Tuesday, February 06, 2024

Carney raises $10bn to back net zero projects

Tim Wallace
Mon, 5 February 2024 

Mr Carney said the successful fund raising proves there is money to be made in the shift to net zero - Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg

Mark Carney has raised $10bn (£8bn) for an eco-friendly investment fund, as the former Bank of England governor seeks to boost funding for net zero projects.

Mr Carney has criticised Rishi Sunak’s environmental policies and thrown his support behind the Labour Party in recent months, as he ramps up his campaign to bring more money into green investments.

His new fund has already bought a renewable energy company which runs on-shore wind farms in Scotland and the north of England, and is building solar projects across the country.

The new fund has raised $10bn so far, and follows a previous vehicle which raised $15bn from investors.

Mr Carney, now chairman of Brookfield Asset Management, is understood to have helped bring in international backers including pension funds, insurers and high-net-worth families.

Brookfield said the new fund will invest in renewable energy, nuclear power, carbon capture and storage, and renewable natural gas, which can be made by processing manure through an anaerobic digester and harvesting the resultant methane.

Mr Carney, who served at the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020, said the fund proves there is money to be made in the shift to net zero.

“We have demonstrated beyond doubt the breadth and scale of attractive investment opportunities in the transition to a net zero economy,” said Mr Carney.

“By going where the emissions are, the Brookfield Global Transition Fund strategy is aiming to deliver strong risk-adjusted financial returns for investors and make meaningful environmental impacts for people and the planet.”

The former governor, who gave speeches on greening the financial system while at the Bank of England, has mounted a series of projects promoting net zero investments.

He helped launch the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) in his capacity as a UN climate envoy. The initiative aimed to encourage the insurance industry to assess, and then reduce, its impact on the environment.

But the NZIA suffered a series of blows last year as criticism from US politicians and anti-ESG (environmental, social and governance) campaigners led some, largely American, companies to quit the group.

In Davos last month, Mr Carney criticised Mr Sunak’s decisions to water down some of the British Government’s net zero plans.

“What I didn’t like, at least what it looked like to me, is that policies were being taken off the table certainly without replacements being put in and they were being done for purely political signalling purposes,” he said.

Some environmental restrictions, including the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, have been pushed back by several years by the Prime Minister.

Last year Mr Carney endorsed the Labour Party ahead of the general election. At Labour’s party conference in October he appeared in a video message in which he praised Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, as “a serious economist”.

“She understands the economics of work, of place and family,” he said. “It is beyond time we put her energy and ideas into action.”


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