The group includes HSBC Investments, BBC Pension Trust, Hermes, BNP Paribas, Sarasin & Partners, and many other of the largest pension funds and asset managers in Europe, with assets of around $10 trillion.
The investors, which also include the Investor Network on Climate Risk, say overall capital flows to address climate change remain well below the $500 billion a year that the Paris-based International Energy Agency says is needed to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees, 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above preindustrial levels.
That is the threshold beyond which nations have agreed that serious damage from climate change would be expected.
Boston-based Investor Network includes BlackRock, Deutsche Asset Management, and public pension funds in California, Florida, and New York, collectively managing about $10 trillion in assets.
Investors also want a multibillion-dollar “Green Climate Fund’’ and clear short-, medium-, and long-term goals established for cutting carbon dioxide, methane, and other major industrial gases that trap heat in the atmosphere like a greenhouse.
Mindy Lubber, director of the Investor Network and president of Boston-based investment network Ceres, called the statement a plea to the United States and other governments to give businesses the policies they need to compete in a global economy with a low-carbon future.
“Governments that act aggressively to enact strong, long-term climate and energy policy will reap the biggest rewards,’’ she said. “They will drive the innovation, attract investment, and create jobs.’’
In 1997, the world’s nations gathered in Kyoto, Japan, to try to do something about increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and associated rising temperatures.
The Kyoto Protocol, which the United States would not join, called for modest cuts in greenhouse emissions by the end of 2012. It’s unclear what might follow that treaty or how it could affect Europe’s carbon emissions trading system that is expanding each year.
