The Climate Clock is divided into two sections. The red Global Warming Deadline indicates that in order to have a chance of staying under the critical threshold of 1.5°C warming, we must achieve near zero emission in less than seven years. The blue Renewable Energy Lifeline shows the % of global energy coming from renewable sources which is rising, but not nearly fast enough.
Sustainability
Sustainable Development is: “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Brundtland Report 1987
As former Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has stated, "Changes in climate policies, new technologies and growing physical risks will prompt reassessments of the values of virtually every financial asset. Firms that align their business models to the transition to a net zero world will be rewarded handsomely. Those that fail to adapt will cease to exist. The longer meaningful adjustment is delayed, the greater the disruption will be."
The investment opportunities of this sustainability revolution are juxtaposed to Milton Friedman's view that: “There is one and only one social responsibility of business - to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game.” 1
At Earth Capital (EC), we believe the rules of the game have fundamentally changed since Milton Friedman's days. Today companies have a duty to improve the socio-environment context in which we live and to produce profit. By selecting Sustainable Development (SD) as EC’s investment theme, we protect and enhance value, address societal and environmental challenges as well as targeting superior financial returns. EC’s aim is to deliver at scale a successful investment model, which prioritises SD alongside financial returns, in all parts of the investment cycle.
1 Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman, University of Chicago Press 1962
