{"id":32618,"date":"2017-01-10T11:09:01","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T11:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/?p=32618"},"modified":"2017-01-10T11:17:59","modified_gmt":"2017-01-10T11:17:59","slug":"carney-climate-taskforce-misrepresents-the-paris-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2017\/01\/10\/carney-climate-taskforce-misrepresents-the-paris-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Carney climate taskforce ‘misrepresents’ Paris deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

In September 2015, Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England and Chair of the international Financial Stability Board (FSB), warned of the dangers of inaction<\/em> on climate change:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The challenges currently posed by climate change pale in significance compared with what might come. The far-sighted amongst you are anticipating broader global impacts on property, migration and political stability, as well as food and water security. So why isn\u2019t more being done to address it?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He then appeared to answer the question he had just posed, highlighting \u2018potentially huge\u2019 investor exposure to action<\/em> on climate change:<\/p>\n

Take, for example, the International Panel on Climate Change\u2019s estimate of a carbon budget that would likely limit global temperature rises to 2\u02daC above pre-industrial levels. That budget amounts to between a fifth and a third of the world\u2019s proven reserves of oil, gas and coal. If that estimate is even approximately correct it would render the vast majority of reserves \u201cstranded\u201d \u2013 oil, gas and coal that will be literally unusable without expensive carbon-capture technology, which itself alters fossil fuel economics. The exposure of UK investors, including insurance companies, to these shifts is potentially huge.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>He warned also of the risks of short-term economic planning:<\/p>\n

Climate change is the tragedy of the horizon \u2026 The horizon for monetary policy extends out to two to three years. For financial stability it is a bit longer, but typically only to the outer boundaries of the credit cycle \u2013 about a decade. In other words, once climate change becomes a defining issue for financial stability, it may already be too late.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was during the 2015 Paris climate summit that Mr Carney announced the establishment of a Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures under the chairmanship of Michael Bloomberg:<\/p>\n

The FSB is asking the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures to make recommendations for consistent company disclosures that will help financial market participants understand their climate-related risks. Access to high quality financial information will allow market participants and policymakers to understand and better manage those risks, which are likely to grow with time.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How would the Task Force navigate the Scylla and Charybdis of short-term and long-term investor protection? Would it propose a clear and consistent framework, encouraging companies and investors to:<\/p>\n