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The Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR) is a nonprofit organization of investors and financial institutions that promotes better understanding of the financial risks and investment opportunities posed by climate change. INCR is coordinated by Ceres, a coalition of investors and environmental groups working to advance sustainable prosperity.
The Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR) was launched at the first Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk at the United Nations in November 2003. INCR's membership consists of more than 200 investors managing nearly $38 trillion in assets. Members include asset managers, state and city treasurers and comptrollers, public and labor pension funds, foundations, and other institutional investors. INCR leverages the collective power of these investors to promote improved investment practices, policies, disclosure and corporate governance practices on the business risks and opportunities posed by climate change.
Given the global nature of climate change, climate risk has become embedded, to a greater or lesser extent, in every business and investment portfolio. Severe weather events and changing weather patterns, current or impending regulations imposing a cost on carbon, and an altered competitive environment will have an inescapable impact on businesses. Climate change is increasingly being seen as a strategic issue, and leading companies are taking action now to mitigate the risks and take advantage of the opportunities arising from climate change as a way to prepare for the emerging low-carbon global economy.
The risk that climate poses to any individual business varies, but nearly every company will face some type of pressure from the changing climate including:
Companies at the vanguard are increasingly finding that indeed, addressing global warming is good for the bottom line. The costs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can be counterweighed by the potential profits. Climate change poses risks to industry, but it also presents opportunities: Some companies are already taking advantage of new products, markets, and competitive advantages inherent in the low-carbon economy.
Where there is challenge, there is the potential for growth. Companies are already finding space for new products and services for a "green" economy. With the financial and competitive risks that climate change brings, forward-looking companies are finding the potential for enormous business opportunities as well.
Clean technology, renewable energy sources, carbon emissions trading markets and energy efficiency efforts are the most vivid examples of these opportunities: the growth of global markets for renewable energy, for example, hit $50 billion in 2005, and the market is projected to eclipse $150 billion by 2015. Companies are seizing on opportunities for creating new low-carbon energy-efficient products — GE's "ecomagination" program, for example, is expected to have sales of $20 billion by 2010. But companies in other sectors are reaping the benefits, too—banks, insurers, and others in the financial industry are also finding innovative ways of proving that for business, "green is green." Climate change, like any momentous challenge, provides opportunities for growth for companies willing to be leaders. Hand in hand with the financial and competitive risks of climate change come opportunities to increase shareholder value, increase brand value and enhance competitiveness and profitability.
Since 2004, corporate leaders in many US industries and leading investors have begun to meet the climate challenge.
And companies have begun to reap the benefits:
A carbon credit is a tradable certificate or permit representing the right to emit a set amount of carbon dioxide or the equivalent amount of a different greenhouse gas (tCO2e).
The Climate Group is a non-profit organisation that works with businesses and government leaders around the world to address climate change. The Group has programmes focusing on renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Launched in 2004, the organisation operates globally with offices in the UK (headquarters), the United States and India.
A carbon footprint (or greenhouse gas footprint) is a "certain amount of gaseous emissions that are relevant to climate change and associated with human production or consumption activities". In some cases, the carbon footprint is expressed as the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) which is meant to sum up the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, place or product. In other cases, only the carbon dioxide emissions are taken into account but not those of other greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases, including the carbon-containing gases carbon dioxide and methane, can be emitted through the burning of fossil fuels, land clearance, and the production and consumption of food, manufactured goods, materials, wood, roads, buildings, transportation and other services. As well as calculating carbon footprints for whole countries, it is also possible to calculate the footprint of regions, cities, and neighbourhoods.
Business action on climate change includes a range of activities relating to climate change, and to influencing political decisions on climate change-related regulation, such as the Kyoto Protocol. Major multinationals have played and to some extent continue to play a significant role in the politics of climate change, especially in the United States, through lobbying of government and funding of climate change deniers. Business also plays a key role in the mitigation of climate change, through decisions to invest in researching and implementing new energy technologies and energy efficiency measures.
Ceres is a non-profit sustainability advocacy organization based in Boston, Massachusetts and founded in 1989.
Clean technology, in short cleantech, is any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through significant energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, or environmental protection activities. Clean technology includes a broad range of technology related to recycling, renewable energy, information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, grey water, and more. Environmental finance is a method by which new clean technology projects can obtain financing through the generation of carbon credits. A project that is developed with concern for climate change mitigation is also known as a carbon project.
Carbon accounting is a framework of methods to measure and track how much greenhouse gas (GHG) an organization emits. It can also be used to track projects or actions to reduce emissions in sectors such as forestry or renewable energy. Corporations, cities and other groups use these techniques to help limit climate change. Organizations will often set an emissions baseline, create targets for reducing emissions, and track progress towards them. The accounting methods enable them to do this in a more consistent and transparent manner.
