Former US Vice President Al Gore has launched a new fund management firm to channel money into companies and projects which have the potential to 'deeply decarbonise' the economy.
Just Climate was launched today ahead of the COP26 meetiing Glasgow, with Gore joined in the venture by financier and former Goldman Sachs boss David Blood.
It has a mission to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees celsius and the backing of Microsoft, Ireland's sovereign wealth fund and a foundation linked to Ikea, among others.
Gore became famous as a climate change campaigner after he left US office and starred in the documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
Al Gore said Just Climate's aim was to challenge 'conventional thinking' about how capital is allocated
Just Climate will invest in projects and companies across energy, transport, industry, buildings, food, agriculture and other sectors.
Investments will aim to support projects that take into consideration several dimensions of a 'just' transition to net-zero: from respect for human rights, preservation of land ownership and local resources, to impact on local pollution and community self-determination.
The launch of Just Climate comes as the investment industry faces increasing pressure to step up its game in tackling climate change and help reach global net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Blood, the former head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, will chair the new investment house, while Gore will chair its climate impact advisory group.
Shaun Kingsbury, the former boss of the UK Green Investment Bank, has taken the role of chief investment officer.
Kingsbury said the new asset management firm will play a 'critical' role in financing the typically asset-heavy parts of the climate transition.
Gore, who set up sustainable asset manager Generation Investment Management with Blood in 2004, said Just Climate's aim was to focus on the impact investments can have on climate change, rather than just focusing on financial metrics.
'The sustainable investment industry has grown rapidly in recent years, a welcome development that gives the world a better chance of creating a net zero, prosperous, equitable, healthy and safe society', he said.
'However, the climate crisis now demands an increase in the speed and scale of our collective actions by accelerating our current efforts and at the same time innovating new climate financing models.'
Animal Rebellion protestors in central London yesterday, demanding government support for a plant-based food system ahead of COP26
Gore, who recently said that the entire financial system needed to be reformed if climate change was to be abated, added: 'As a sector, we urgently need to seriously rethink how capital is allocated in order to deliver real progress toward the net zero commitments we have made.
'Just Climate aims to prioritise impact, to challenge conventional thinking and to inspire the sort of innovations that are now required for us to overcome the climate challenges ahead of us.'
Blood said capital flowing into climate solutions today 'is not enough nor is it flowing to all of those places that it needs to be'.
'We believe our investments will have the potential to unlock these transition opportunities and mobilise further capital flows from the rest of the market.'
Just Climate will also seek to help institutional investors provide sufficient quantity of capital to close the climate finance gap, estimated by the United Nations to be $3trillion per annum through 2050 to reach net-zero.
The launch of the new asset manager comes just days ahead of the COP26 world climate conference in Glasgow, where countries will set out their plans to reduce emissions.
Earlier this week, a UN report said global governments' plans to cut emissions in the years ahead are not enough to avert catastrophic climate collapse.
Without more ambitious commitments, temperatures could hit 2.7 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century, according to the UN.
Post a Comment