Rathbone Greenbank Investments attends HSBC's conference on, 'Climate Change - Investment Opportunities'.
Released: 10 March 2009
10 March 2009
Nicola Day from Rathbone Greenbank Investments attended HSBC's conference on climate change at their offices in London on 26 February, which featured Lord Nicholas Stern as the key speaker. Lord Stern, former chief economist of the World Bank, is the UK government’s adviser on climate change and author of 'The Economics of Climate Change' which is one of the most highly respected research works written on this subject.
Below are the key points from the conference:
- Lord Stern believes that the costs risked by not acting decisively to mitigate climate change remain underestimated.
- It is important to improve the public's perception of the problems as the magnitude of the effects are not easily visible in the short-term. Institutional investors also have a key role to play in supporting long-term investment into low carbon themes.
- The stimulus packages which global governments are proposing provide key support for low carbon growth and the recovery plans are viewed favourably, with over $430bn pledged in fiscal stimulus to key climate change-themed investments.
- China and the US are crucial players in the market: China has announced a $584bn package of which 40% is allocated to low carbon themes, from transportation efficiency to infrastructure projects based on improving environmental standards. The US Recovery and Reinvestment Plan has also committed a significant part of its $787bn investment into renewable energy, building efficiency and improved utility infrastructure investments.
- Lord Stern believes that international standards will be critical to ensuring controls are set in a number of areas, most notably in aviation, car design and low-carbon buildings.
- The election of Barack Obama is seen as a very important step for the US in accepting its responsibilities, and a number of other countries such as India and China are becoming more focused as they recognise their vulnerabilities to the effects of climate change.
Overall, it was an inspiring conference, highlighting the first phase of real commitments from governments to tackle climate change as part of their recovery plans. Governments are responding in a consolidated manner to the three threats of economic downturn - energy, security and climate change - to focus on low carbon growth solutions.