The chairman of UBS wants Europe to design and set up its own capital market union to tackle climate change – a counterweight to the U.S.
Axel Weber, outgoing chairman of the Swiss bank, wants Europe's banks and governments to set up a «green» capital market in a wider bid to hit Paris Agreement climate targets like lowering carbon emissions and moving to more sustainable sources of fuel and power, he told «Bloomberg» at the European Forum, a conference held in Alpbach, Austria.
«If we are really not so successful as Europeans to compete with the U.S. capital markets why don’t we take where we are and build the green capital market of the future?,» Weber said. The issue is deeply personal for the German former central banker, who has been a vocal backer of making finance more environmentally, socially, and governance-sustainable.
Call To Action
«What we need to do is get big finance and global firms behind this agenda,» Weber said. He called the Paris target of lowering global warming to less than two degrees Celsius unambitious and said a potential green capital market in Europe could have a market capitalization of more than $100 trillion.
Weber wasn't asked about a failing grade that a British non-profit group gave more than 70 percent of its climate-base funds, according to a separate «Bloomberg» report.
