The Growth of Green Investing

So-called sustainable stocks increasingly speak to big business. Are they legitimate?

- AINSLIE CRUICKSHANK

More than three years have passed since a panel of sci-entists convened by the United Nations issued a stark warning: to avoid the most devastating effects of climate change, the world has until 2030 to cut greenhouse gas emissions by almost half. With just under a decade left, transforming Canada’s fossil-fuel-reliant economy in line with that monumental goal requires not only political commitment and innovation but also money —  possibly as much as $200 billion in capital spending over the next nine years, according to Ryan Riordan, the director of research at Queen’s University’s Institute for Sustainable Finance. More windmills and solar panels need to be manufactured and installed, gas stations need to be upgraded with charging stations, diesel buses need to be swapped with hydrogenpowered ones, and buildings need to be retrofitted for energy efficiency. What’s not yet clear is who will pay for it all.

Governments, as wielders of the public purse, have an undeniable role in shepherding this economic transformation. But, according to Basma Majerbi, a finance professor at the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business, “the scale of the investments needed to green our economy and transition to net zero are massive, and government’s money alone is not going to do it. We really need to mobilize private-sector financing to reach these goals.”