One has to be careful about taking such commitments seriously.
This past week, institutional investors with $130 trillion at their disposal (reportedly 40 per cent of the world’s capital) pledged on the sidelines of the environment summit in Glasgow to put limiting climate change, and weaning off fossil fuels, at the centre of their work. On their part, big global investors are increasingly lining up to say they will abstain from investing in the shares of companies that don’t meet ESG (Environment, Society and Governance) norms. Closer home, a former Reserve Bank of India governor, Urjit Patel, has argued for integrating green issues into central bank actions. He said that nearly 40 per cent of Earth’s natural capital (forests, rivers, etc) had been destroyed by human activity between 19, and you would need 1.6 Earths to sustain the current level and pattern of economic consumption. Dr Dasgupta did a “review” in February for the UK Treasury, on bio-diversity. Meanwhile, economists like Cambridge University’s Partha Dasgupta have gained traction on integrating national accounts (which track GDP) with the damage that economic activity causes to Earth’s natural capital - the sustainability question.
The back story is that a bunch of global investors issued a warning this week to the big four accounting firms that dominate global corporate audit work: Get your act together on the issue, or face investor activism to stop you from doing auditing work at the companies they invest in. Increasingly, though, they may be going green - to track the impact of the firm’s activities on the environment. Company accounts are in the red (loss) or black (profit).
0 kommentar(er)
