A group of investment funds, which collectively manage $41 trillion have urged the governments of the world to truly act on global warming and to bolster their net zero targets.
The group consists of 457 investors, who currently manage almost a third of the worlds assets.. They called on governments to “significantly strengthen” plans for emission reduction – importantly bringing in net zero targets by 2050 or sooner.
These include some huge names, such as HSBC Aviva BNP Paribas and Axa amongst many more. This collection of investors is the largest to ever call for concerted climate change action. It should be noted that their call is directly in line with what has been said before, talking about holding warming at 1.5C or less.
There are a whole range of things they wish to see, from a ban on new coal plants and measures to reduce fossil fuel burn.
There was some notable names missing from the list, including some of the biggest investment firms in the USA.
My big question is – are they practicing what they preach? How much of the $41 trillion they manage. invested in fossil fuels? If one third of all investment funds refused to invest in fossil fuel extraction or use, this would have a huge impact. For instance, if this group decided that they would not invest in any car company for the creation of fossil fuel cars, it would make these harder to finance! This might force a faster move to electric power train simply on that basis.