Money and Politics: The Drive for Climate Change Action

[Sigmetnow]

@billmckibben: Yes! United Church of Canada votes (by 67%) to divest all fossil fuels. Huge victory--moral mandate in a key country http://t.co/UXowt5qG5k

https://twitter.com/billmckibben/status/631153577805893632

Today, the United Church of Canada voted to sell its fossil fuel assets and commit financially to transitioning to an economy based on renewable energy. The vote was held by the 42nd General Council, the United Church’s highest body, which meets triennially to determine the denomination’s priorities. Climate justice, whereby the world’s most vulnerable populations avoid disproportionate harms of climate chaos, stands as a clear priority for Canada’s largest protestant denomination.

http://fossilfreefaith.ca/united-church-of-canada-votes-to-divest-from-fossil-fuels/

[Sigmetnow]

Debated whether to put this under the "DENY" thread.... 

Critics pounce on Australia's new climate plan as misleading, unambitious

Australia released its much-anticipated greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets on Tuesday, and as many environmental activists feared, they are far from what's needed to limit manmade global warming to below "dangerous" levels as defined by the international community.

Australia's Conservative government, led by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, pledged to cut its planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2030. ...

At first glance, Australia’s new target appears similar to the United States’ announced goal. In July, the Obama administration submitted its emissions plan to the U.N., pledging to cut emissions by 26 to 28% below 2005 levels by 2025.

However, the baseline year that Australia is using — 2005 — was a year that country had unusually high greenhouse gas emissions. Using such a peak year can make emissions targets appear to be more stringent than they actually are.

The Climate Change Authority noted the issue with a 2005 base year in its report, saying that if 2005 were to be used as the baseline, then the emissions target should be a 36% reduction by 2025.

http://mashable.com/2015/08/11/australia-climate-goals/

[Sigmetnow]

Dear Washington Times: Here's How People Of Color Really Feel About The Clean Power Plan

For the second time in recent months, The Washington Times has cherry-picked statements from fossil fuel industry-funded individuals and organizations to allege that the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Power Plan "faces opposition from black [and] Hispanic leaders." In reality, a great majority of African-American and Latino voters support climate action, and leaders from many of the largest minority groups have come out in support of the plan.

Several polls indicate that African-American and Latino voters overwhelmingly support government action to combat climate change -- and the Clean Power Plan specifically. Additionally, many major black and Hispanic organizations have endorsed the EPA's plan to reduce carbon pollution from power plants because of the financial and health benefits it will provide for their communities.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/08/11/dear-washington-times-heres-how-people-of-color/204868

[Sigmetnow]

Bummer.   I liked the idea of a carbon emissions budget: firm numbers could lead to measured action.  But Joe Romm is right; politicians would only use it to support their inaction.

The Real Budget Crisis: ‘The CO2 Emissions Budget Framing Is A Recipe For Delaying Concrete Action Now’
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/09/30/2699121/real-budget-crisis-co2/

[Sigmetnow]

Handy chart included.

Where U.S. Presidential Candidates Stand On Climate Change
http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/08/11/429781692/where-presidential-candidates-stand-on-climate-change

[Sigmetnow]

@mattprivratsky: Energy nerds: tomorrow's our day. @EricHolthaus is gathering #energy experts for an AMA on @reddit #CleanPowerPlan  https://t.co/iefTbr72KS

https://twitter.com/mattprivratsky/status/631556324120068096

@freshenergy: Tomorrow, we're taking over @reddit - J. Drake Hamilton is joining @EricHolthaus for an AMA Thur @ 3PM CT http://t.co/QGWHptBlow

https://twitter.com/freshenergy/status/631555845893914624

[Sigmetnow]

The Thin Green Line Is Stopping Coal and Oil in Their Tracks
Northwest U.S. communities have won key battles. Can they win the war?
http://daily.sightline.org/2015/08/13/the-thin-green-line-is-stopping-coal-and-oil-in-their-tracks/

[Sigmetnow]

Hillary Clinton: Arctic Drilling 'Not Worth the Risk'
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/hillary-clinton-arctic-drilling-not-worth-risk-n411761

[Sigmetnow]

Bill McKibben: Being carbon-foolish cost CalPERS and CalSTRS $5 billion

The California Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State Teachers' Retirement System styled themselves savvy investors that didn't want to make decisions based on mere morality, spurning the argument that it was time to stop investing in companies searching for yet more hydrocarbons. Instead, the funds promised to "engage" with those companies to change them.

