Investors Urge Governments To Immediately Cut Carbon Emissions, End Coal Burning

Over 400 global investors with $32 trillion in assets-under-management urged governments at the UN climate summit to immediately cut carbon emissions and eliminate all coal burning, warning that the absence of such measures could lead to a severe global financial crash, The Investor Agenda group said in a press release on Monday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2018) Over 400 global investors with $32 trillion in assets-under-management urged governments at the UN climate summit to immediately cut carbon emissions and eliminate all coal burning, warning that the absence of such measures could lead to a severe global financial crash, The Investor Agenda group said in a press release on Monday.

The 2018 UN Climate Change Conference is taking place on December 2-14 in the Polish city of Katowice. The main goal of the conference participants is to discuss ways of implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement.

"Three overarching priorities are highlighted in the Statement for global leaders to address: achieving the Paris Agreement's goals; accelerating private sector investment into the low carbon transition and committing to improve climate-related financial reporting ... Among specific policies, the investors request governments 'phase out thermal coal power', 'put a meaningful price on carbon' and 'phase out fossil fuel subsidies,'" the press release said.

According to Schroder Investment Management one of the statement's signatories if the current commitments remained unchanged, it would result in some $23 trillion in global economic losses over the next 80 years.

The investors' call followed a recent UN report that revealed the need to triple governments' efforts in order to achieve the Paris Agreement commitments. The investors called on the nations to immediately increase their ambitions regarding the obligations.

The Paris climate deal, created within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, went into force on November 4, 2016. It has been ratified by 184 of the 197 parties to the accord. The deal aims to keep the increase in average global temperature at below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.