Achieving net zero emissions is growth story: Climate economist

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Stockholm, April 20 (IANS) Global financial flows and investments are finally 'tipping' away from the old, polluting, and unsustainable economy of the 20th century towards the climate-friendly economy of the 21st century, one of the world's leading economists is expected to declare this week.

Over the past three years increasing numbers of banks; asset managers and owners; finance ministers and investors have begun stepping up ambition driven by the urgency of halving by 2030 and reaching a net zero emission world by 2050, Lord Nicholas Stern will say.

The Chairman of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment in London will point to the 1,500 organisations with $150 trillion in assets who are now committed to backing the net zero goal as one barometer of change.

Lord Stern, who is the keynote opening speaker on the second Exponential Climate Action Summit -- Financing the Race to Zero event organised by We Don't Have Time (WDHT), will also point to the increasing investor disaffection with fossil fuels as part of this 'tipping point' trend.

Not only is three times more money flowing into technologies like wind and solar, but the returns are outstripping investments in fuels like coal and oil.

Between 2015 and 2020, the returns from investing in fossil free fuels in the US was 10 per cent; in the UK 11 per cent and in Germany and France over 20 per cent. During the same period, returns on investments in fossil fuels in these four countries alone were either zero or negative.

"The markets are speaking that the investments in fossil fuels are bad investments -- and for good reason, because those are technologies from the last century and those that are going to go well are the technologies of this century," he is expected to note.

But Lord Stern will argue that this is not time for complacency or being 'swamped in over optimism' if the world is to have a chance of keeping a global average temperature rise to no higher than 1.5 degree Celsius.

"Passing the (financial) tipping point and getting the job done are different, acceleration is not the same as velocity. This decade is decisive. We have to move very fast," Lord Stern will say.

Ingmar Rentzhog, CEO and Founder of WDHT, said: "We need to halve emissions by 2030 to stand a running chance of meeting the net zero goal. This speaks to a massive, exponential, shift of trillions of dollars from the polluting industries, infrastructures, and practices of the past to the sustainable ones of the future.

"Is the world of finance up to the task? Tune in on April 22 to find out."

The Financing the Race to Zero broadcast is taking place on Earth Day 2021 as President Biden signals the US return to serious climate action by hosting his Climate Leaders' Summit with 40 heads of state.

In advance of the UN Climate Conference (COP26), the broadcast has brought together some of the best and most diverse actors on financial solutions and climate finance and given its central role in achieving the Paris Agreement and a sustainable future.

Other guests include Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, representing 200 million workers in 163 countries and Nick Robins, Professor in Practice for Sustainable Finance, Grantham Research Institute.

--IANS

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