Money and Politics: The Drive for Climate Change Action

[Sigmetnow]

David Koch, billionaire conservative and New York philanthropist, dies at 79

Commondreams had a better fitting headline.

After Life of Incalculable Harm, Billionaire Climate Denialist and Right-Wing Villain David Koch Dead at 79
"Death is an escape hatch for David Koch while the rest of us are left scrambling for the emergency brake before we go over the cliff."

Link >> https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/23/after-life-incalculable-harm-billionaire-climate-denialist-and-right-wing-villain

    

Unfortunately, brother Charles has been more active than David for some years now, so this won’t change things much.

[Sigmetnow]

Trade wars at a whole new level — to persuade climate change initiatives like reducing Amazon deforestation for cattle raising.

How Trump Unwittingly Paved the Way for a Climate Change Breakthrough at the G-7

“Previously politicians didn’t want to reach for those kinds of weapons, but we’re in the Wild West now,” says Aaron Cosbey, a researcher at the International Institute for Sustainable Development who studies the link between climate change and trade. “Trade has powerful potential.”

https://time.com/5661230/amazon-trade-war-donald-trump/

[Sigmetnow]

UBS chair Axel Weber: Climate change occurring at 'astonishing' speed

Weber called on investors and finance professionals to overhaul financial markets and investment processes to make tackling climate change a key priority.

“Financial markets are enormously effective in moving capital where it is needed most,” he said. “But how can financial markets be moved to mobilising capital and aligning capital allocations more strongly with sustainability?

“During the financial crisis and before, and in its aftermath, finance has been part of the problem. We need to do what we can do best — that is financial engineering, financial plumbing — to become a force for good.” ...

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/axel-weber-ubs-climate-change-global-warming-sustainable-investing-esg-105851987.html

[rboyd]

UBS chair Axel Weber: Climate change occurring at 'astonishing' speed

Weber called on investors and finance professionals to overhaul financial markets and investment processes to make tackling climate change a key priority.

“Financial markets are enormously effective in moving capital where it is needed most,” he said. “But how can financial markets be moved to mobilising capital and aligning capital allocations more strongly with sustainability?

“During the financial crisis and before, and in its aftermath, finance has been part of the problem. We need to do what we can do best — that is financial engineering, financial plumbing — to become a force for good.” ...

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/axel-weber-ubs-climate-change-global-warming-sustainable-investing-esg-105851987.html

"Financial markets are enormously effective in moving capital where it is needed most", no they are not. They are very good at moving capital to the most profitable opportunities irrespective of overall social benefit. That is why industrial policy, regulations, and public investment banks (as in China, Japan, Germany etc.) are required. The US was able to fight WW2 because of central planning, not "the market" or "the financial markets". Europe was rebuilt after WW2 because of the massive state-directed and state protected public and private investments (the latter piggy-backing on the former and many government policies).

[vox_mundi]

Danish Pension Fund Dumps Oil Majors On Climate Change Concerns
https://dw.com/en/danish-pension-fund-dumps-oil-majors-on-climate-change-concerns/a-50288283

A Danish pension fund has said it would sell its stake in major oil companies as their business models are incompatible with the goals set out in the Paris climate agreement.

The $20 billion fund says oil companies including ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell are not doing enough to meet goals set out in the Paris Agreement. But the fund has ruled out a blanket ban on fossil fuel companies.

[Sigmetnow]

Unusual unanimity for such a heretofore contentious topic.

U.S.:
Climate Crisis Town Hall Tested Candidates' Boldness and Credibility

Views of Hurricane Dorian's destruction across the Bahamas and its path toward the Carolinas punctuated the first U.S. presidential candidates' televised forum dedicated to climate change, reminding viewers of the stakes as 10 leading Democratic candidates pitched their climate policy ideas Wednesday night.

CNN's juxtaposition of its unprecedented political forum with coverage of the record-breaking storm seemed to signal a new era in the long struggle over the U.S. role in addressing global warming.