How has that strategy worked so far? On Monday, the federal government gave Royal Dutch Shell the final permits it needs to drill in the Arctic for the first time in 20 years. And a new report shows that those savvy investors managed to lose their clients — the state's pensioners — $5 billion in its oil and gas portfolios last year.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0818-mckibben-calpers-fossil-fuel-investment-20150818-story.html

[Sigmetnow]

Pushing back against fossil fuel interests, Obama backs clean energy choices for consumers
http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/08/24/obama-pushing-for-more-clean-energy-choices-for-consumers

[Sigmetnow]

Australian Capital Territory Sets Target Of 100% Renewables By 2025

The government of the Australian Capital Territory is going where the federal politicians who march the corridors of Parliament House in the national capital fear to tread – to reach 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025.

The target was unveiled by ACT chief minister Andrew Barr at the ACT Labor Party conference on Saturday. The ACT already had a 90 per cent renewable energy target by 2020, but decided to go the “whole hog” by 2025 to show leadership in the climate and clean energy debate that has been lacking at the federal level.

“Canberra can and should be a beacon for everyone who realises the world must act decisively now to stave off a future of catastrophic climate change,” Barr told the conference on Saturday.

The ACT is able to do this because it has no domestic fossil fuel industry – apart from federal lobbyists – within its territory, therefore little organised resistance to wind and solar projects.

http://cleantechnica.com/2015/08/24/australian-capital-territory-sets-target-of-100-renewables-by-2025/

[Sigmetnow]

U.S. President Barack Obama singles out Koch brothers over fossil fuel lobbying

Barack Obama has railed against US political and business figures who oppose the expansion of wind and solar power in a speech where he singled out the influential Koch brothers for criticism.

Accusing opponents of his energy policies of “wanting to protect an outdated status quo” based on fossil fuels, he warned them away from “standing in the way of the future” and his efforts to combat climate change.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/25/barack-obama-warns-fossil-fuelled-opponents-he-has-clean-energy-to-spare

[Sigmetnow]

Obama Just Picked The Customer’s Side Against The Nevada Utility That’s Trying To Kill Rooftop Solar
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/08/25/3694832/nv-energy-vs-rooftop-solar/

[Sigmetnow]

Obama to speak 'frankly' on 11-day climate change tour
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/08/24/obama-speak-frankly-11-day-climate-change-tour/32265433/

[Sigmetnow]

@billmckibben: Great snarky piece from @elijahion @credoaction about Obama's Alaska trip as his Mission Accomplished climate moment https://t.co/ApvSpnUQAZ

https://twitter.com/billmckibben/status/636936379461726208

President Obama’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ Moment

The scientific consensus on unburnable carbon demonstrates the problem with President Obama’s climate leadership in a nutshell. The carbon budget is a simple concept, and presumably he understands it. Yet in approving Shell to drill in the Arctic, he is continuing a string of decisions allowing the massive extraction of fossil fuels, keeping us on a path of 4 or 5 degrees of warming — a climate catastrophe.

This is the self-defeating hypocrisy at the heart of President Obama’s energy policy — what he calls his “All-of-the-Above” strategy. He increased fuel efficiency standards for cars, but also approved the southern portion of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. He made sizeable investments in clean energy and energy efficiency, but approved fracking on federal lands. He reached a historic climate deal with China, but his trade representative pressured Europe to lift its restriction on higher-carbon tar sands crude.

https://medium.com/@elijahzarlin/president-obama-s-mission-accomplished-moment-7e8971761a3e

[Sigmetnow]

Lammy and Khan commit to divestment if elected as London mayor
Labour MPs say they will ditch Boris Johnson’s policy and pull out City Hall’s £4.8bn pension fund from oil, coal and gas companies
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/aug/27/lammy-and-khan-commit-to-divestment-if-elected-as-london-mayor

[silkman]

It seems as though Obama is going to use his imminent trip to Alaska to put Climate Change centre stage. This week's storm and its impact on the ice, the coast and Shell's drilling activities will serve as an interesting precursor to his visit and perhaps give the doubters a little more food for thought.

