Biggest banks and insurance companies investing in

Annual global investment in “green bonds” for renewable energy and climate mitigation projects reached a record $10 billion last year

Investors see green in clean energy, Boston Globe By Derrick Z. Jackson GLOBE COLUMNIST JANUARY 25, 2014 IT WAS NOT THE USUAL ROUNDUP OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS SAYING THE SKY IS FALLING. INSTEAD, IT WAS THE BIGGEST BANKERS AND INSURANCE COMPANIES CALLING FOR MASSIVE INVESTMENTS IN CLEAN ENERGY LEST WE — AND THEY — PAY IN MASSIVE DAMAGES FROM CLIMATE CHANGE.

“It’s the issue of our day,” said former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.

“The costs of another Sandy will grow from $19 billion to $90 billion,” said J. Eric Smith, the CEO of Swiss Re Americas.

Lisa Carnoy, head of global capital markets for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, exhorted her colleagues to fund clean energy projects until “every blue chip company in the S&P and . . . every investment manager has a green energy bond.”

They all spoke last week at the Investor Summit on Climate Risk, a forum of about 500 people sponsored by the UN and Ceres, the Boston-based coalition of investors, industries, and environmental groups that has sought for 25 years to engage big business in environmental protection and the climate change battle. The gathering offered the best evidence to date of corporate capital being thrown into the fight.

In the last two years, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and Morgan Stanley have announced goals to finance and invest in renewable energy projects, transmission lines, energy efficiency and storage, and transportation, water, and waste projects. Combined with an earlier commitment by Citi, those institutions have pledged a total of $180 billion by 2022. Annual global investment in “green bonds” for renewable energy and climate mitigation projects reached a record $10 billion last year………http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2014/01/24/investors-see-green-clean-energy/F7sxg6y3Ljfsp2WwARNGZN/story.html