Investors At UN Meeting Pledge $1 Billion For Clean Energy Investment

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NATIONS - "US and British institutional investors who collectively manage over $3 trillion in assets pledged on Tuesday to invest $1 billion 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 UN headquarters of US 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, labor pension funds, and British pension funds, pledged to make the investment at the Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk.

The institutions have already pledged to invest $450 million in clean energy technologies and the $1 billion includes that previous pledge. But Westly and other investors said the combination of oil prices trading at over $50 a barrel and growing concerns about possible future US regulations on carbon emissions make it a good time to invest in clean energy and that investments could soon well exceed Tuesday's pledge."

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/30757/story.htmUNITED

My. 1/3 of one percent of the assets they managed pledged to clean energy - and of course, that includes nearly half a billion already pledged. How bold.