[MCN] Climate change risks the economy: Big investors bring big clout to the debate

[Lance Olsen]

Barron’s.  April 27, 2018

Climate Change: Big Investors Bring Big Clout to the Debate
By Lewis Braham 

https://www.barrons.com/articles/big-investors-bring-big-clout-to-climate-battle-1524838935 <https://www.barrons.com/articles/big-investors-bring-big-clout-to-climate-battle-1524838935>
1st 4 paragraphs

Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, once called climate change the “tragedy of the horizon.” <http://tragedyofthehorizon.com/?mod=article_inline> He was referring to the idea that it’s a long-term problem that, according to United Nations estimates, could cost some $36 trillion to address by the year 2050. 

Yet many investors are overly focused on short-term results, leading them to overlook the long-term financial risks of climate change.

Last December, a powerful group of investors banded together to tackle the issue via a five-year global initiative called Climate Action 100+. The group consists of 279 investors—pension plans, insurers, mutual funds, and exchange-traded-funds—with a collective $30 trillion in assets. It can wield enough financial clout to cause any tree-hugger-hating CEO to stand up and take notice.

Climate Action plans to encourage more than 100 companies to set emission-reduction targets and publish reports detailing how climate-change risks affect their business. The list includes companies from many pollution-heavy sectors—oil, Exxon Mobil <http://barrons.com/quote/XOM> (ticker: XOM); utilities, Duke Energy  <http://barrons.com/quote/DUK>(DUK); cars, Toyota Motor <http://barrons.com/quote/TM> (TM); miners, Rio Tinto  <http://barrons.com/quote/RIO>(RIO)—and some more surprising ones, such as conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway <http://barrons.com/quote/BRK.A> (BRK.A) and food/beverage maker Nestlé (NSRGY).

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“My worry is that we may have passed the window of opportunity where learning is still useful,” Schlesinger says.

John Bohannan, ”Trying to Lasso Climate Uncertainty.” 
SCIENCE, 13 OCTOBER 2006

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NATURE  August 30, 2007
CORRESPONDENCE

Climate: Sawyer predicted rate of warming in 1972

2 excerpts:
 
SIR - Thirty-five years ago this week, Nature published a paper titled 'Man-made carbon dioxide and the "greenhouse" effect' by the eminent atmospheric scientist J. S. Sawyer (Nature 239, 23-26; 1972). In four pages Sawyer summarized what was known about the role of carbon dioxide in enhancing the natural greenhouse effect, and made a remarkable prediction of the warming expected at the end of the twentieth century. 

Despite huge efforts, and advances in the science, the scientific consensus on the amount of global warming expected from increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations has changed little from that in Sawyer's time.

Neville Nicholls
School of Geography and Environmental Science,
Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia




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