Decarbonizing the economy: a "trajectory" reading investment challenges
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Under the Green Pact, the European Union is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050. This is encouraging economic players to commit to ambitious decarbonization trajectories for their investments. In an interview published by La Banque Postale, Guillaume Lasserre, Deputy Chief Investment Officer at LBP AM, sheds light on these challenges.
In short, for investors, "the ambition is not to choose activities that are already carbon-neutral, but to invest in a high-carbon footprint activity that has properly planned to reduce its carbon footprint over the coming years", asserts Guillaume Lasserre. Hence a different, i.e. "trajectory-based" reading of investment issues.
Some institutional investors are already transforming their asset portfolios in Europe through mandates aligned with the Paris Agreements. But there is still a risk hanging over the green transition of the economy: "In the United States, some governments are claiming that taking climate objectives into account in investments could harm their performance. For them, the decision lies not with investors but with political decision-makers", says Guillaume Lasserre. This affects the timing of the decisions required for an energy transition whose urgency no longer needs to be proven.
Another consequence of the positioning of certain countries and economic regions is the fear of a loss of competitive advantage for European financial companies with a global presence.