On Wednesday, more than 500 global investment and financial executives gathered at the United Nations for the 2014 Investor Summit on Climate Risk to discuss a $36 trillion plan to help transform the global economy from one dependent on fossil fuels to a more sustainable one that uses renewable energy sources, and promotes energy efficiency.
The Clean Trillion Campaign, as it is called, was developed by Ceres, the non-profit sustainable investment organisation which hosted the UN summit.
Currently our economies are dependent on fossil fuels and the cheap energy that they provide, but they are nearing the end of their days and efforts to preserve them are leading to more dangerous circumstances resulting in far more accidents.
Related article: Are We Falling Off the Climate Precipice?
The summit was held with the intention of encouraging investors to take a more direct and involved approach to forcing a change to alternative energy, but in order for them to consider these political advancements must be made in terms of supporting clean energy investments over fossil fuels.
Cleantechnica attended the summit and reported that one of the opening speeches given was by Robert Rubin, the former Treasury Secretary. He explained that the best way to affect politics was to begin talking about climate change to everyone. Powerful business leaders often spend time with elected politicians, so talking to them personally about the opportunities in clean energy is a good way to impact policymaking.
The Clean Trillion Campaign is an effort to encourage $36 trillion of investment in areas and projects that will help to transform the economy before 2050. An amount that Ceres has calculated must be spent in order to avoid catastrophic climate change. The campaign offers tools to help investors manage the climate risks in their portfolios, as well as identifying areas where investment might be useful.
Related article: Is China an Environmental Steward, Demon or Magician?
There are ten key points in the campaign, which Cleantechnica has reported as:
1. Develop capacity to boost clean energy investments and consider setting a goal such as 5 percent portfolio-wide clean energy investments
2. Elevate scrutiny of fossil fuel companies' potential carbon asset risk exposure
3. Engage portfolio companies on the business case for energy efficiency and renewable energy sourcing, as well as on financing vehicles to support such efforts
4. Support efforts to standardize and quantify clean energy investment data and products to improve market transparency
5. Encourage "green banking" to maximize private capital flows into clean energy
6. Support issuances of asset-backed securities to expand debt financing for clean energy projects
7. Support development bank finance and technical assistance for emerging economies
8. Support regulatory reforms to electric utility business models to accelerate deployment of clean energy sources and technologies
9. Support government policies that result in a strong price on carbon pollution from fossil fuels and phase out fossil fuel subsidies
10. Support policies to de-risk deployment of clean energy sources and technologies
By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com
Joao is a writer for Oilprice.com More