The world will meet its goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions nearly two decades later than planned at its current investment rates, Swiss Re said in a report Friday.
The reinsurer calculated that since nations set the goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 in the 2015 Paris agreement, only two percent of the needed investments have been made.
"To put this into perspective, if this trend continues, it means that the 2050 net-zero targets will likely be missed by 20 years," said Jerome Haegeli.
The firm estimates $270 trillion in investments in the energy, transport, buildings and industry sectors are need to meet the goal.
The 2050 target was set to try to keep global warming to a maximum two degrees Celsius, and preferably 1.5 degrees.
Experts have become increasingly concerned that the world is not on pace to meet the mid-century goal, thus increasing the risk of damaging climate changes.
"The world stands to lose up to 7-10 percent of GDP by mid-century if warming stays on the current trajectory," warned Swiss Re.
It encouraged ploughing money into decarbonisation sooner rather than later, as "each dollar invested today implies decreased emissions and mitigated GDP loss in the future."
The investments, the largest portion of which need to go to the transportation sector, "will also bring economic benefits beyond decarbonisation such as, for example, future productivity gains, employment and financial stability," said the report.
Reinsurers like Swiss Re are very limited in limiting climate change as they pick up the bill for weather-related disasters like flooding, heatwaves, wildfires and hailstorms.
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SWISS RE AG
