Tags : climate change, global warming, investors
Large group of world investors call for a global climate change treaty
When it comes to any major change in our society it takes a combined efforts to make that change. Governments can only mandate so much, individuals can only do something within their own scope of the world, and business has to be able to justify it to their bottom line. Nowhere is this more clear than in the effort to avert any serious damage to our world because of climate change.
Up until now it has been mostly an individual effort with the government giving lip service more than anything else to changes that need to be made. Business as well looks to their P&L sheets to see if the costs of averting climate changes will be less than the damages that it might incur. Yesterday however the business world got a bit of a shake up when in New York the world’s largest global investors issued a statement calling for a strong action this year from the US and international policy makers in the fight against climate change.
The investor statement (PDF) was signed by 181 investors who collectively manage more than $13 Trillion in assets and calls for a strong and binding international treaty that will reduce pollution and bring about massive global investments in low-carbon technologies.
Investors released the statement at an all-day International Investor Forum on Climate Change hosted by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli and keynoted by British economist Lord Nicholas Stern.
“We must chart a new course toward long-term, sustainable business practices,” said DiNapoli, head of the $116.5 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund. “We cannot drag our feet on the issue of global climate change. I am deeply concerned about the investor risks climate change presents, and the human cost of inaction is unthinkable. As investors in the global economy, we can lead the way toward a future of lasting prosperity.”
“Investors have a crucial role to play in building a low-carbon, energy efficient global economy,” said Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres and director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk, which co-convened today’s forum. “But without strong policies that encourage clean technologies and discourage high-polluting technologies, their hands are tied.”
“Unmitigated climate change poses a threat to the global economy, said Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics and Special Advisor to the Group Chairman of HSBC on Economic Development and Climate Change. “But building a low carbon economy creates opportunities for investment in new technologies that promise to transform our society in the same way as the introduction of electricity or railways did in the past.”
Source: Ceres – Largest Group Ever of World Investors Calls for Strong Global Climate Change Treaty
The following are some of the things that the group of global investors want to see included in any global climate change treaty:
Now if we can just get the governments to actually do something we might actually have a chance but I’m not holding my breath.
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