CANCUN SUMMIT: GLOBAL INVESTORS URGE DECISIVE ACTION

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CANCUN SUMMIT: GLOBAL INVESTORS WORTH TRILLIONS TO URGE DECISIVE ACTION TO CLOSE THE “CLIMATE INVESTMENT GAP”

As More Capital Goes Abroad, Nation’s Largest Investors to Urge New Members of Congress to Adopt Policies to Unlock Private Investment and Create Jobs through Clean Innovation

WASHINGTON D.C. & GENEVA & LONDON & SYDNEY///News Advisory///In advance of climate change talks in Cancun in two weeks, investors managing trillions in assets will release a major new statement at 10 am EST/3 p.m. GMT November 16 expressing deep concerns about future economic devastation by climate change and outlining the steps national and international policy makers need to take to leverage vastly greater sums of private investment to close the “climate investment gap.”

According to the statement, the lack of such policies, especially in the US, is limiting global low-carbon investments to less than a third of the amount experts say is needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. At the same time, emerging economies such as China and India and certain European countries with strong policy momentum are seizing the global clean energy market—projected to reach $200 billion in 2010 —while creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

News event speakers will be:

  • Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres and director of US-based Investor Network on Climate Risk;
  • Jack Ehnes, CEO of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS);
  • Ole Beier Sørensen, chairman of Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change and chief of Research and Strategy at ATP (one of the largest pension fund’s in Europe);
  • Mark Fulton, co-chair of the United Nations Finance Programme’s Climate Change Working Group and global head of Climate Change Investment Research at Deutsche Asset Management; and
  • Timothy E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation.

Speakers will also discuss the progress they would like to see in Cancun on key climate financing “building blocks” for adaptation, deforestation prevention, and other programs. The UN climate change negotiations run from Nov. 29 to Dec. 10.

The statement to be released was produced by the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), the Investor Group on Climate Change Australia / New Zealand (IGCC), the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), and the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).

TO PARTICIPATE: The live, phone-based news conference (including full, two-way Q&A) will take place at 10 am EST/7 am PST/3 pm GMT on November 16, 2010 at 1 (800) 860-2442. (Ask for the “International Investor Cancun Summit” news event.)  To hear the telenews event in its entirety, dial in at least five minutes before the start time.

UNABLE TO PARTICIPATE?: A streaming audio recording of the Ceres news event will be available on the Web as of 4 pm EST/9 pm GMT on November 16, 2010 at http://www.ceres.org.

CONTACT: Peyton Fleming, Ceres, 617-733-6660 or [email protected],

Meg Wilcox, Ceres, 617-319-6457, [email protected]

Ceres is a leading coalition of investors, environmental groups and other pubic interest organizations working with companies to address climate change and other sustainability challenges.  Ceres directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a network of more than 90 institutional investors with collective assets of $9 trillion focused on the business impacts of climate change.  For more information, visit http://www.ceres.org or http://www.incr.com