A record 515 institutional investors managing $35 trillion in assets urged governments worldwide to step up action to tackle climate change and achieve the Paris Agreement’s goals.
The Global Investor Statement to Governments on Climate Change, developed by The Investor Agenda, calls on governments to phase out thermal coal power worldwide, put a meaningful price on carbon pollution, and end government subsidies for fossil fuels. It also calls for stronger nationally-determined contributions to meet the emissions reduction goal of the Paris Agreement no later than 2020.
“The global shift to clean energy is underway, but much more needs to be done by governments to accelerate the low carbon transition and to improve the resilience of our economy, society, and the financial system to climate risks,” the investors wrote. They warned the current government commitments leave an “ambition gap” that will not prevent global average temperature from rising beyond the 1.5-degree threshold that scientists warn could trigger catastrophic and irreversible effects of climate change.
The investors’ call to action comes as UN Secretary-General António Guterres is asking public and private leaders to present plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions 45 per cent by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050. “I am also asking all investors to scale up green ventures, to increase lending for low-carbon solutions and to stop, in effect, financing pollution,” Secretary-General António Guterres said at a preparatory meeting for the Climate Action Summit.
Signing the Global Investor Statement to Governments on Climate Change is an action item in the Policy Advocacy focus area of the The Investor Agenda.
The Investor Agenda is a collaborative initiative that aims to accelerate and scale up the investor actions worldwide that are critical to tackling climate change and achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement with the aim of keeping global average temperature rise to no more than 1.5-degrees Celsius.
