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LONDON (Reuters) – European funds managing $ 2 trillion in badets have called on cement companies to cut their greenhouse gas emissions Monday, warning that a failure to meet these targets could put their models at risk. economic.
With the intensification of extreme weather events and natural disasters badociated with climate change around the world, some badet managers are increasing their engagement with heavy polluters in order to demand a faster transition to an economy. cleaner.
"The cement industry must significantly reduce its contribution to climate change," said Stephanie Pfeifer, Executive Director of the Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change, which has more than 170 members, mainly European pension funds and badet managers.
"It's definitely a critical issue for the industry," Pfeifer said in a statement.
The group said investors had written to cement or building materials companies, including the Irish group CRH, the French-Swiss group LafargeHolcim and French St Gobain to ask them to achieve zero net carbon emissions. 39, here 2050. They also noted that the German goal HeidelbergCement had already adopted the goal.
The funds urged all cement companies to comply with the 2015 Paris Agreement on Combating Global Warming, to engage with policymakers to ensure an orderly transition to a low-carbon economy and better report climate risk.
"Construction materials companies may ultimately risk disinvestment and lack of access to capital as more and more investors seek to exclude carbon-intensive sectors from their portfolio," said Vincent Kaufmann. Director of the Ethos Foundation, a group of Swiss pension funds. , who signed the letters.
The signatories collectively manage badets worth $ 2 trillion and include Aberdeen Standard Investments, BNP Paribas Asset Management, Sarasin & Partners and Hermes EOS.
Although the funds increasingly engage airlines and automakers on emissions, few are calling for a systemic transformation of the global economic system, which, in the view of more and more scientists, is needed. to avoid a sudden degradation of the climate.
According to the International Energy Agency, the cement industry produces 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which means that if it were a country, it would be the third largest emitter in importance, behind the United States and China.
As climate advocates have traditionally focused on fossil fuel companies, the European cement sector has been the subject of relatively small surveillance until recently.
Police on Tuesday arrested six activists from the civil disobedience group Extinction Rebellion during a protest aimed at disrupting a site located in East London and owned by London Concrete, a LafargeHolcim unit.
In June, a Chatham House think-tank report concluded that while there is no quick fix for reducing cement emissions, it should be possible to deploy a range of policies and technologies to achieve deep decarbonization.
Reportage by Matthew Green; edited by Clare Fallon
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