About the author: Mindy Lubber is CEO and president of the sustainability nonprofit Ceres, and a founding member of the global steering committee for Climate Action 100+ and The Investor Agenda.

The flooding of a third of Pakistan. Intensifying hurricanes that destroyed cities from Florida to China. Worsening heat waves that killed thousands around the world. Even as investors, companies, and countries are increasingly prioritizing the climate crisis, its devastation over the past year—especially in developing nations—shows that it is only accelerating.

These severe impacts on communities, nations, capital markets, infrastructure, and the global economy are why, in the run-up to the recent United Nations climate-change summit, known as COP27, more than 600 institutional investors issued the most ambitious call yet for government action. They urged world leaders to take five specific policy actions, including establishing plans to peak and then phase out the use of oil and gas.