Major investors urge governments to go green

A “sustainable recovery” from the COVID-19 pandemic is sought by The Investor Agenda founding partners urging global governments to accelerate towards a net zero emissions world.

Investors say money is available to help governments stimulate their economies through green measures such as funding EV charging infrastructure.

The Investor Agenda, which represents 1200 international investment companies managing trillions in assets – sent a letter to New Zealand, Australia and other G20 governments asking for COVID-19 recovery funding to heed the climate crisis.

The collaborative initiative aims to accelerate and scale up investor actions critical to tackling climate change and achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement with the aim of keeping average global temperature rise to no more than 1.5-degrees Celsius.

The letter urges governments to avoid prioritising “risky, short-term emissions-intensive projects”, saying investors are increasingly seeking low-emissions investment opportunities and tightening controls against emission-intensive activities.

“Investors strongly support new measures to drive a sustainable recovery,” Investor Group on Climate Change chief executive Emma Herd says.

“We already know that government policy that spurs fresh private investment in clean energy, green industry and other sustainable infrastructure will lead to much needed jobs and economic growth.”

She says the Australian Government should be looking to integrate recovery plans with its technology investment roadmap, long-term emissions reduction strategy, grid modernisation planning and bushfire recovery to build greater resilience and reduce climate risk.

“The New Zealand Government should heed the advice of its Climate Change Commission and embrace smart investment decisions in low-emissions planning, technologies and infrastructure.”

“In New Zealand, transport is one of the biggest areas of emissions,” Stuff reports Herd as saying.

“There’s a lot of appetite for the roll-out of electric vehicle infrastructure. That’s a really key opportunity.”

The letter says public bailouts, loans and tax incentives offered to any carbon-intensive company should be conditional on the business transitioning to meet the Paris Agreement goal and achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

The Investor Agenda letter is also covered for Australia by The Sydney Morning Herald.

It adds the International Energy Agency has highlighted energy sector opportunities with global energy demand forecast to fall 6% this year, seven times more than during the global financial crisis.

Australia’s energy and emissions reduction minister Angus Taylor is reported as saying he wants Australia to capitalise on depressed global oil and gas markets to deliver cheap energy for industry to aid the recovery.

He has also directed the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to invest $70 million in private hydrogen energy projects powered only by renewable energy, and $300 million in projects which can include gas power.

Herd is a member of the Queensland Climate Change Advisory Council, the steering committee of the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative and the New Zealand Sustainable Finance Forum.