USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文双语Français
Business
Home / Business / World Economic Forum

Davos elite bets on climate change

By Bloomberg | China Daily | Updated: 2017-01-16 07:43

Davos elite bets on climate change

Men dressed as Chlaeuse, traditional figures that scare away evil spirits, carry round bells and cowbells as they walk on a snow-covered road in Urnaesch, Switzerland, on Friday. Arnd Wiegmann / Reuters

For business leaders, it's a question about billions of dollars - maybe even trillions - in potential profits and losses

Donald Trump has often ridiculed global warming and promised to withdraw the United States from the global accord signed in Paris in 2015. Yet despite the change of political weather in Washington, the captains of business and finance gathered in Davos this week will spend a lot of time talking about climate change - and how to make money from it.

The World Economic Forum is devoting 15 sessions of its 2017 annual meeting to climate change, and nine more to clean energy - the most ever on the issues.

It reflects how much is at stake. For global business leaders, it's not just a question of burnishing their green credentials, but about billions of dollars - maybe even trillions - in potential profits and losses. Insurers are starting to price-in more frequent flooding and droughts; energy giants are shaping their business for a world that's moving away from oil and coal; carmakers are putting real money into electric vehicles; banks want to lend money for renewable electricity projects.

"The good thing is that the Paris agreement raised the bar for everyone," said Ben van Beurden, the head of Royal Dutch Shell, Europe's largest oil group. "Everybody feels the obligation to act."

Achieving the ambitions set out in Paris may require $13.5 trillion of spending through to 2030, according to International Energy Agency data that shows the scale of the opportunity for business. Only last year, clean energy investment stood at $287.5 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance indicate.

"The scale and scope of the investment flows on renewables shows it's mainstream," said David Turk, head of climate change at the IEA in Paris and a former senior US climate diplomat.

Previous Page 1 2 Next Page

Most Viewed in 24 Hours
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US