Reuters has called for a stronger climate finance plan at the G20 summit at Reuters

By Simon Jessop and Gavin Jones

VENICE (Reuters) – BlackRock (NYSE 🙂 CEO Larry Fink on Sunday called on governments to develop a stronger long-term climate finance plan to unlock the private capital needed to fund the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Speaking at the G20 International Climate Conference at the G20 meeting of finance ministers, he said that without such a plan, current efforts, including reporting on the sustainability of corporations, risk “only window decoration”.

Fink, the world’s largest asset manager, with assets of about $ 9 trillion, also called for reform of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to address the challenge of climate change.

Fink highlighted three “critical” issues needed to drive the ecological transition, and said it was a $ 50 trillion opportunity for investors. BlackRock itself is a major investor in fossil fuels.

First, he said private companies should be under the same pressure to share information about the sustainability efforts of public companies.

Today, the listed oil and gas companies had a “tremendous incentive” to sell more polluting assets, often to private and state-owned companies that conduct less analysis and explain much less about their operations.

Second, Fink said governments run the risk of feeding inequality unless they create greater demand for organic products and services that lower costs or “green premiums” that penalize the worst situation and can lead to social instability.

Eventually, global institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF needed to be changed to further boost private sector capital to help finance the transition in emerging markets.

He noted that the two bodies were created almost 80 years ago based on the bank balance sheet model and now said it was necessary to “rethink their roles”.

Citing BlackRock’s role in helping to finance sustainable infrastructure by creating a $ 250 million public and private climate finance strategy, as governments and philanthropic investors provide dependent capital to protect the profitability of private investors, he said the same was needed.

“If we do not have an international organization that provides a higher loss position than it does today, properly oversees these investments and lowers the cost of financing and equity, we will not be able to attract the private capital needed for the energy transition in emerging markets,” he said. yours.