(photo courtesy of OxFam International)
From ThinkProgress.Org:
A group of more than 120 CEOs and other institutional investors who manage more than $12 trillion in assets sent an open letter to seven of the world’s wealthiest countries on Tuesday, asking them to make bold commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions during the U.N. climate talks later this year. The reason, the letter said, was because of the uncertainty surrounding how bad climate change would be and how it would affect their businesses.
“As institutional investors responsible for managing the retirement savings and investments of millions of people or managing endowments, we believe climate change is one of the biggest systemic risks we face,” the letter read, urging the countries’ financial ministers to support a long-term global emissions reduction goal that limits warming to a 2° Celsius.
The letter was sent to the Group of Seven (G-7), which is made up of the finance ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan. Among the letter’s signatories were managers of some of the world’s biggest investment and pension funds, including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the New York State Common Retirement Fund, and the AFL-CIO.
http://thinkprogress.org/...
Wow - the letter itself is worth a read. It begins:
For the attention of the Finance Ministers of the Group of Seven (G-7)
As institutional investors responsible for managing the retirement savings and investments of millions of people or managing endowments, we believe climate change is one of the biggest systemic risks we face. With the right market signals from policy makers, investment in low-carbon and climate resilient opportunities can flow and climate impacts and resulting economic damages can be mitigated. An ambitious agreement in Paris with the aim to limit average global temperature increase to 2°C, as agreed previously by UN countries in Cancun, is a critical first step in this direction.
We therefore urge you to support:
1. A long-term global emissions reduction goal in the Paris agreement;
2. The submission of short to medium-term national emissions pledges and country level action plans.
...
http://www.iigcc.org/...
The 120 CEOs call themselves the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC). The market has spoken!
