Follow-up of the commitments of the One Planet Summit, statement by the President of the Republic following a meeting of sovereign wealth funds

MIL OSI Translation. Government of the Republic of France statements from French to English – Published on July 07, 2018

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am pleased to have received today the prime minister of Norway

These sovereign wealth funds were present in Paris on the 12th of December last, to the summit of One Planet, which has been an important time of remobilization of the international community against the threat of climate change. They decided to form a working group and have taken the engagement on the 12th of December, to Paris, to establish a common framework of analysis in order to accelerate the efforts to integrate risks and opportunities related to the transition to an economy that is ” low carbon “, in the management of large portfolios of long term assets.

Because it was an emergency, everyone knows that. Climate change is not a risk for tomorrow, it is for today, and it occurs now under our eyes, its consequences are inevitable if we do nothing, it is the worsening of poverty in some States, the worsening of inequalities is the displacement of populations due to desertification, is the disappearance of island nations.

The commitment of the six sovereign wealth funds in the One Planet Summit is not trivial. These funds represent 3 000 billion, or 2% to 3% of the world market capitalization, and they are among the largest asset holders in the world. Suffice to say that they have a strong influence in the investor community, that they can have an influence also on the companies in which they invest so that they include the imperative of climate, knowing that they have a non-negligible part of the publicly listed companies in advanced economies.

Basically what its six funds, sovereign wealth funds are committed to the 12 December last, is to show that, even though it could not have escaped the person – funds the capital of which was generated by oil, we may decide to come to hydrocarbons and to invest in climate action. And these are funds that invest in the funds. And they decided to show that with the finance, we could do the good of the economy. This double transformation of showing that when we think of the future, one can precisely achieve this transformation and to put finance at the service of the common good, we can use the capital from hydrocarbons and fossil fuels to the energy transition, this is what, during these last six months, they are employed to do.

These swfs have formed a working group, and what they present to us today, it is this document, six months before the date that was initially planned. The result of their mobilization, it is a common strategy to guide investment decisions in favour of the climate. This document will be published in a few minutes on the Internet, we will be presented in a moment. It revolves around three principles : a principle of alignment, ownership, a principle of integration, and they allow it to be so, to bring all of the investors who follow them, the managers who follow them, all of the companies in which they are involved, to go to the climate change, to integrate them into their strategy planning, risk management, to integrate into the public reports, the promotion of the management of values and to integrate risks and opportunities related to climate change in the management of their investments.

The publication of this collective strategy is an important step in the acceleration of the transition to a global economy that is low carbon, because this document – in any case it is our goal – needs to become a standard. It will become the reference of its six sovereign fund in terms of investment. It will lead to weigh-in on the strategy of the Asset Managers and the companies in which they have invested. It will then serve as a reference to the financial markets which do not take sufficient account today these risks, in particular because of a lack of method, of data, of consensus.

This document creates, for the first time a consensus assumed asset holders to a new level, in the planet. Of course there will be winners and losers of these changes. Winning companies will be those who have correctly anticipated this future inevitable, low carbon and based on the energy efficiency and climate resilience.

Through this document, you send a clear message : you say you want to invest in companies that accelerate towards the transition, which accelerate towards a global economy with low emissions and which are resilient to physical risks related to climate change. You mean for entrepreneurs, asset managers, decisive choice.

I would like to thank the founding members of the working group of sovereign wealth funds, I want to acknowledge the work that you have done, the one and the other, in a spirit of solidarity, for the first time, despite geographical differences and cultural, and I encourage you to share your experience and to engage as widely as possible the financial sector in this fight.

I want to express my gratitude to prime Minister SOLBERG, I am very happy that once again, after December 12, it will be present in Paris to defend the cause of the climate for which she is highly committed and always active. We share the one and the other taste of the achievements and the concrete. And you have made glad today because you bring us concrete results. And I believe that we have the same temperament on this point, we are not very fond of heights where the declarations are not followed by effects. And so, as we were, one and the other, present the 12 December and that we are here today, we can see that with you, the effects are waiting for you.

I will be raising in New York on the 26th of September next, all public and private actors who have made commitments to One Planet Summit. We will follow up with the united Nations and the world Bank on the progress of the initiatives last December. It will of course be at the heart of this point.

I wish we could make this event, precisely, a rendez-vous point which will make the document a standard, and which will be around the six founding members to expand the list of those who will join this initiative, will comply with it. I hope that we can expand the scope, again, of this document, and I’ll see you in a year so that we can make a new step on the concrete achievements and results that we have obtained, since that’s all we need : results.

Thank you very much for your commitment.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Please accept our apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure is not be perfect.