A good piece this morning from the Union of Concerned Scientists about the threat to Native Alaskan villages is probably amongst the first of many seeking the opportunity to exploit the spotlight on the State:

http://blog.ucsusa.org/native-alaskan-villagers-may-become-the-first-u-s-climate-refugees-860

[Sigmetnow]

Breaking the Ice: Obama Seeks to Cement Climate Change Legacy
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/breaking-ice-obama-seeks-cement-climate-change-legacy-n418061

[Sigmetnow]

Oil, Oligarchs, Climate and Obama’s Arctic-Focused Alaska Trip
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

The Arctic seems hot these days, and not just because of rising temperatures and retreating ice, or because President Obama plans to speak at an Arctic policy meeting and visit an Arctic community on an Alaska tour starting Monday.

There’s intensified international jockeying over Arctic Ocean seabed resources, with Russia in August updating its claim to a vast region under the Law of the Sea convention (which the United States still has not ratified). There’s the tussle over Obama’s attempt to balance his climate and energy policies, with environmentalists decrying his approval of leases for Arctic offshore drilling (watch “Climate Leaders Don’t Drill The Arctic”) while Alaska Republicans complain about excessive federal control (see Representative Don Young here).

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/oil-oligarchs-and-other-subtexts-on-obamas-arctic-focused-alaska-trip/

[Sigmetnow]

@EricHolthaus: Good overview of Obama climate policy via latest @drvox tweetstorm: http://t.co/5X7SThUk88

https://twitter.com/ericholthaus/status/638778074180546561

My take:  With today's huge known reserves of fossil fuel, putting limits on selected bits of fossil fuel production won't reduce demand.  So, let the oil companies have their fun (but keep tightening restrictions for health and safety), and use other policies to reduce consumer demand and incentivise cleaner alternatives.

[Sigmetnow]

In Alaska, Obama warns leaders: 'We're not acting fast enough' on global warming
http://mashable.com/2015/08/31/obama-glacier-climate-alaska/

[Sigmetnow]

Coal divestment bill passes California state legislature

The California bill is the latest in the international coal "divestment" movement. Norway's parliament recently voted to reduce coal investments by its $880 billion sovereign wealth fund. Stanford University and the University of Maine have made similar moves.

"This is a landmark bill because it represents the first time state pension funds have divested on the grounds of climate change," said Will Lana, a partner at Trillium Asset Management, a "sustainable" investment firm that represents $2.2 billion.

http://reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0R226A20150902

[Sigmetnow]

Four-minute video on transitioning to clean energy:  excerpt of speech by President Obama.

@ClimateReality: "We refuse to surrender the hope of a clean energy future to those who fear it and fight it." —@POTUS: http://t.co/SlPAN0NxtU  #ActOnClimate

https://twitter.com/climatereality/status/641044019213139970

[Sigmetnow]

The Republicans' drive for climate change inaction:

GOP to attack climate pact at home and abroad
An aide to Mitch McConnell has been informing foreign embassies about GOP plans to oppose Obama's strategy on global warming.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/gop-congress-climate-pact-paris-213382#ixzz3l9QihEjH

[Sigmetnow]

Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim [”Snowball"] Inhofe flies to Copenhagen conference for a two-hour visit; calls climate change a 'hoax'; reporter calls him 'ridiculous'; Inhofe flies home.

