World Investors Ask For Strong Agreement On Climate Change

By Jilian Mincer
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--More than 130 leading investors are asking international leaders to implement a strong, global agreement on climate change with binding emissions targets by the end of 2009.
The group, which has assets of about $6.4 trillion, on Tuesday plans to send its request to world leaders and climate negotiators preparing for talks to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.
"The goal is to make it clear to negotiators that this is as much a financial issue as a scientific and environmental issue," said Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a coalition of investor groups, environmental organizations and investment funds, and director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk, one of the campaign organizers. "The leading financial players are saying the only way to deal with this is to put an international treaty in place."
The effort is coordinated by three leading investor groups on climate change including the U.S.-based Network on Climate Risk, the European Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change and the Investors Group on Climate Change in Australia and New Zealand.
The investors, who include BlackRock Inc. (BLK), the California Public Employees' Retirement System, HSBC Holdings PLC's (HBC) HSBC Investments and numerous other investment companies and pensions funds, are concerned about the potential impact of climate change on their investments and don't want the current economic downturn to delay an international agreement.
Among other things, they are asking for binding, long-term global targets to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, government support for research, development and deployment of low-carbon technology and technology transfer, and contributions from developing countries.
The investors also want an expanded and more liquid global carbon market and measures to reverse deforestation to enhance the role of forests as carbon sinks.
Lubber said the negotiations won't be easy, but she is optimistic.
"The science is more clear," she said. "The implications of climate change are being felt, and the United States is no longer sitting out."
-By Jilian Mincer, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-4042; jilian.mincer@dowjones.com