Wednesday 29 March 2017
Investors call for UK decarbonisation strategy
The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) is calling for an ambitious long term decarbonisation strategy to help the UK transition towards a low carbon economy.
The IIGCC, which represents 137 European institutional investors, warns that without a plan for decarbonisation, the UK may fail to attract sufficient investment to build a low carbon economy.
The investors have set out five core principles they believe should feature “strongly” in an effective emissions reduction plan (EPR).
- Reinforce the Climate Change Act and deliver long term clarity of direction for policy
- Set an unequivocal timetable under which BEIS will develop a comprehensive strategy to 2050 that will cover all the elements required under the Paris climate agreement
- Confirm that an effective carbon pricing mechanism will be the main driver of long term decarbonisation efforts
- Set specific measures and targets for three critical sectors – power generation, buildings/heating and transport, which together account for more than two thirds of emissions
- Be consistent with climate targets, flexible enough to accommodate new and emergent technologies and fully embedded to deliver as part of a long term Industrial Strategy
Philllippe Defosses, CEO of French pension fund ERAPF and Vice Chair of IIFCC said: “For pension funds and others investing for the long term, it’s vital the UK clarifies its decarbonisation ambitions to 2030 and as it leaves the European Union but it must also start to envision how it plans to further raise ambition to drive additional decarbonisation to 2050 and beyond.”
