Extract from report stage (Commons) of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill - June 7
Tuesday, 8 June 2021 08:21
Richard Fuller (North East Bedfordshire) (Con):...It is important
to ask what impact it would have if we made the environment the
focus. We currently have $30 trillion-worth of environmental,
social and governance assets in the world. The Bill is proposing to
add a flow of approximately $1 billion a year, or 1 in 30,000 of
the assets that are already there. In terms of where moneys are
flowing, this year’s flow of ESG in the private sector is about
$130 billion to $140 billion. If we were...Request free trial
(North East
Bedfordshire) (Con):...It is important to ask what impact it
would have if we made the environment the focus. We currently have
$30 trillion-worth of environmental, social and governance assets
in the world. The Bill is proposing to add a flow of approximately
$1 billion a year, or 1 in 30,000 of the assets that are already
there. In terms of where moneys are flowing, this year’s flow of
ESG in the private sector is about $130
billion to $140 billion. If we were to make the environment the
core mission, we would essentially be tossing £800 million on top
of an enormous pile of assets that is already there and an enormous
additional inflow this year that is already happening. By its very
nature, we would be doing the thing that we are not supposed to be
asking ARIA to do, which essentially is to do what everybody else
is doing. The whole purpose of ARIA is to do those things that
other people are not doing. I feel that it is a mistake to say,
“This is a really important mission—aren’t you terrible for not
saying that we should focus on it?”, rather than “There are other
missions—there is a bigger mission out there that perhaps we as
politicians do not have the insight to understand.” That is the
whole purpose of setting up ARIA, because with our bureaucratic
fingers and our tiny political minds we just are not able to think
of those things. It is worth our while considering that, so I
absolutely agree with my hon. Friend the Member for South Basildon
and East Thurrock () that it should not have a mission. The whole purpose
of ARIA is to do those things that other people are not doing. I
feel that it is a mistake to say, “This is a really important
mission—aren’t you terrible for not saying that we should focus on
it?”, rather than “There are other missions—there is a bigger
mission out there that perhaps we as politicians do not have the
insight to understand.” That is the whole purpose of setting up
ARIA, because with our bureaucratic fingers and our tiny political
minds we just are not able to think of those things. It is worth
our while considering that, so I absolutely agree with my hon.
Friend the Member for South Basildon and East Thurrock () that it should not have a mission...
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