Key players in the financial world will come together to learn how to invest trillions of dollars in the fight against global warming. The”2016 Investor Summit on Climate Risk: Advancing the Clean Trillion” is billed as the first major event on climate change for investors and businesses since the international climate talks in Paris, the 2016 Investor Summit on Climate Risk at the United Nations in NYC on Wednesday, January 27, 2016. Co-hosting the Summit is Ceres, the United Nations Foundation that informs the business community how to fight climate change and the United Nations Office for Partnerships.The one day event expects hundreds of attendees from around the world to discuss how to put the goals of COP21 into action.
Key topics will include types of capital available that will help meet global climate goals as well as how to invest in clean energy in developed countries. Ceres says that “in order to limit global warming to 2°C and avoid the worst effects of climate change, the world needs to invest an additional $44 trillion in clean energy—more than $1 trillion per year for the next 36 years.”
Key speakers include Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Michael Bloomberg, Founder, Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies & Three-Term Mayor of the City of New York, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, Al Gore, former Vice President and co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management and chairman of The Climate Reality Project, a non-profit organization he founded that focuses on solutions for climate change. Also speaking will be CEO Brian Moynihan along with leading investors, including ABP, AXA, BlackRock, CalSTRS, New York City Comptroller, New York State Common Retirement Fund. A list of confirmed speakers are here. Full agenda is here. Some initial positive steps have been taken in the investment world. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli put $2 billion in the state’s public employee pension fund, a fund created by Goldman Sachs which is made up of companies with smaller carbon footprints.(see Tina Rosenberg’s article “An Investment Strategy to Save the Planet)
The state’s fund is also investing about $1.5 billion over it’s already invested $500 million in its Green Strategic Investment Program for companies operating with the new emissions goals of COP21. Low-carbon funds that started with seed money from the United Nations have recently surfaced under well known funds such as BlackRock, State Street, and Mellon Capital in the United States, and Amundi and Northern Trust in Europe. These funds were started with seed capital from United Nations
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