Financial industry is essential in fighting climate change, Al Gore and other Green Swan conference speakers say
- ‘The entities responsible for emitting an endless stream of greenhouse gas pollution, and their investors, will be held accountable,’ says Al Gore
- Benefits of embracing renewable energy in economic growth, job creation, saved lives and improved lifestyles are called ‘win-win opportunities’
The world has reached a milestone in recognising the gravity of climate change, but the battle to blunt environmental destruction will be protracted and require full-throated support from the financial industry, said global asset managers, regulators and central bankers on Wednesday.
Market signals and the “greed and fear” choices that drive financial markets are not just essential to channel capital away from entrenched coal-, oil- and gas-powered economies – they are vital to change the behaviour of billions of global consumers, said participants at a three-day virtual conference co-sponsored by the Bank for International Settlement and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“We have finally reached the long-awaited tipping point where we will have the political will needed to finally turn the tide of this crisis,” said Al Gore, the former US vice-president and chairman of Generation Investment Management, a financial services firm with US$37 billion in “sustainable” assets. “This decade is unquestionably the most important of our careers.”
Speakers at the Green Swan 2021 conference, also sponsored by Banque de France and the Network for Greening the Financial System, sought to walk a fine line.
Even as they warned of the dire cost of inaction against storms, drought, war and social unrest, they also sought to highlight the benefits of embracing renewable energy in economic growth, job creation, saved lives and improved lifestyles.
“We shouldn’t take win-win opportunities for granted. Achieving them in practice will take a lot of smart thinking and adept implementation,” said Tao Zhang, the IMF’s deputy managing editor. “Defining what is fair is often very tricky. And it’s easy for people to end up pointing fingers at each other.”
The amount of heat energy trapped by greenhouse gas emissions has risen to the equivalent of 600,000 Hiroshima-class atomic bombs per day, speakers said, even as the cost of weather disasters has increased to US$2.5 trillion globally over the past decade, up US$1 trillion from the previous decade.