Investor coalition pledges $10 billion for 'cleantech'

Investor coalition pledges $10 billion for 'cleantech'

Peter Clarke
EE Times Europe
02/18/2008 12:01 PM

LONDON — A coalition of more than forty U.S. and European institutional investors, responsible for more than $1.75 trillion in assets, has announced a commitment to invest in $10 billion "clean technology" over the next two years.

The Ceres coalition includes institutional investors, a number of environmental and sustainable development lobby groups as well corporate representation from companies including: American Airlines, Coca-Cola, Dell, Ford, General Motors, Macdonalds, Sun Microsystems and Time-Warner.

The plan, an attempt to use capital to address climate change, was unveiled at the Investor Summit on Climate Risk, hosted by the United Nations Foundation and the Ceres coalition in New York. Other goals include a 20 percent reduction in the energy used in property investment holdings over the coming three years. The investors said they would place green building standards at the core of future investment decisions, according to a responsible investor report distributed by Innovator Capital Ltd. of London.

The coalition has sent a petition to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asking it to issue guidance leading to full corporate disclosure of climate risks and opportunities when companies report their financial results, the report said. The coalition also plans to lobby the U.S. Congress for a mandatory national policy to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the 60 percent to 90 percent reduction from 1990 levels that is being sought by 2050. At present greenhouse gas emissions are still rising.

The report quoted Mindy Lubber, president of the Ceres investor coalition, as saying: "This action plan reflects the many investment opportunities that exist today to dent global warming pollution, build profits and benefit the global economy."

Alain Grisay, chief executive of U.K. fund manager F&C, one of the coalition members, was reported as saying: "F&C strongly supports calls for the U.S. government to introduce a mandatory national policy to cut CO2 emissions: investors and industry need certainty over what the regulatory regime will be over the next two to three decades in order to release the billions of investment capital that will finance the shift we need to make to a low-carbon energy system."