We asked individuals from environmental and social justice groups, politics, academia, businesses, and young people to tell us what they think the Green New Deal might mean for the UK. This is the second in a series of blogs in which we feature their responses. Read more
This post is by Catherine Howarth, chief executive of ShareAction and Green Alliance trustee.
The focus of the investment community, in the run up to the Paris COP21, was on the financial risks of investments in fossil fuel companies. Understandably so, as these companies’ profits and valuation depend on activities that directly contribute to climate change. While the divestment movement has called for large institutions to move their money out of fossil fuels, others have chosen to engage with companies which have carbon heavy business models, challenging them on their preparations for the inevitable shift to a lower carbon economy. Read more
Professional investors have been stubbornly resistant to the idea that climate change should have any bearing on their decision-making. They continue to sink money into high carbon industries while ignoring the returns available from green infrastructure like clean energy and sustainable transport. These low carbon developments face an annual global funding gap of $1 trillion dollars. As Martin Wolf said in the FT, “Investors are implicitly betting [that] the world will abandon its pledge to keep emissions below the level thought to produce a rise of 2C.” Read more
