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Deutsche Bank, Investors Seek Climate Change Action (Update2)
2010-11-16 23:08:31.530 GMT
(Adds investors in fifth paragraph.)
By Kim Chipman
Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG and the California
Public Employees' Retirement System are among 259 investors
urging policy makers to combat global warming or face mounting
economic disruptions in the next 40 years.
Losses stemming from climate change may trim as much as 20
percent from global economic output by 2050, according to a
statement from Ceres, a coalition that joined investors holding
$15 trillion in assets in seeking action. Frankfurt-based
Deutsche Bank is Germany's largest bank and Calpers, based in
Sacramento, California, is the biggest U.S. public-pension fund.
Countries must set a price on carbon-dioxide pollution, cut
emissions, adapt to climate change and embrace policies to spur
use of renewable energy, according to the group. Investors said
the U.S. Congress's failure to pass legislation limiting
greenhouse-gas emissions makes it unlikely negotiators will
agree on a global climate-change treaty during talks in Cancun,
Mexico, this month.
"Investors need greater policy certainty from
governments," Donald MacDonald, trustee for BT Pension Scheme,
the U.K.'s largest employee pension plan, said today in a
statement. "Deferring climate-change agreement adds to investor
concerns that climate-change risks and costs aren't taken
seriously."
Negotiators at the United Nations-led talks in Cancun
should establish a plan for the funding needed from rich
countries to help poor nations deal with the affects of higher
temperatures and rising sea levels, the group said. Investors
seeking action include Deutsche Bank's climate-change unit, and
Zurich-based Swiss Reinsurance Co., the world's second-largest
reinsurer behind Munich Re.
Copenhagen Accord
The U.S. and industrialized economies agreed last year in
Copenhagen to provide $30 billion from 2010 to 2012 and as much
as $100 billion a year from public and private sources by 2020.
The group blamed the U.S. and a deadlock in the Senate on
legislation to cap carbon emissions in part for the lack of
progress in the international talks.
"Climate change may be out of vogue in Washington today,
but it poses serious financial risks that aren't going away and
will only increase the longer we delay enacting sensible
policies to transition to a low-carbon economy," said Jack
Ehnes, chief executive officer of the Sacramento-based
California State Teachers' Retirement System, the second-largest
U.S. public-pension fund.
North American Lagging
North America is lagging behind Europe and Asia in clean-
energy investing, Ceres, a Boston-based coalition of investors
and environmental groups, said today in a news release on the
investor statement. The U.S. supported $20.7 billion in
renewable energy projects last year while Europe backed $43.7
billion and Asia $40.8 billion, Ceres said, citing a UN report.
Global clean-energy investments are expected to exceed $200
billion this year, according to the coalition. Bloomberg New
Energy Finance and the World Economic Forum have said about $500
billion is needed annually by 2020 to hold worldwide temperature
increases to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) higher
than in pre-industrial times, Ceres said.
"Current investment levels fall well short of what is
needed to stem the rise of global temperatures and adapt to a
warming world," Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, said today.
Major polluting countries including the U.S. and China
agreed in July 2009 to cap average global temperature increase
to 2 degrees to stave off the worst effects of global warming.
The UN climate-change meeting in Cancun is set to take
place from Nov. 29 through Dec. 10.
For Related News and Information:
Emission market news NI ENVMARKET <GO>
Today's top energy stories ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page EPWR <GO>
--Editors: Steve Geimann, Larry Liebert
To contact the reporter on this story:
Kim Chipman in Washington at +1-202-624-1927 or
kchipman@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Larry Liebert at +1-202-624-1936 or
LLiebert@bloomberg.net.