Der Spiegel reporter calls Inhofe ‘ridiculous’ at Copenhagen summit
http://www.rawstory.com/2009/12/youre-ridiculous-inhofe/

[Sigmetnow]

Joe Romm:  In Radical Shift, GOP Leaders Actively Embrace Catastrophic Climate Change

Over the past year, GOP leaders, driven by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), have made a radical shift in the party’s public position on climate change. They are now actively seeking to destroy a global climate deal.

In any other universe this would be a major news story. But I guess the mainstream media has become so jaded to what the Koch brothers and Tea Party have done to the Republican party at a national level, that this radical shift seems just like another dog-bites-man-story, albeit one where the wound is fatal.

In fact, for most of the past quarter-century, most of the GOP leadership has at least given lip service to the idea that global warming is a global problem that needs a global solution. Not only have they abandoned that public position, but they now apparently believe the role of the “exceptional” and “indispensable” nation is to actively work to undermine the world’s best chance to save billions of people — including generations of Americans — from needless misery.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/09/11/3700163/gop-leaders-embrace-climate-change/

[Sigmetnow]

Australia Gets 5th Leader in 8 Years After Rival Ousts PM Abbott

CANBERRA, Australia — Australia will get its fifth prime minister in eight years after the ruling Liberal Party on Monday voted out Tony Abbott following months of speculation and crumbling support from voters.

Malcolm Turnbull, a multi-millionaire former banker and tech entrepreneur and longtime Abbott rival, won a secret party room vote by 54 to 44, Liberal Party whip Scott Buchholz told reporters after the meeting in Canberra.
...
Abbott ousted Turnbull as leader of the Liberal Party in 2009.

However, his support for a carbon trading scheme, gay marriage and an Australian republic have made Turnbull unpopular with his party's right wing.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/australia-gets-5th-leader-8-years-after-rival-ousts-pm-n426841

EDIT: more, from The Guardian
Malcolm Turnbull challenges Tony Abbott for Liberal leadership
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/sep/14/malcolm-turnbull-to-challenge-tony-abbott-for-liberal-leadership

[Sigmetnow]

Australia:
Malcolm Turnbull's Faustian pact on climate change is heartbreaking

Over recent days and bit by bit, Australians have been coming to understand the price that Malcolm Turnbull was willing to pay to achieve his long-held personal ambition of becoming prime minister. Australians are beginning to understand the extent to which he was willing to discard so many long-held beliefs to satisfy that ambition.

Nowhere has that price been higher than in relation to climate change and environmental protection policy. This was, after all, the signature difference between the former prime minister and the new prime minister.

Many Australians held out very high hopes that Mr Turnbull’s return to the leadership of the Liberal party would see him drag the party back to the sensible centre on climate change — that there would be the hope of Australia again regaining a bipartisan consensus that would allow us to move forward in the way that so many of our sister nations around the world are doing.

As these Australians watch what the prime minister has been saying over the last few days — going back to his press conference on Monday night — their hearts are breaking.

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2015/sep/18/malcolm-turnbulls-faustian-pact-on-climate-change-is-heartbreaking

[Sigmetnow]

Massachusetts pension fund hit by losses in fossil fuel stocks, group says

The Massachusetts state pension fund’s holdings of fossil fuel stocks lost $521 million in value in the past fiscal year, according to an estimate by a firm that advocates divesting such assets.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/09/21/massachusetts-pension-fund-hit-losses-fossil-fuel-stocks-group-estimates/Z4ar6PvzmWJ3cqlnweOvWK/story.html

[Sigmetnow]

The Divestment Movement Has Unexpectedly Exploded into the Trillions of Dollars and Here’s Why

At this time last year, building on the momentum generated by Climate Week and the New York People’s Climate March, divestment advocates made an ambitious announcement: a plan to triple the $50 billion in assets individuals and organizations had pledged to divest from fossil fuels by the time of the 2015 Paris UN climate negotiations.

That was an ambitious plan.

But in the year since, according to a new report from Arabella Advisors, the divestment movement exploded in scope and scale increasing fifty-fold, bringing the total combined assets of those divesting to an incredible $2.6 trillion.

http://desmog.ca/2015/09/22/divestment-movement-has-unexpectedly-exploded-trillions-dollars-and-here-s-why

[Sigmetnow]

Lengthy interview with President Obama about climate change, during his visit to Alaska.

