Investors:Govt Must Make Climate Action12/09 06:15

   More than 600 institutional investors  managing a whopping $37 trillion in 
client assets called Monday for governments to step up their efforts against 
climate change.

   MADRID (AP) -- More than 600 institutional investors  managing a whopping 
$37 trillion in client assets called Monday for governments to step up their 
efforts against climate change.

   The investors, including banks, pension funds and insurance companies, 
directed their message to countries participating in a two-week U.N. climate 
conference in Madrid.

   Firms such as Britain's Aviva, the California Public Employees' Retirement 
System and Zurich Insurance Group demanded an end to thermal coal power plants 
worldwide, the introduction of a "meaningful" price on carbon, an end to fossil 
fuel subsidies and for governments to increase planned emissions cuts beyond 
what has already been pledged.

   Similar appeals have been issued by investment companies before, but 
Monday's is the biggest so far. The 631 companies involved held assets worth 
more than the GDP of the United States and China together last year.

   Separately, a financial research group said major companies themselves can 
significantly cut emissions of planet-warming greenhouses gases by making their 
suppliers switch to renewable energy.

   The London-based nonprofit group CDP said it analyzed data from thousands of 
firms that supply big corporations such as Walmart, Samsung and L'Oreal, 
concluding that shifting a fifth of their energy purchases to renewable sources 
like wind or solar could reduce emissions by 1 gigaton of carbon dioxide --- or 
about the combined amount released by Brazil and Mexico in 2017.


(KR)