Making Progress on Climate at the UN Climate Summit and the People’s Climate March

Friday, September 26, 2014

Written by Leslie Samuelrich, President of Green Century Capital Management

I just returned from the United Nations Climate Summit in New York.

I’m happy to report that there is more momentum on climate change than there ever has been – and Green Century’s leadership is helping drive forward the agenda of progress.

Here’s what Green Century did this week in New York:

• I was invited to join the United Nations Climate Summit on Tuesday by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. I met with heads of state and leaders of civil society, business, and finance at the official summit at United Nations Headquarters. (Though they didn’t let me into the Plenary for Heads of State!)
• Investors representing more than $50 billion pledged to divest from fossil fuels, including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and actor Mark Ruffalo. Green Century has been helping promote the Divest/Invest campaign since its inception.
• As you’ve probably heard, more than 400,000 people gathered in the largest march about climate change in history. Green Century’s Jeff Gang, Chloe Kuh, and Lucia von Reusner were among those at the historic People’s Climate March. (And many of our investors were there too!)
• I was quoted in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal “Morning Risk Report,” on why companies should disclose their climate change risks.
• Along with other investors managing $24 trillion, we joined in signing the 2014 Statement on Climate Change, published by the Global Investor Coalition on Climate Change. This statement will help other asset managers and owners to push governments to support national and global climate policy solutions.
• We attended the release of the Carbon Tracker report on investing in coal, at Bloomberg L.P. This report evaluates investments in coal companies. While Green Century already keeps your money out of coal companies, this information helps bolster our position.
• And last, Green Century signed on to the World Bank’s high-profile business statement, “Putting a Price on Carbon,” which was showcased at the UN Secretary-General’s meetings

Avoiding the worst polluters has been part of our investment analysis since our founding in 1991. Both of our investment options are fossil fuel free – the Equity Fund and the Balanced Fund. This makes Green Century the only family of mutual funds to be fossil fuel free, responsible, and diversified. Our leadership is making a difference.

To our investors: thank you for choosing Green Century. Your investments make this work possible.

If you’re not yet an investor, I invite you to learn more. Get started today – we can help!