This is just one - albeit simplistic - example of the tricky questions for investors thrown up by climate change. Unfortunately, it appears this type of debate is still being shunned by some of the world's major investment houses.
Big wealth managers such as pension funds have been making supportive noises about action on climate change for years. After all, Australia's resource-heavy sharemarket means the typical super fund is exposed to a rising carbon price, here and around the world.
Institutional investors also have a critical role in mobilising the $1.3 trillion in super funds under management for spending on cleaner technology.
But for all the warm and fuzzy talk of sustainability, there's a yawning gap between what many big investors practise and what they preach. Not only is this a shame for the environment, it also threatens to short-change the ultimate owners of the assets. Thanks to super, that's most of us.
According to an Investor Group on Climate Change report published this week, some 98 per cent of global asset owners see climate change as a material risk across their portfolios. Read the full report here.
Source: Clancy Yeates, The Sydney Morning Herald.
