• Atmospheric CO2 /Parts per Million /Annual Averages /Data Source: noaa.gov

  • 1980338.91ppm

  • 1981340.11ppm

  • 1982340.86ppm

  • 1983342.53ppm

  • 1984344.07ppm

  • 1985345.54ppm

  • 1986346.97ppm

  • 1987348.68ppm

  • 1988351.16ppm

  • 1989352.78ppm

  • 1990354.05ppm

  • 1991355.39ppm

  • 1992356.1ppm

  • 1993356.83ppm

  • 1994358.33ppm

  • 1995360.18ppm

  • 1996361.93ppm

  • 1997363.04ppm

  • 1998365.7ppm

  • 1999367.8ppm

  • 2000368.97ppm

  • 2001370.57ppm

  • 2002372.59ppm

  • 2003375.14ppm

  • 2004376.96ppm

  • 2005378.97ppm

  • 2006381.13ppm

  • 2007382.9ppm

  • 2008385.01ppm

  • 2009386.5ppm

  • 2010388.76ppm

  • 2011390.63ppm

  • 2012392.65ppm

  • 2013395.39ppm

  • 2014397.34ppm

  • 2015399.65ppm

  • 2016403.09ppm

  • 2017405.22ppm

  • 2018407.62ppm

  • 2019410.07ppm

  • 2020412.44ppm

  • 2021414.72ppm

  • 2022418.56ppm

  • 2023421.08ppm

The panel discussion at Climate Action's Sustainable Investment forum, featuring Sofia Bartholdy of Church Commissioners for England and Danielle Boyd of the IIGCC
News & Views

Church of England: Investors should focus more on immediate impact of climate change

The Church Commissioners for England's net zero lead warns investor focus should shift to immediate climate change impact rather than long term net zero goals

Content Tags: Pensions  Biodiversity  Engagement  Europe  UK 

Investors need to focus on the immediate physical impacts of climate change and not fall into an ‘either or’ scenario of prioritising long term net zero targets, according to a major asset holding in England.

According to Sofia Bartholdy, net zero lead within the investment division of Church Commissioners for England, the Church has its own significant exposure to real assets, some of which are managed directly such as timberland in the UK, and which need to be monitored for ongoing exposure to the effects of climate change.

“Decarbonisation of the economy needs to happen, but it needs to happen to try to reduce the risk from the physical effects of climate change as well as hitting net zero," she said. 

"There's not an ‘either or’; we are currently seeing the impacts of climate change with crop failures, with hurricanes, and with forest fires."

She added: “So when we look at it at a portfolio level, the base case is very significant changes in weather patterns going forward. One of the key challenges for the industry and for investors is to truly understand these base cases of what the world both will be and currently looks like.”

Bartholdy made the remarks during a panel discussion on the impact of physical climate risk on portfolios, held at Climate Action’s yearly European sustainable investment forum, hosted in Paris for the first time since 2019.

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Decarbonisation of the economy needs to happen, but it needs to happen to try to reduce the risk from the physical effects of climate change as well as hitting net zero.

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Sofia Bartholdy, Church Commissioners for England

Also speaking on the panel was Danielle Boyd, head of climate strategy implementation at the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), who said: “The understanding of physical climate risk in the financial space is still very nascent.

“The IIGCC is currently working on a climate resilience investment framework which is sitting next to our investment framework, which will be not just looking at individual assets when it comes to physical risk, but looking at the overall system's resilience.”

On a corporate level, US food and beverage giant PepsiCo could be exposed to $4.4bn of climate related risk per year by the end of the decade if it stays on its current emissions trajectory. 

This was according to research by Planet Tracker, whose chief executive also made strong remarks at the Climate Action forum.

Supranational sustainability efforts

Also addressing the Climate Action forum via web link was Martin Spolc, head of unit within sustainable finance at the European Commission, who detailed the EU’s upcoming regulatory plans within the space.

Relating to the European Taxonomy for sustainable activities, he shared data on companies that are reporting a taxonomy alignment numbers, with the assets under management that are covered by the benchmark now having exceeded €100 billion.

Spolc also claimed that the EU Commission was aware that stakeholders are raising consistency questions on inter linkages between the different parts of the EU’s wider sustainable finance framework, which could slow down its value implementation and hinder potential.

According to Spolc, the Commission is taking these concerns “very seriously “and is in the process of addressing these questions through additional guidance and tools, prior to June when an overview of the Commission’s implementation efforts will be published.

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In Tanzania, we've been working with the domestic capital markets on the first ever municipal water bond.

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David Jackson, UN Capital Development Fund

During a panel discussion on ‘leveraging public finance to unlock private capital’, David Jackson, director of local development finance practice at the UN Capital Development Fund, spoke of a blue bond being developed in the nation of Tanzania.

“In Tanzania, we've been working with the domestic capital markets on the first-ever municipal water bond. The country is one of the most rapidly urbanising places in the world, and the bond looks to address how to get the kind the green infrastructure to service these cities.

“This will be the first and then there'll be many more such bonds because that domestic capital market now knows how to organise and finance and invest in water related infrastructure. Interestingly, it's the Tanzanian pension funds that will be investing”, he said.

US asset management giant Nuveen is to act as the anchor investor for a new impact bond called Barbados Blue Bond, which will aim to preserve local tourism and fishery industries through sustainable ocean management practices in the Caribbean island nation.

Content Tags: Pensions  Biodiversity  Engagement  Europe  UK 

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