There was none of the debate over science that has dominated U.S. political discussions and strangled action in recent years. Instead, candidates focused on how they would navigate a transition to what all agreed should be 100 percent clean energy by mid-century. Most of the sparring was over what would they do to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable, how far they would go to change American lifestyles, and how would they marshal the money and political support.
...
All of the candidates embraced Inslee's goal of getting the U.S. to net zero emissions by mid-century, which Inslee adopted from the IPCC's latest science and set as the standard early on for Democratic field. The unanimity makes it easy to forget that as recently as 2016, President Barack Obama's White House was talking about lowering carbon emissions 80 percent below 2005 levels.
...

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05092019/climate-change-2020-presidential-candidates-town-hall-analysis-cnn-hurricane-dorian-carbon-price-fracking

[Tom_Mazanec]

Should the Left Stop Annoying People Over Climate Change?
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/09/should-the-left-stop-annoying-people-over-climate-change/

You can make good arguments for these regulations and others, but there’s no question that it also gives ammunition to the right. The question is whether regulations like this do enough good to be worth the loss in public support they provoke by being annoying. I don’t have a good answer to that, but the obvious corollary to Warren’s point that “70 percent of the carbon that we’re throwing into the air comes from three industries” is that we should focus our attention on those industries and stop annoying people with light bulb laws and attempts to build high-rises in the suburbs.

[Tom_Mazanec]

Is Friends of Science getting a lot of money for this?
‘Friends of Science’ thanks Elections Canada for warning on climate-change talk
https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2019/09/09/friends-of-science-thanks-elections-canada-for-warning-on-climate-change-talk.html

A Calgary organization that argues climate change is nothing close to a global emergency says Elections Canada is right to keep a close eye on campaign-period communications from the climate-change lobby.

In an open letter, the Friends of Science Society praises the federal agency that oversees Canadian elections for indicating that the science on climate change has not been settled.

“Thank you to Elections Canada for recognizing that climate change has become a political issue,” Friends of Science wrote in a letter to Stephane Perrault, Canada’s chief electoral offer.

[Tom_Mazanec]

Money is the oxygen on which the fire of global warming burns
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/money-is-the-oxygen-on-which-the-fire-of-global-warming-burns

What if the banking, asset-management, and insurance industries decided to move away from fossil fuels?

[Sigmetnow]

Germany agrees on 'art of the possible' climate action plan without blowing budget

Clinching a compromise was seen as essential to hold together the awkward ‘grand coalition’ of the conservatives and left-leaning democrats.

Both camps put a positive spin on the package, which includes a new domestic carbon pricing scheme, bigger incentives for buying electric cars, higher road tolls for trucks from 2023, surcharges on domestic flights and plans to pump money into rail operator Deutsche Bahn.

“Politics is what is possible,” Merkel told a news conference after 19-hour marathon talks.

“It was intense, but it was constructive and at times it was a pleasure to wrestle over the right path,” she said of the negotiations, presenting a united front with SPD Finance Minister Olaf Scholz. ...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-germany/germany-agrees-art-of-the-possible-climate-action-plan-without-blowing-budget-idUSKBN1W50TB

[TerryM]

It's a shame that Merkle's Germany seems determined to follow a BAU path into the future. From the linked article it appears as though Merkle, like many others in positions of power, is more interested in maintaining the support of the German business community than the support of German voters, 63% of whom believe that protecting the climate is more important than protecting economic growth!


Capitulation, was the response of environmental groups who had pushed for a carbon tax 400% higher than what Merkle settled on, and this tax will limited to emissions from transportation and heating. Manufacturing apparently won't feel the sting.


A few more wins like this one and Mr. Gerontocrat's charts will seem an optimistic footnote on our "progress".
Terry

[Tom_Mazanec]

63% of Germans is big for such a view on this issue.
Just under a Century ago Germans learned what a major economic disruption could do to a modern nation.

[Sigmetnow]

25-year-old New Zealand lawmaker Chlöe Swarbrick was giving a speech supporting a climate crisis bill when she was heckled by an older member of Parliament. She simply said, "OK boomer," and kept talking, unfazed.

'OK, boomer': 25-year-old New Zealand politician shuts down heckler
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/06/asia/new-zealand-ok-boomer-trnd/index.html

[blumenkraft]

Awww, lovely!

