ASSESMENT:

Expert Advice - Find experts to raise awareness, assess climate
risks
and convey fiduciary duties….

Risk Assessment - Asses physical and policy risks of climate change
in
evaluation of companies ….

Networking - Join the Investor Network on Climate Risk and
engage
to promote climate risk assessments, GHG
disclosure and responsible public policy.

DISCLOSURE:

Public Statement - Declare that climate change poses fiduciary and
financial
risks to be addressed through research, corporate engagement and
long-term
investment strategies.

Public Disclosure - State methods to assess and address climate risk in
plan
documents and require companies to identify material risks of climate
change
in securities filings.

Emissions Accounting - Ask companies to disclose emissions based on GHG
Protocol, and account for GHG emissions from products and property
holdings.

Stakeholder Dialogue - Adopt proxy voting guidelines to urge corporate
action on climate change, and maintain an active dialogue with
beneficiaries, fund managers and companies.

SOLUTIONS:

Investment Strategy - Match long-term objectives with reduced climate
risk
exposure to optimize investment returns, and engage fund managers and
companies to adopt best practices.

Clean Energy - Direct investment capital into emerging clean energy
technologies and promote energy efficient products and building
practices.

Government Action: - Support government action to promote investor
certainty, including mandatory policies to achieve absolute reductions
in
GHG emissions.

Among the people at the meeting there was also Sister Patricia A. Daly
who
is the Executive Director of The Tri-State Coalition for Responsible
Investment (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut). She is seemingly using
these ideas in her share-holders propositions at major corporation’s
meetings, and forces the corporations to start looking at climate
change, as
well as on social issues - this because not doing so brings financial
losses
to the company. So that is what I meant by pointing out that in
reality the
color of green (of the Environment) has its impacts on the green (of
the
money) - so in order to do something for the environment we have to hit
the
pocket, when it is hard to reach the mind.

Also, very active part at the meeting were the Treasurers of 7 US
States, of
which the Treasurer of Connecticut was a co-chairperson of the meeting,
the
Comptrollers of New York State and New York City, and representatives
of the
largest State and labor pension funds.

One interesting observation: As a devotee of sustainable development
and
sustainability, subjects that were addressed at the meeting from the
sustainability angle, I observed the paucity of references to the Kyoto
Protocol. Actually, only the UN Secretary General in his video
message, and
Mr. Klaus Toepfer, Exec. Director of UNEP, who made any significant
reference to the business aspects of the Kyoto mechanisms.

Mr. Kofi Annan said: “The world is now using market mechanisms to
reduce
carbon emissions. That offers exciting opportunities for the investment
community. But Kyoto is only a first step. we need a framework for
the
years beyond 2012 that embraces all countries and makes full use of new
technologies. Your Choice and pronouncements can make decision makers
in
government and industry take climate change seriously”.

Then, he continued - “Your investments can point the way toward smart
policies and breakthrough technologies for energy and transport…. You
are
accustomed to thinking big, and thinking long term. Those are exactly
the
skills we need to address one of the greatest challenges of our
century”.

With above facts in mind, the KP way of trading in carbon credits, and
the
seemingly clear statements that savings in CO2 emissions should be done
by
the corporations in-house in order to affect the long term success of
the
company, I decided to ask the Summit’s spokespeople at their UN Press
Conference - what do they actually think of Kyoto. The Panel was made
up by
the leader of CERES, three State Treasurers and a large investment
manager
from overseas. My question was if they would consider the buying of
carbon
credits as part of the solution in their work on the climate risks. I
had
really the impression that they did not make this a part of their
thinking
and I must now take a more serious look at the implications of this
position. I think the answer can be found in the UN SG video message.
While KP ends in 2012, the people handling these large investment funds
do
not waste time in dealing with interim mechanisms. They are ready to
attack
the problem at its roots - that is start pushing the companies to do
the
work in house by investing as a start this one billion dollars - this
first
year - and jump start the technology for use whenever it is needed
rather
then think of the global aspect that doing it somewhere else also can
have a
positive effect - that helping the global situation one does also help
right
here.

Their approach, using technology to reduce climate risk right at the
emitting plant here, by reducing energy inputs, conserving and change
systems, and providing that technology also to others, if accepted by
Washington, could thus perhaps help jump start now also the post Kyoto
era.

The key to all of this is in their three stages of analysis:
Assessment, Disclosure, Solutions - leading in a nut-shell to a
Strategy that starts with the honest Public Disclosure of the Emissions
Accounting and leads to Solutions that are based on Clean Energy.
Because this is good for business!