Private Sector and Climate Change

Private Sector and Climate Change

By Dr Arvind Kumar

There is mounting pressure at global level on the private sector to mobilise and find new technologies to cut greenhouse gas emissions. This pressure emanates from the institutional investors with a collective $26 trillion under management. Asserting that the pricing of planet-warming carbon emissions, which underscores the EU’s Emissions Trading System, Kevin Parker, global head of Deutsche Asset Management, says is “nice” but not essential. The Copenhagen Accord agreed at in the Danish capital in December 2009 included a pledge by developed countries to raise $100 billion per year by 2020 to help poor countries fight climate change and adapt to its inevitable consequences. Meeting the following year in Cancún, the 190 nations involved in the UN talks made progress on the establishment of a Green Fund to deliver climate cash to developing countries. The fund will be governed by a board of 24 members, on which developed and developing countries will be equally represented.

At a recently held meeting on 12 January this year, which drew more than 400 representatives of banking, insurance, government, labour and institutional investing, the UN’s Roland Rich warned attendees against “putting all our eggs in the government basket.” Anne Simpson of CalPERS, the giant pension and health benefits agency, while endorsing Ronald’s view said: “We as the major capital providers have got to work this out. We cannot look to government to solve this problem.” Many others noted that climate change sceptics and deniers, especially in the United States, made tackling the problem more difficult. Many were disappointed that the December UN Climate Summit in Durban, South Africa, ended with an agreement to forge a binding new deal limiting carbon emissions by 2015, which would enter into force by 2020.

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