Obama Takes on Climate Change: The Rolling Stone Interview

The science doesn't change. The urgency doesn't change. But part of my job is to figure out what's my fastest way to get from point A to point B — what's the best way for us to get to a point where we've got a clean-energy economy. And somebody who is not involved in politics may say, "Well, the shortest line between two points is just a straight line; let's just go straight to it." Well, unfortunately, in a democracy, I may have to zig and zag occasionally, and take into account very real concerns and interests.
...
You wish that the political system could process an issue like this just based on obscure data and science, but, unfortunately, our system doesn't process things that way. People have to see it and feel it and breathe it. And that makes things a little scarier, because it indicates that we're already losing a lot of time. But, potentially, it gives us the chance to build the kind of political consensus, not just in America but internationally, that's going to be necessary to solve this enormous problem.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/obama-takes-on-climate-change-the-rolling-stone-interview-20150923

[Bruce Steele]

"people have to see it , feel it and breath it" then promptly deny it. I am calling bullsh..  We are bought and sold by powers that care little for our view of democracy, our feelings or our lungs.
Xi Jinping announces cap and trade by 2017,Germany takes more Syrian refugees, and Putin puts troops on the ground to fight ISIS. So do you think we are the light of democracy or are we really hiding behind the word democracy while promoting war, climate destruction, and sucking hind tit on healthcare ?  Obama would call it like he sees it but, but ,but, who pays the big bucks? And we wouldn't want to offend the corporate sponsor." the system doesn't process things that way " well it doesn't in the good old U.S. 
 I guess the pope gets it right that we represent " the land of dreams " Disneyland  or here in Calif.
La La land   

[skanky]

Chairman of CBI (Confederation of British Industry) criticises UK government's cancellation of the renewables subsidy:

"We need all countries to pull in the same direction at the Paris Climate Summit (in November) to give firms the certainty and confidence they need to invest in the green economy for the long run".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34319458

[Clare]

I just can't fathom this at all, they are laying off 20% of the research staff here, we are going backwards & quickly here down in NZ:

"Crown research institute (CRI) AgResearch is laying off 33 scientists and 50 technicians because it is scaling back research on greenhouse gases, and animal and forage sciences.

Labour climate change spokesperson Megan Woods said the government had always said research and development in that area was the silver bullet to meeting reduced emissions targets...."

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/285267/concern-for-emissions-research-after-jobs-cut

Agriculture is a major source of NZ's greenhouse gas emissions!

 
Clare

[Sigmetnow]

Divestment efforts starting to hit coal and oil firms

Pension funds and other institutional investors are growing wary of an increasing “carbon risk” faced by coal and oil companies which confront a divestment movement that has gone mainstream and an uncertain future of climate-related regulations.

Investors managing some $2.6-trillion (U.S.) in assets have signalled their intention to shift focus away from fossil fuels, a report released at a United Nations climate session this week states. And resource companies will likely face more bad news later this fall when the international Financial Stability Board, under the leadership of Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, releases a seminal report on the risk that “stranded assets” – long-term investments that are rendered uneconomic – would pose to the global banking and pension system.
...
The [climate-change] dialogue is scaring investors away from Canada and away from Alberta,” Dawn Farrell, TransAlta chief executive officer, told an energy conference in Ottawa on Thursday. “If your stock price drops by 50 per cent, where do you get the equity to invest in new technology?” Since the New Democratic Party came to power in Alberta in early May with a promise of aggressive climate policy, TransAlta’s share price has fallen from nearly $12 (Canadian) to close at $6.02 on Thursday.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/divestment-efforts-starting-to-hit-coal-and-oil-firms/article26535044/

[Sigmetnow]

Hillary Clinton Releases A Plan To Modernize America’s Energy Infrastructure

Less than 24 hours after officially coming out against the Keystone XL pipeline, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton released her plan for modernizing America’s energy infrastructure and combatting climate change across North America.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/09/23/3704776/hillary-clinton-energy-infrastructure/

[Sigmetnow]

No long-term future in tar sands, says Alberta's premier

The leader of Canada’s biggest oil-producing province has declared she sees no long-term future in fossil fuels, predicting Alberta would wean itself off dirty energy within a century.

