Here Come the Institutional Investors

From Reuters UK via Eco-Portal, news of a $1 billion commitment by a variety of US and UK-based institutional investors " in clean energy companies in an effort to reduce risks posed by climate change."

Steve Westly, controller of California, told reporters the money could be invested in anything from wind power to more efficient turbines at power plants to auto makers, such as Toyota, that make hybrid cars.

"Our job is to encourage companies to think green. We want it to happen before it's too late," said Westly.

"The real answer is diversification in energy," he said during a day-long conference at the U.N. headquarters of U.S. state treasurers, financiers and major investors on how to deal with the financial risk of climate change.

Institutional investors, including state treasurers from Connecticut and California, labour pension funds, and British pension funds, pledged to make the investment at the Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk.

This is a pretty major step forward, and coupled with GE's "ecoimagination" announcement on Monday, it would seem to demonstrate an awareness of both the threat of climate change and the enormous economic potential of green technology. Perhaps I should call a broker...

Technorati tags: invesment, clean energy, climate change, economics

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