Climate change: investors with US$8.8 trillion of assets lean on CLP, Tenaga, Asian utilities to come clean on carbon emission cuts

Name: World leaders pledge to cut greenhouse emissions at virtual Earth Day summit
Uploaded: 2021-06-07T08:59:34.000Z
Duration: 3 min 27 s
Description: World leaders pledge to cut greenhouse emissions at virtual Earth Day summit

Five power generators including CLP, China Resources Power and Tenaga Nasional are initial targets of a shareholders engagement programme

New investor group backed by 13 money managers overseeing US$8.8 trillion of assets globally

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A Chinese flag on a car near a coal-fired power plant in Harbin in northernmost Heilongjiang province. Photo: Reuters

Eric Ng

Published: 4:59pm, 7 Jun 2021Updated: 9:26pm, 7 Jun 2021

Asian power utilities will soon become targets for powerful institutional investors seeking to drive decarbonisation efforts through a shareholders engagement programme, starting with five generators including CLP Holdings and China Resources Power Holdings.

The programme, backed by 13 money managers overseeing US$8.8 trillion of assets, calls for systematic discussions of their progress with cutting emissions, strengthening disclosure and improving governance of climate-related risks.

The other three utilities are Tenaga Nasional in Malaysia, and Chubu Electric Power and Electric Power Development in Japan, according to the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change, the coordinator of the programme.

“Investor engagement with Asian electric utilities will play a key role in addressing climate risk,” it said in a statement on Monday. “This sector will also play a critical role in enabling the transition and decarbonisation of other sectors which are dependent on utilities.”

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World leaders pledge to cut greenhouse emissions at virtual Earth Day summit

Asia’s power sector contributes about 23 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and has a young asset age profile of 13 years versus an average economic lifetime of 40 years, the group said. The five Asian utilities alone emitted 285 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2019, roughly the same amount generated in Spain, it added.