Hundreds of financial corporations are warning the governments of the leading industrialized and emerging countries (G20) not to neglect climate protection after the corona crisis. “Reconstruction plans that exacerbate climate change would expose investors and economies to growing financial, health and social risks in the coming years,” warned the “The Investor Agenda” initiative in a letter to the G20, which is available to SPIEGEL. “Governments should avoid prioritizing risky, short-term, emission-intensive projects.”
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Behind “Investor Agenda” are seven business-related climate protection organizations. These represent the interests of more than 400 major investors, including the asset management companies of Allianz, Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken, major international banks such as BNP Paribas or UBS, and DWS, the fund subsidiary of Deutsche Bank. Together, these investors manage more than $ 30 trillion. Many states will need this capital to finance their economic and social programs.
“If governments make efforts to recover from this economic downturn, they shouldn’t lose sight of the climate crisis,” the letter said. “You have to consider the predictable, acute, systemic and aggravating economic and financial risks.” The financial corporations also see themselves threatened by rapid warming of the planet. They jeopardize their goal of generating long-term returns for their own customers, they write.
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Worry about your own profits
Mainly out of concern for their own profits, some large investors have started to withdraw from climate-damaging investments and to stand up for more climate protection. They are more radical than many heads of government. Before the special UN climate summit in New York last September, for example, “The Investor Agenda” demanded that CO2 prices be given off soon and that all coal-fired power plants be shut down in the medium term.
Behind the current appeal is the fear of new greenhouse gas records after the end of the pandemic. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global carbon dioxide emissions will drop more than ever in 2020 due to corona lockdowns. But as soon as the economic conditions improve again, according to IEA chief Fatih Birol, there could be a sharp increase in emissions again. That’s exactly how it happened a good decade ago, in the wake of the global financial crisis. At that time, global CO2 emissions initially declined by 0.4 billion tons in 2009 – but then in 2010 they hunted back up to a record level of 1.7 billion tons. It was the beginning of a year long climb.
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To avoid repeating this pattern, investor representatives are demanding that the G20 undertake sustainable, climate-friendly reconstruction. “An accelerated transition to net zero emissions can create new jobs and economic growth, along with other benefits such as energy security and cleaner air,” the letter said. Private capital could be made available for this.
In the Paris climate agreement of 2015, the international community had aimed to achieve net zero emissions in the second half of this century – that is, not to release more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than to withdraw them again. However, this “net zero” might come too late to limit the heating to a reasonably controllable extent. The G20 is responsible for more than 80 percent of global emissions.
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“In view of the unchanged challenges for climate and the environment, we believe it is important that measures to revive the economy after the pandemic have a green focus,” says Roelfien Kuijpers, who heads the responsible investments department at DWS. Steve Waygood of the British insurance group AVIVA demands: “Governments must set the right incentives so that the money flows into the right places.” New greenhouse gas records not only consider environmentalists fundamentally wrong, but also big business.
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