Top investors urge leaders to sign Paris climate accord

In this Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015, photo, the Eiffel Tower lights up with the slogan”Action Now”referring to the COP21, United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. The carbon footprint for the COP21 conference runs to thousands of tons, for the some 40,000 people, including heads of state, negotiators, activists and journalists, in Paris to hash out a ground-breaking international agreement to put a brake on global warming. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Global firms responsible for tens of trillions of dollars in investments on Tuesday urged the world’s leading economies to sign the landmark Paris accord to limit global warming adopted at a UN summit in December.

Seven organizations that represent more than 400 investment funds sent a letter to the leaders of G20 nations calling on them “to sign the Paris Agreement on April 22nd at the United Nations in New York.”

“We believe that the Paris Agreement is an historic breakthrough that delivered an unequivocal signal for investors to shift assets towards the low-carbon economy,” it says.

Most large banks and financial services companies are represented in the letter, including American giants like Blackrock, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as well as Britain’s Aviva, HSBC and RBS. The firms manage more than $24 trillion (21 trillion euros) in assets.

While 195 nations sealed the world’s first global climate deal in December, the agreement must still be signed and ratified before it can take effect.

The historic accord calls for global warming to be stopped in its tracks at “well under two degrees Celsius” (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

However, national commitments to slash greenhouse gases far fall short of that hugely ambitious goal, and how to close the remaining emissions gap has yet to be worked out.

Among the 193 member states of the United Nations, 147 have already committed to signing the Paris Agreement, according to French Environment Minister Segolene Royal.

“The early entry into force of the Agreement will send an important signal to investors that governments are translating into concrete action the momentous political will represented by the adoption of the Paris Agreement,” the investors’ letter says. TVJ