[blumenkraft]

the support of German voters, 63% of whom believe that protecting the climate is more important than protecting economic growth!

So, Germanys climate action plan that doesn't deserve the name made it into international news. Nice!

From here it feels like this: After we have got such a ridiculous shit from our gov, it has become way more likely that many of those 63% are about to vote Green next election.

Given that, it's kinda nice from the Koalition (of stupid people) to be that impertinently reactionist. They are actually digging their own grave!

PS: Ah, and for Merkel, she is out anyway. Whatever happens, she will be a civilian soon and all she cares about is to make that last bit of the ride as smooth as possible. The history books will remember, i don't know why she doesn't seem to care or to be aware of. I really don't know which one it is.

[blumenkraft]

Just under a Century ago Germans learned what a major economic disruption could do to a modern nation.

What do you mean, Tom? 100 years ago there was a recession. One oh the rare bad things we didn't cause.

[TerryM]

The Canadian gov. is as guilty as any other when it comes to ignoring the voters while bending over for Big Oil.
I hope that the last election taught Trudeau some valuable lessons, but I doubt that it has.
Terry
BTW - I'm overjoyed that Merkel, and the EU stood up to Trump's bullying. 

[Sigmetnow]

New Zealand passes law aimed at combating climate change

The Zero Carbon bill aims to make New Zealand reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to the point the country becomes mostly carbon neutral by 2050. It gives some leeway to farmers, however, who bring in much of the country’s foreign income.

The bill was spearheaded by the liberal government but in the end was supported by the main conservative opposition party, which nevertheless promised changes if it wins the next election. ...

https://apnews.com/f615ecfffa8e44989eb4ca9120286e42

[Sigmetnow]

U.S.

Voters Flip Virginia’s Legislature, Clearing Way for Climate and Clean Energy Policies | InsideClimate News

The implications are sizeable.

Virginia regulators in April approved a new rule to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from large fossil fuel electric power plants by 30 percent by 2030.

Northam had already sought to bring Virginia into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a nine-state carbon cap-and-trade compact to curb pollution from the electricity sector, but Republican lawmakers had stalled that effort through budget maneuvers.

Environmentalists in January will be calling on lawmakers to lift the budget roadblock to the state's participation in RGGI and then go farther. They also expect new legislation to direct tens of millions of dollars a year in carbon auction payments the state anticipates receiving through RGGI toward energy efficiency programs and coastal climate resilience.

"The political calculus has shifted so much," said Tim Cywinski, communications coordinator for the Sierra Club's Virginia chapter. "A lot of things we have been pressing for, for a long time, can actually cross the finish line." ...

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06112019/2019-election-virginia-legislature-kentucky-knoxville-climate-change-clean-energy-democrats

The article mentions other election results in Tennessee and Missippi that are expected to result in more climate-friendly policies.

[KiwiGriff]

New Zealand passes law aimed at combating climate change.

Ok boomer . 

[gerontocrat]

New Zealand passes law aimed at combating climate change.

Ok boomer . 

I'm a boomer - 1947 vintage.

At least the young are pushing at a door that is not totally locked shut.

I can tell you 20-30 years ago one could (and did) make oneself extremely unpopular with the powers-that-be by daring to question the addiction to fossil fuels and other environmental stuff - e.g. forests. The bad guys play for keeps to keep clear-cutting.

That included occasional physical danger - including in a S pacific country not that far from N.Z.

[KiwiGriff]

So am I.
Griff est. 1963.
Unfortunately we are  still in a minority within our generation.
I can see why "OK boomer" because I have been arguing with boomer political nutbars who deny reality for the last decade or so.

NZ only stopped the clear felling of native forest in the 80's.  Unfortunately introduced mammals, weeds and pathogens along with climate change is going to eventually take what is left.

Don't it always seem to go. That you don't know what you've got. Till it's gone.

[nanning]

<snip>
I can tell you 20-30 years ago one could (and did) make oneself extremely unpopular with the powers-that-be by daring to question the addiction to fossil fuels and other environmental stuff - e.g. forests. The bad guys play for keeps to keep clear-cutting.

That included occasional physical danger - including in a S pacific country not that far from N.Z.