The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, or Assembly Bill (AB) 32, is a California State Law that fights global warming by establishing a comprehensive program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all sources throughout the state. AB32 was co-authored by then-Assemblymember Fran Pavley and then-Speaker of the California Assembly Fabian Nunez and signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on September 27, 2006.
The CDP is an international non-profit organisation based in the United Kingdom, Japan, India, China, Germany, Brazil and the United States of America that helps companies and cities disclose their environmental impact. It aims to make environmental reporting and risk management a business norm, driving disclosure, insight, and action towards a sustainable economy. In 2022, nearly 20,000 organizations disclosed their environmental information through CDP.
A low-carbon economy (LCE) or decarbonised economy is an economy based on energy sources that produce low levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. GHG emissions due to human activity are the dominant cause of observed climate change since the mid-20th century. Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause long-lasting changes around the world, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive, and irreversible effects for people and ecosystems. Shifting to a low-carbon economy on a global scale could bring substantial benefits both for developed and developing countries. Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low-emission development strategies (LEDS). These strategies seek to achieve social, economic, and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to the effects of climate change.
The United States produced 5.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020, the second largest in the world after greenhouse gas emissions by China and among the countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions per person. In 2019 China is estimated to have emitted 27% of world GHG, followed by the United States with 11%, then India with 6.6%. In total the United States has emitted a quarter of world GHG, more than any other country. Annual emissions are over 15 tons per person and, amongst the top eight emitters, is the highest country by greenhouse gas emissions per person. However, the IEA estimates that the richest decile in the US emits over 55 tonnes of CO2 per capita each year. Because coal-fired power stations are gradually shutting down, in the 2010s emissions from electricity generation fell to second place behind transportation which is now the largest single source. In 2020, 27% of the GHG emissions of the United States were from transportation, 25% from electricity, 24% from industry, 13% from commercial and residential buildings and 11% from agriculture. These greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to climate change in the United States, as well as worldwide.
New Energy for America was a plan led by Barack Obama and Joe Biden beginning in 2008 to invest in renewable energy sources, reduce reliance on foreign oil, address global warming issues, and create jobs for Americans. The main objective for the New Energy for America plan was to implement clean energy sources in the United States in order to switch from nonrenewable resources to renewable resources. The plan led by the Obama Administration aimed to implement short-term solutions to provide immediate relief from pain at the pump, and mid- to- long term solutions to provide a New Energy for America plan. The goals of the clean energy plan hoped to: invest in renewable technologies that will boost domestic manufacturing and increase homegrown energy, invest in training for workers of the clean technologies, strengthen the middle class, and help the economy.
Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP) is a coalition of businesses coordinated by Ceres whose primary goal is to call on the U.S. government to pass broad, bi-partisan energy and climate legislation. BICEP currently has 48 members.
The economics of climate change mitigation is the part of the economics of climate change related to climate change mitigation, that is actions that are designed to limit the amount of long-term climate change. Mitigation may be achieved through the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the enhancement of sinks that absorb GHGs, for example forests.
The, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began regulating greenhouse gases (GHGs) under the Clean Air Act from mobile and stationary sources of air pollution for the first time on January 2, 2011. Standards for mobile sources have been established pursuant to Section 202 of the CAA, and GHGs from stationary sources are currently controlled under the authority of Part C of Title I of the Act. The basis for regulations was upheld in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in June 2012.
The Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) is a non-profit organization working to provide material information for investors and financial markets through the integration of climate change-related information into mainstream financial reporting. CDSB operates on the premise that investors and financial institutions can make better and informed decisions if companies are open, transparent and analyse the risks and opportunities associated with climate change-related information. To this end, CDSB acts as a forum for collaboration on how existing standards and practices can be used to link financial and climate change-related information using its Framework for reporting environmental information, natural capital and associated business impacts.
Carbon Tracker is a London-based not-for-profit think tank researching the impact of climate change on financial markets.
Green economy policies in Canada are policies that contribute to transitioning the Canadian economy to a more environmentally sustainable one. The green economy can be defined as an economy, "that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities." Aspects of a green economy would include stable growth in income and employment that is driven by private and public investment into policies and actions that reduce carbon emissions, pollution and prevent the loss of biodiversity.
Coal, cars and lorries vent more than a third of Turkey's five hundred million tonnes of annual greenhouse gas emissions—mostly carbon dioxide—and are part of the cause of climate change in Turkey. The nation's coal-fired power stations emit the most carbon dioxide, and other significant sources are road vehicles running on petrol or diesel. After coal and oil the third most polluting fuel is fossil gas; which is burnt in Turkey's gas-fired power stations, homes and workplaces. Much methane is belched by livestock; cows alone produce half of the greenhouse gas from agriculture in Turkey.
The environmental policy of the Joe Biden administration includes a series of laws, regulations, and programs introduced by United States President Joe Biden since he took office in January 2021. Many of the actions taken by the Biden administration reversed the policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump.