(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinionsexpressed are his own.)
By Antony Currie
NEW YORK, Sept 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The streets ofMelbourne, Australia were packed on Friday. Perhaps 1.6 millionpeople downed tools and textbooks in Germany, according to earlyestimates. All in, almost 5,000 strikes and marches in 139countries had been planned to call for more action to combatglobal warming, the 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunbergtweeted on Thursday.
Friday’s mass demonstrations mark a stunning success for acampaign that started with Thunberg holding a cardboard signoutside her school a little over a year ago. Nothing fundamentalhas changed about the science of climate change in that time.
Many ways to enable the climate fight already exist. In thefinancial markets, green bonds and debt linked to the UnitedNations’ sustainable development goals are becoming morepopular. Banks like ING have introduced loans andderivatives whose rates and fees increase if borrowers missclimate goals. There’s a proliferation of environmentallyfocused exchange-traded funds, and the ratings infrastructurethat goes along with them, aiming to offer greener investmentsproducts to individuals. And investors have scored some notablesuccesses engaging with companies to reduce their greenhouse-gasemissions, as a 340-firm shareholder consortium with $34trillion or so in assets persuaded the likes of Royal DutchShell, Glencore and BP to up theirgame.
Trouble is, much of this seems piecemeal compared to theoverall challenge. The investor group, called the Climate Action100+, has only gone after relatively low-hanging fruit; theagreement with BP for example, doesn’t reduce oil production,just caps emissions as a percentage of output. Green bonds,meanwhile, accounted for only 2.5% of overall annual new bondsales in 2018, using data from the Climate Bonds Initiative andDealogic.
Inertia, disbelief and cost play a role. So does a lack ofurgency. The sudden aversion to plastic straws, bags and thelike over the past two years shows just how quickly sentimentcan change. The popularity of Friday’s strikes sends a signal tobusiness that consumers care about climate change – and mayprefer greener products. More importantly, it gives cover topoliticians to propose taking tougher action like imposingcarbon taxes without immediately fearing they’ll be ousted atthe polls. That’s a powerful message.
On Twitter https://twitter.com/AntonyMCurrie
CONTEXT NEWS
- People around the world are taking part in marches andstrikes on Sept. 20 in support of tackling climate change. Theevents have been inspired by Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-oldSwede who started a school strike for stronger action againstclimate change last year. As of Sept. 19 at least 4,638 eventsin 139 countries had been planned, Thunberg posted on Twitter.
- The United Nations is hosting a climate action summit inNew York on Sept. 23.
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