The leaders of major global fund managers and the world’s oil giants have signed a new pledge to do more to stop the planet overheating.
In a summit at the Vatican entitled The Energy Transition and Care for Our Common Home, hosted by Pope Francis, some of the biggest names in asset management joined with the leaders of global oil and gas bosses in admitting that “sustained, large-scale action” was now required to stop the planet heating to dangerous levels.
The chief executives of Aon, BlackRock, BNP Paribas Asset Management, BP, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Hermes Investment Management, Royal Dutch Shell and State Street were among the signatories to the new pledge.
“The environmental crisis that we currently face with regards to global warming demands urgent action, and we are all very grateful for the Church under the aegis of Cardinal Turkson and the University of Notre Dame ably led by Carolyn Woo and Leo Burke for convening this group,” said Saker Nusseibeh, chief executive officer of Hermes Investment Management.
“The commitment from the CEOs of the major oil companies, the CEOs of some of the largest asset managers and from some of the largest asset owners in the world reflects the importance of this topic and the commitment of all present to tackle it.”
The document commits all parties to push for “reliable and economically-meaningful carbon pricing regimes, whether based on tax, trading mechanisms or other market-based measures” that will help maintain earth’s temperature at no more than two degrees more than pre-industrialised levels.
It also commits signatories to embrace new innovations in low carbon alternatives and to help those unable to afford such changes.
A full list of the signatories is available here.
