Linking climate targets and investment portfolios: exploring the utility of cross-sectoral emission intensity indicators

摘要

This paper explores the viability and practical utility of sectoral and cross-sectoral emission intensity thresholds in enhancing the consistency of individual investment decisions with global climate targets expressed as CO2 emission budgets. It compares historic global emission intensity values to levels consistent with climate targets and to current emission intensity levels typical for selected technologies and sectors. The authors discuss the practical application of these indicative portfolio emission intensity thresholds for financial institutions and governments in the context of a global transformation to low-carbon development. In taking the investor's perspective the paper points at a number of critical uncertainties and shortcomings of emission intensity based investment criteria for portfolios.