Potential Pension Fund Losses Should not Deter High-Income Countries from Bold Climate Action

>> Read paper published by Joule

One common rationale against climate action is that the resulting fossil fuel investment losses could affect the retirement or long-term savings of a vast number of people. However, this article by PERI’s Gregor Semieniuk and coauthors finds that the loss of fossil-fuel assets would have a minimal impact on the general populace. In high-income countries, most losses would be borne by the most affluent individuals for whom the loss makes up a small percentage of their total wealth. In contrast, the financial loss of lower-income individuals would be small in dollar terms and feasible for governments to compensate.

>> Read summary published by The Guardian