A group of 130 investors groups on Wednesday called for movement on the Paris climate change agreement ahead of the upcoming Group of 20 Summit being held on Sept. 4-5 in Hangzhou, China. Among other requests, the group urged G20 member countries to ratify the agreement by the end of 2016. “Countries that join/ratify the Paris Agreement early will benefit from increased policy certainty, will be better able to attract investment in low- and zero-carbon solutions, and will accelerate the implementation of this economically and socially critical agreement,” the group wrote in an Aug. 24 letter.
The Paris Agreement, the first global climate change accord, will enter into force 30 days after ratification by 55 nations representing at least 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, 23 nations representing 1.08 percent of global GHG emissions have done so.
Excluding members of the European Union, which will ratify the agreement in a group after all member countries have ratified it individually, nearly all other members of the G20 have pledged to join the agreement before the end of the year. The exceptions are India, South Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Turkey
The investors also called for G20 nations to support a doubling of global investment in clean energy by 2020, to prioritize implementation of their nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement, and to have their national financial regulators require the disclosure of material climate risks.
The nations should also “welcome the work of the G20 green finance study group, which aims to enhance the contribution of institutional investors to the greening of mainstream financial flows,” the group wrote.
The signatory investment groups said they manage more than $13 trillion in combined assets. They include Catholic Super, Friends Fiduciary Corp., the New York City Comptroller, Rathbone Greenbank Investments, and Veris Wealth Partners.