKenney 's candidacy for mayor of Ottawa in the 2022 mayoral election.
  
  In October 2023, he endorsed the UK Labour Party 's Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves to be the next chancellor of the exchequer in a video following Reeves' speech at the Labour Party conference that year. Following Labour's victory in the 2024 election, Carney was part of a taskforce which saw the creation of a British National Wealth Fund.
  
  On September 9, 2024, Carney was named by Justin Trudeau to chair the Liberal Party of Canada's leader's Task Force on Economic Growth. His name was briefly mentioned upon the resignation of Chrystia Freeland as a possible candidate for finance minister in Trudeau's ministry.