Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, has said global warming is an increasing source of risk to the financial community, and investing in projects that will help the world stay within a 2˚C rise in temperatures over pre-industrial levels need not hurt investment returns.

"All investors must decide whether they are future-takers or future-makers," he said.

Successive speakers at the meeting, held in the ornate surroundings of the City of London's Guildhall, said that investors have to realise that a fundamental shift is taking place in the global economy - away from fossil fuel-led growth and towards a less carbon intensive, more sustainable future, according to a message received from London on Friday, says news agency UNB.

Investors were told they ignored this shift at their peril. By continuing to put money into fossil fuels, fund managers were placing their clients' money at risk. Oil firms, even before the drop in oil prices, were delivering diminishing cash returns.

"We collectively sleep-walked into a global financial crisis," said one investment fund manager. "We have no excuse for sleeping our way into a climate change crisis."

Sarah Butler-Sloss, a co-founder of Europeans for Divest/Invest, a campaign that encourages individual investors, philanthropic organisations and pension funds to divest from fossil fuels, said that more than US$2.5 trillion of financial assets had so far been moved out of fossil fuels into renewables and other sectors.

James Cameron, chairman of the UK's Overseas Development Institute, and a leading figure in encouraging investments in low-carbon industries, said few had anticipated the pace of change away from fossil fuels in recent years, highlighting what he described as the phenomenal growth in renewable energy.

There are great investment opportunities, Cameron said. "This is not some kind of green sand pit for investors to play around in. This [decarbonised economy] is a huge investment space."

Some fund managers expressed concern about what they saw as a lack of investment products in the low carbon sector. Others said there was still not enough expertise about renewables and other decarbonised projects among firms managing investment funds.