Sustainable Nation Ireland (SNI) CEO Stephen Nolan, 39, doesn’t plan to be in his job in five years.
The chief executive is betting that by 2021, his “project” will be longer seen as “necessary” but as “business as usual.”
SNI aims to make an impact investment play in low-carbon, climate-impacting projects and is raising €250 billion of sustainable funds by 2021.
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“There will be €85 trillion invested in the transition, €12 trillion in energy alone, and the rest in water, food and so on. We see an opportunity, and we’re saying let’s position Ireland in this space,” Nolan points out.
“We’d like to secure €250 billion by 2021 – that includes funds being managed, funds being deposited here or deployed in low-carbon companies. It’s not starting from zero. We’ve around €35 to €40 billion in funds already managed. In the last 12 months, €1.5 billion was done in renewable energy deals and there will be the same over the next year.”
The drive towards sustainability is being driven globally. Last December, world leaders signed the Paris Accord which commits governments to combating dangerous climate change. The Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4th, 2016.
The Paris accord aims to hold average global temperature rises to no more than 2 degrees Celsius and to help at-risk countries adapt to risk. This will involve major investment in low-carbon technologies across the energy, water, building, transport and agriculture sectors.
“We work with the entire capital chain from policy makers to capital providers to make Ireland as attractive as possible to those in the sustainable investment space,” Nolan says. “They can locate a fund here, deploy equity directly into Irish companies or invest in Irish low-carbon projects here or abroad.”
The drive towards responsible or sustainable investment is being driven by pension funds, he says. Funds across Europe, the UK and US, including Washington DC’s $6.4 billion city pension fund and Sweden’s Fourth National Pension Fund, known as AP4, have pledged to divest from fossil fuels and invest in green technologies.
Source: Independent Ireland
