Aidan Regan: Global asset managers may not be the best people to pay for net zero

Should the enormous investment needed to change the way we live our lives be led by the big fiscal state, or big corporate finance, or something quite different?

Governments legislate to make pollution and carbon expensive. This will encourage a shift in behaviour and consumption. Picture: Alastair Grant/AP

There is agreement in the global policymaking community that reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050 requires a structural transformation of the world’s economy, and that this is dependent upon large-scale investment. Where there is much less agreement is the political mechanism to achieve this change, and whether it ought to take place through public or private financing channels.

This is a question of political economy, and it goes to the core of the global ...