In an early reveal of her forthcoming new energy policy, Alberta’s Rachel Notley said she would fight climate change by cleaning up the tar sands, shutting down coal-fired power plants, and converting to wind and solar power.

Notley also forecast an eventual future beyond fossil fuels – a dramatic change for Alberta - and a track that has put her on a collision course with Canada’s conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/30/no-long-term-future-in-tar-sands-alberta-rachel-notley

[Sigmetnow]

The U.S. Republican Party stands alone in climate denial

A paper published in the journal Politics and Policy by Sondre Båtstrand at the University of Bergen in Norway compared the climate positions of conservative political parties around the world. Båtstrand examined the platforms or manifestos of the conservative parties from the USA, UK, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Germany. He found that the US Republican Party stands alone in its rejection of the need to tackle climate change and efforts to become the party of climate supervillains.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2015/oct/05/the-republican-party-stands-alone-in-climate-denial

[Sigmetnow]

The first debate of the Democratic U.S. Presidential candidates was last night.

It's Wonderful to Watch Democrats Compete Over Climate Change

Climate change has officially entered prime-time politics. In the initial moments of this year's first Democratic presidential primary debate, four of the five candidates raised the issue in their opening statements—a stark contrast not only to the Republican candidates, who hardly mentioned climate change at all in their two debates to date, but also to previous election cycles. In the past, climate change has barely rated more than a passing mention from candidates of either party. At best, it's been presented as part of a laundry list of issues facing America and the world. But now the Democratic candidates have at long last internalized it as a central part of their platforms, and that came through on Tuesday night.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123112/its-wonderful-watch-democrats-compete-over-climate-change

[Sigmetnow]

Canada has ousted its incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper after nine years at the top, electing Liberal Justin Trudeau in a landmark federal election result that has raised hopes of a change in the country's climate change policy.

http://m.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2431207/canadas-new-prime-minister-justin-trudeau-raises-hope-for-climate-turnaround

BUT...

Trudeau victory may not signal a U-turn in Canada's climate policy
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/20/trudeau-victory-not-signal-u-turn-canadas-climate-policy

[Sigmetnow]

Bernie Sanders Calls for Federal Probe Into Alleged Climate Science Malfeasance by Exxon

The Exxon allegations could also prove to be a wedge issue in the Democratic presidential primaries, where Sanders is currently mounting an upstart campaign against frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Lee Fang, an investigative journalist with the Intercept, tweeted on Tuesday that top Clinton fundraisers also lobby for Exxon. Clinton hasn’t yet called for an investigation into Exxon’s climate science activities

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/10/20/bernie_sanders_wants_exxon_federal_climate_probe.html

[Sigmetnow]

Dropping fossil fuels INCREASES investment returns

...if you take the S&P 500, and remove companies that are among the Carbon Underground 200 (companies that have the largest as-yet-untapped reserves of coal, oil, and gas), replacing some of them to maintain a balanced portfolio, your investment returns can be higher than they’d have been if you stayed on the business-as-usual path.  Applying this criteria to the past ten years, you’d have earned about an extra 1% per year.

http://www.resilientinvestor.com/dropping-fossil-fuels-increases-investment-returns/

[Sigmetnow]

Bernie Sanders says he opposes Bakken oil pipeline
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2015/11/10/bernie-sanders-says-he-opposes-bakken-oil-pipeline/75534380/

[Sigmetnow]

Hillary Clinton Agrees: We Need a 100 Percent Clean Energy Future
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jessy-tolkan/hillary-clinton-agrees-we-need-a-100-percent-clean-energy-future_b_8548416.html

[Sigmetnow]

Sanders: 'To hell with the fossil fuel industry’

“When you have people like the Koch brothers and ExxonMobil today spending huge amounts of money trying to deny that reality, it slows up the entire world from aggressively addressing what is an international crisis,” he said late last month. "This is serious stuff.”

