Just before a weekend of protest marches around the world more than 340 institutions called on September 18 for stronger policies on climate change to facilitate low-risk investments in this sector. The statement was coordinated by four investor groups on climate change – Ceres’ Investor Network on Climate Risk in the United States, the European Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, the Investors Group on Climate Change in Australia and new Zealand, and the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change.
The organisations called on governments to put a “stable, reliable and economically meaningful” price that polluters have to pay for their carbon emissions, which will help more investment towards clean power and energy efficiency. In fact subsidies for fossil fuels are estimated €470bn worldwide a year, five times the €60bn paid in renewables subsidies. The statement warns that up to 2050 an extra €760bn a year on average is needed to limit temperature rises to 2C and avoid the worst effects of climate change. Global investment in clean energy in 2013 was just €200 bn.