LSE Sustainable Leadership Series: Investors have the power...but are they willing to use it?
Investors have the power to play a critical role in diverting dangerous climate change – are they willing to use it?
Commentary 1st of October 2019
Adam C.T. Matthews and Dr Rory Sullivan set out the ingredients for effective investor action on climate change, in this post for the Sustainable Finance Leadership series.
The term ‘climate emergency’ succinctly describes the scale and imminence of the threat we face. Climate change is no longer an issue for future generations. It is the defining issue for today.
In describing climate change in these terms we are not arguing that humankind should give up hope. In fact, the evidence shows that solutions are within our grasp. Governments, scientists and economists understand the changes that are required to deliver a low-carbon economy, how much capital is needed to deliver those changes, and how this capital might be raised and deployed. Most of the technical solutions we need to reduce energy consumption and emissions are already available.
Furthermore, leaders from across society – political, administrative, business – are committing to act on climate change. However, unless countries decarbonise their economies more quickly and at scale, not only will we exceed a global average temperature rise of 2°C above pre-industrial levels but we will also soon be facing 3 or even 4°C of warming.