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/261019-sanders-to-hell-with-the-fossil-fuel-industry

[Sigmetnow]

Europe’s largest insurer Allianz to pull funds from coal
German company holding €2 trillion worth in assets said it will shift an estimated €4 billion into clean energy.

The financial giant is the largest asset manager yet to announce its departure from the most polluting fossil fuel.

It follows French counterpart Axa, which in May committed to sell €500 million worth of coal holdings, and Norway’s $900 billion sovereign wealth fund.

An estimated US$2.6 trillion worth of funds had committed to fully or partially divest from fossil fuels by September.

http://www.climatechangenews.com/2015/11/24/europes-largest-insurer-allianz-to-pull-funds-from-coal/

[Sigmetnow]

@billmckibben: Dandy Al Jazeera @AJEnglish special on divestment movement. Which, btw is going a lot better than we ever imagined https://t.co/46e5gC4zf3

https://twitter.com/billmckibben/status/669351911578075136

Earthrise - Take the Power Back

[Sigmetnow]

Montreal Carbon Pledge
Mobilizing Investors to Account for Portfolio Carbon Footprints

With the Montréal Carbon Pledge, investors pledge to measure and publicly disclose the carbon footprint of their investment portfolios on an annual basis. The Montréal Carbon Pledge allows investors (asset owners and investment managers) to formalize their commitments to the goals of the recently announced Portfolio Decarbonization Coalition, which will mobilize investors to measure, disclose and reduce their portfolio carbon footprints at the scale of $100 billion by the December 2015 UN Climate Change Conference.

To meet the requirements of the Montréal Carbon Pledge, signatories must annually measure the carbon footprint of an equities portfolio, or portion thereof. The Montréal Carbon Pledge also considers the carbon footprint of other asset classes, including private equity. Disclosure can be done through a website, annual report, sustainability report, responsible investment report or other publicly visible client/beneficiary reporting channel.

The pledge is open to all asset owners and investment managers – being a PRI signatory is not needed. The commitments these investors make will allow the investment community to compare an increasing amount of portfolios to global benchmarks, to identify priority areas and actions for reducing emissions and to track progress in making those reductions. Actions that investors take after measuring their carbon footprint vary, from  monitoring emissions regularly to ensure these are tracked and understood, to investing in low-carbon solutions, and integrating environmental analysis into mainstream investment processes.

http://newsroom.unfccc.int/8894

[Sigmetnow]

Fossil fuel companies risk wasting $2tn of investors' money, study says

“Business history is littered with examples of incumbents – like Kodak and Blockbuster – who fail to see a transition coming,” said Anthony Hobley, chief executive of Carbon Tracker. “Our report offers these companies a warning [about] avoiding significant value destruction.”

For coal, the report found “it is the end of the road for expansion of the sector”, with no new coal mines required anywhere in the world if dangerous climate change is to be avoided.

“In the [2C] scenario, oil demand peaks around 2020,” found the report. “This means the oil sector does not need to continue to grow, which is inconsistent with the narrative of many companies.”

The second report is produced by Critical Resource, a firm that advises fossil fuel companies, and involved senior industry and climate figures, including former European climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard .

The report said “meeting [a 2C] target will result inevitably in steep declines in fossil fuel production over the coming decades” but that the “industry has so far generally been locked in defensive mode”. It added: “While most companies recognise the importance of climate change to their businesses, there is little evidence that most are altering their strategic plans.”

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/25/fossil-fuel-companies-risk-wasting-2tn-paris-climate-deal

[Sigmetnow]

Bill Gates thinks the 1% should foot the bill for renewable energy, and he's offering the first $2B.
http://www.upworthy.com/bill-gates-thinks-the-1-should-foot-the-bill-for-renewable-energy-and-hes-offering-the-first-2b