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Article

6 May 2015

Author:
Simon Bowers, Guardian (UK)

Responsible investors warn London fund managers of financial & social risks of investing in fossil fuels

"Al Gore's business partner warns investors of fossil fuel risks",

Two influential investment industry grandees are separately touring the City of London challenging fund managers and pension trustees to adopt radical new approaches to investments in some of the world’s largest fossil fuel extractors. David Blood, former head of asset management at Goldman Sachs, and Howard Covington, onetime chief executive of New Star Asset Management, both warn that mainstream investment thinking is sleepwalking into a future where the threat of climate change either leaves huge reserves of fossil fuel unburnable or plunges the global economy into crisis. Blood insists long-term investors such as pension funds can only justify holding stakes in such companies “if they believe climate change is a hoax”... Covington warns of a dystopian future in the absence of preventative action now. He has said: “Climate arithmetic shows that we may be very hungry in a few decades’ time … [it] could take us way beyond adaptation into the realm of crumbling disorder.” ..