Now, it looks like Wall Street's catching up to me. Two points I've made are beginning to gain ground among the captains of industry and the investor class; global warming's going to be real expensive to ignore (Global Warming is About Money, OK?) and there's a real risk that the industries most responsible for climate change will have it come back and bite them in the ass later (Will Big Oil Suffer the Same Fate as Big Tobacco?).
Reuters Alertnet:
CHICAGO, Dec 13 (Reuters) - The topic of the conference was climate change and the rhetoric was sobering, haunted by scientific projections of a roasted world for our children and a looming environmental disaster of Biblical proportions.
But this was no talk shop of environmental activists. It was a meeting of Wall Street investors, insurance executives, state treasurers and pension fund managers, who between them manage about $3.7 trillion in assets.
"The insurance industry has historically taken on social issues. I know of no social issue that is bigger than this one," said Tim Wagner, director of insurance for the state of Nebraska.
The consensus of Wagner and others addressing the conference of the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR) was that institutional investors are still too near-sighted to factor climate change into their investment decisions.
While there will be costs to the U.S. economy from climate change, the problem for Wall Street is that those costs are unknown and in the future. Many drew a parallel to the asbestos and tobacco industries, which were hit by lawsuits after the fact.
"The value proposition is one the Street isn't really recognizing," said William Page, a portfolio manager at State Street Global Advisors.
Let me tell you, it's hard being a unknown visionary...
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Tags: news | politics | international | financial | business | global warming | environment | science
