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By Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque London:

Stern warnings about climate change and the development debate started off yesterday's Jetfin conference on commodities and energy in Geneva. The message was clear: irresponsible investing has no future.

Simon Zadek, M.D. of AccountAbility 21, a global organisation that promotes accountability innovations for sustainable development, had an alarming outlook on climate - if nothing is done: in 20-30 years, he said, some of Europe will be semi-arid, there won't be any ice-caps any more, tens of millions of people will travel from Southern Europe towards the North... "We're facing meltdown." And yet he does not believe much will come out of the forthcoming Climate Deal conference in Copenhagen.

According to Zadec, the only way forward is low carbon economy (or low carbon growth). As far as investment opportunities are concerned in this area, global revenue from climate-related business is now around $540bn, and is predicted to reach $2tn by 2020.

Low carbon investments are our future, he noted. A climate deal will be done, for better or for worse. Carbon will be priced one way or another - and investors increasingly understand this.

"If sustainability and the commodities you invest in are not intertwined," he warned, "then the investments will not yield much as the time goes on."

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