Joint Climate Change Strategy to Launch in London

Green groups, banks and academics will propose redirecting capital investments into projects that are less affected by climate change, in a joint study to launch this spring, organisers said on Monday.

The initiative, based in the City of London, is the latest example of big business assessing the threats and opportunities posed by climate change, as global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise after a record warm decade.

"Clearly investments are now being made in response to the threats of climate change," said Jan-Peter Onstwedder, project director for the initiative calling itself the London Accord.

The London Accord project, sponsored by the City of London Corporation and BP, aims to assemble around 10 investment banks to identify how investors can not only protect their money but profit from climate change, for example by investing in growth sectors which help curb emissions.

"We hope the London Accord will provide a toolkit for investors to... meet their targets of both reducing carbon emissions and providing returns," added Onstwedder, who was formerly global head of risk at BP.

The potential cost of climate change for European businesses, and their investors, has been underlined by the European Union's carbon market, which imposes a charge on emissions of greenhouse gases by heavy industry and is set to extend to the aviation sector in 2011.

So far signed up are Morgan Stanley, Bank Sarasin, Societe Generale, HSBC, Credit Suisse and CanaccordAdams.

The organisers and backers are expected to formally launch the six to seven month research project in March.