climate tech
Global climate group trumpets $130T pledge from asset managers
November 3, 2021
A campaign to rally the world's financial system around net-zero carbon targets now has more than $130 trillion in private capital committed to the cause, leaders at the Glasgow global climate conference said Wednesday.
That figure—representing assets managed by over 450 fund managers, banks, pensions and other asset owners—more than covers the capital needed to transform the global economy to meet ambitious decarbonization goals by 2050, leaders of the initiative said.
New technologies geared to making that transformation will cost roughly $100 trillion, according to Mark Carney, a former central banker who leads the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero.
Even as the Gfanz coalition trumpeted its ambitions, some critics who track climate-focused initiatives have derided its approach and called on the group to mandate an unwinding of fossil-fuel investment.
In recent years, growing pressure to cut or remove carbon emissions has unleashed a flood of investment into climate-focused funding vehicles across the venture capital and private equity markets.
That is also a result of more investment committees adopting climate-minded principles in their allocation mandates. Investors bet $1.6 billion on VC-backed climate deals in 2010, a figure that rose this year to almost $31 billion through Sept. 30, according to PitchBook data.
Investors are also chasing lucrative opportunities in climate-related technology, a segment that PitchBook estimates will be worth as much as $150 trillion over the next 30 years, according to the Climate Tech Q3 VC Update.
Carney launched the United Nations-affiliated Gfanz campaign earlier this year based on the idea that a firm commitment by the global financial system would be critical to fund new carbon-reducing technology to slow down climate change.
Asset managers that join the alliance have pledged to mobilize capital and help define standards for corporate and other efforts to reduce planet-warming emissions, along with a system for holding members accountable to meeting targets. A subsidiary group for asset managers called NetZero Alliance says on its website it has more than 220 members, including giants like BlackRock, JP Morgan and Franklin Templeton.
But in a report this week criticizing Gfanz, a pressure group called Reclaim Finance cited climate-related standards defined by the International Energy Agency in calling out certain flaws. The group declared, for instance, that Carney's alliance lacks limits on the use of "offsets," or emission rights that companies can purchase on carbon markets.
Featured image of Mark Carney (left) and UK finance minister Rishi Sunak by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
That figure—representing assets managed by over 450 fund managers, banks, pensions and other asset owners—more than covers the capital needed to transform the global economy to meet ambitious decarbonization goals by 2050, leaders of the initiative said.
New technologies geared to making that transformation will cost roughly $100 trillion, according to Mark Carney, a former central banker who leads the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero.
Even as the Gfanz coalition trumpeted its ambitions, some critics who track climate-focused initiatives have derided its approach and called on the group to mandate an unwinding of fossil-fuel investment.
In recent years, growing pressure to cut or remove carbon emissions has unleashed a flood of investment into climate-focused funding vehicles across the venture capital and private equity markets.
That is also a result of more investment committees adopting climate-minded principles in their allocation mandates. Investors bet $1.6 billion on VC-backed climate deals in 2010, a figure that rose this year to almost $31 billion through Sept. 30, according to PitchBook data.
Investors are also chasing lucrative opportunities in climate-related technology, a segment that PitchBook estimates will be worth as much as $150 trillion over the next 30 years, according to the Climate Tech Q3 VC Update.
Carney launched the United Nations-affiliated Gfanz campaign earlier this year based on the idea that a firm commitment by the global financial system would be critical to fund new carbon-reducing technology to slow down climate change.
Asset managers that join the alliance have pledged to mobilize capital and help define standards for corporate and other efforts to reduce planet-warming emissions, along with a system for holding members accountable to meeting targets. A subsidiary group for asset managers called NetZero Alliance says on its website it has more than 220 members, including giants like BlackRock, JP Morgan and Franklin Templeton.
But in a report this week criticizing Gfanz, a pressure group called Reclaim Finance cited climate-related standards defined by the International Energy Agency in calling out certain flaws. The group declared, for instance, that Carney's alliance lacks limits on the use of "offsets," or emission rights that companies can purchase on carbon markets.
Featured image of Mark Carney (left) and UK finance minister Rishi Sunak by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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