Church oOf England Joins World’s Leading Institutional Investors to Call For Carbon Pricing and Ambitious Global Climate Deal

LONDON, Sept. 18 -- The Church of England issued the following news release:

The Church of England's National Investing Bodies, NIBs*, have joined more than 340 global institutional investors calling on governments to provide meaningful carbon pricing to help them to invest to meet the climate change challenge, and asking them to develop plans to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels.

Representing more than $24 trillion in assets the investors are calling for stable, reliable and economically meaningful carbon pricing in the run up to the United Nations Climate summit on September 23, convened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The statement recognizes the role investors play in financing clean energy, outlines the specific steps they are committing to take, and calls on policymakers to take action that supports, rather than limits, investments in clean energy and climate solutions.

It was coordinated by the four investor groups on climate change - Ceres' Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR) in the United States, the European Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), the Investors Group on Climate Change (IGCC) in Australia and New Zealand, and the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC) - with the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).

Edward Mason, Head of Responsible Investment for the Church Commissioners, said:

"Church investors are making investments in the low carbon economy and encouraging companies to reduce the carbon emissions associated with their business activities. But without effective public policy there simply will not be the economic incentives that investors and companies require to take all the actions required to prevent dangerous climate change. Calling for better public policy is a vital part of our ethical investment response to climate change. We urge governments involved in the climate change talks to take note of what investors are saying."

In addition, the investor groups have launched a public online database of select low carbon investments made by asset owners such as pension funds and insurance companies. Investments listed by the Church's National Investing Bodies include solar and wind energy, sustainable forestry and green buildings

Notes

The Church of England's national investing bodies are: - the Church Commissioners (https://www.churchofengland.org/about-us/structure/churchcommissioners.aspx), the Church of England Pensions Board (https://www.churchofengland.org/about-us/structure/cepb.aspx) and the CBF Church of England funds (http://www.ccla.co.uk/) managed by CCLA.

For more information

Church of England NIBsrachel.harden@churchofengland.org

Global Investment statement nwilliams@iigcc.org or pickering@ceres.org

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