Carney Says Clean Energy Investments at Third of the Pace Needed

Apr 20, 2022

(Bloomberg) Mark Carney, head of transition investing at Brookfield Asset Management, said investments in clean energy are running at a third the pace that’s required to meet climate goals.

The world isn’t “going far enough or fast enough” to shift to low-carbon fuels, he said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. “We need to up our game.”

The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, which Carney co-chairs, says about $100 trillion is needed to meet net-zero emissions goals over the next three decades.

Carney, a former Bank of England Governor, said that while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine boosts demand for fossil fuels and increases near-term emissions, it also forces investors to make medium-term decisions about their energy needs.

“Any source of energy — whether its clean or conventional — that’s meaningfully going to move the dial on energy sources is going to take three to five years to come on stream whether it’s a new liquefied natural gas train or wind or solar or hydrogen,” he said.

Carney said countries such as the U.K., Canada and those in Europe are doubling down if not “tripling” down on clean energy sources for the medium term.

GFANZ’s members include BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager, and banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc. Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP, also is co-chair of GFANZ.