UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Institutional investors canhave "a decisive impact" on future greenhouse gas emissions and the environmental performance of major companies, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan told a gathering of senior financial and corporate figures in New York on Friday.

    Global warming could have serious consequences for businesses and investor budgets -- and not just for the environment itself --unless the world "mounts a sufficient response," Annan told the Institutional Investors Summit on Climate Risk.

    The summit's attendees included former US Vice-President Al Gore, institutional investors who represent more than 1 trillion US dollars of assets, senior Wall Street fund managers, academics,and state treasurers and comptrollers from across the United States.

    The event was supported by the Global Compact, a UN initiative launched in 2000 with some of the world's biggest corporations. The compact calls on all companies, large and small, to uphold principles on the environment and to protect workers and human rights.

    Annan told the summit that where and how they place their investment portfolios will help shape the financial viability of environmentally-friendly technologies and the amount of greenhousegas emissions that companies' operations make.

    "Those decisions (that institutional investors make) can greatly affect how people work and live over the coming decades," he said.

    The UN chief noted that other speakers at the gathering had pointed out that serious global consequences are looming for businesses and their budgets if an appropriate response to climatechange is not made.

    Annan said investors should encourage corporations to voluntarily reveal information about how their businesses affect climate change -- "it would send a message that corporate performance will be measured in both financial and environmental terms."

    He added that investors and fund managers could help create conditions for more efficient emissions trading systems and accounting methods, citing the launch of the Chicago Climate Exchange as a good example for the creation of a carbon market. Enditem