Investors managing $37 trillion in assets urged Japan to slash the country's carbon emissions, saying Monday that a strong signal from Tokyo could help galvanize international climate action ahead of a U.N. summit in Glasgow in November.
Institutional investors, traditionally wary of singling out governments for criticism, are starting to subject policy-makers to greater public pressure amid mounting fears over the risks that climate change poses to global markets.
While Britain and much of the European Union aim to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, Japan is the only G7 nation still building new coal-fired power plants, drawing criticism from climate campaigners.