Wow gerontocrat, respect! Those are heroic actions. Speaking truth to power.
Glad you survived to let us enjoy your character and musings.

[Sigmetnow]

EIB to borrow some 50 billion euros in 2020, invest one third in green projects

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Investment Bank is likely to borrow some 50 billion euros on the market in 2020, roughly the same as in 2019, and increase its financing of projects to fight climate change above the 31% share of 2019, the bank’s president said on Thursday.

The EIB, the world’s largest multilateral investment bank, is key in leveraging EU funds to generate 1 trillion euros of investment over the next 10 years to finance the EU goal of becoming neutral in terms of CO2 emissions by 2050.

Owned by EU governments, the EIB finances its activity by borrowing cheaply on the market thanks to its AAA rating.

EIB head Werner Hoyer told a news conference that out of 72.2 billion euros the EIB invested last year, almost one third was to prevent climate change. The bank wants that ratio to rise to 50% by 2025.

“You cannot turn a tanker around within hours or days, but I think we are on the right course. I’m convinced we will be far above 31% in 2020,” Hoyer said.

“Of course it would not make very much sense to say we invest 50% in climate projects and with the other 50% we destroy the positive impact of our climate action, so we must make sure that climate is in everything we do.”

He said the bank would raise some 50 billion euros on the market this year, in various currencies, but the exact amount would depend on how much various borrowers would decide to repay during the year. “That can sometimes bring surprises so I could not give you a precise figure on what we expect,” he said.

He said that investment in technologies to fight climate change was a great business opportunity for Europe to get ahead of the rest of the world in innovation.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-eib/eib-to-borrow-some-50-billion-euros-in-2020-invest-one-third-in-green-projects-idUSKBN1ZT25N

[Sigmetnow]

Miners face funding squeeze as green investing surges

Mining-specific private equity funds raised $0.3 billion in 2019, a fifth of the amount raised in 2009, and just barely more than the $0.2 billion raised in 2014 during a global commodity crash, data from Preqin shows.

COAL PROJECTS FLOUNDER
Coal miners - especially those extracting thermal coal, burnt to produce electricity - are bearing the brunt of the sustainable investing trend.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund divested from all fossil fuel last year, and the world’s biggest asset manager Blackrock (BLK.N) said on Jan. 14 it would sell active holdings in companies generating more than 25% of revenues from thermal coal.

“If you’re a small coal explorer, I don’t think you stand much of a chance of raising any money at all,” said Fred White, associate director at Medea Capital Partners in London.

“There’s still a huge market and huge demand [for coal], but it’s not getting financed by Western banks,” he added. Local trading houses and lenders are stepping in instead. ...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mining-indaba-finance-idUSKBN1ZW08D

[kassy]

Netherlands' $515 billion pension fund to accelerate cuts to fossil fuel investments

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Netherlands’ biggest pension fund, ABP, said on Monday it aims to reduce the carbon footprint of its asset portfolio by 40% from 2015 levels by 2025.

ABP, which already set a target to cut the carbon footprint of its assets by 25% from 2015 levels by this year, follows moves by other leading funds - notably Norway’s $1.1 trillion sovereign wealth fund - to divest heavy polluting energy companies from its portfolio.

... sounds noble BUT:

It plans to exit coal and tar sands investments, with some exceptions, by 2030, it said

So they are not really serious.

Full details:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-climate-change-netherlands-abp/netherlands-515-billion-pension-fund-to-accelerate-cuts-to-fossil-fuel-investments-idUKKBN1ZX1AK

[Sigmetnow]

Plastics tax, carbon-trading cash to cover EU's Brexit gap, officials say

Top European Union official Charles Michel proposed on Friday filling the Brexit gap in the EU’s next long-term budget with revenue from a new tax on plastics and funds from trading carbon emissions.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-budget-official/plastics-tax-carbon-trading-cash-to-cover-eus-brexit-gap-officials-say-idUSKBN2081UA

[Sigmetnow]

Jeff Bezos commits $10 billion to fight climate change

Today, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that he would be committing $10 billion to fight climate change through a new fund called the Bezos Earth Fund.

He announced new fund in a post on Instagram. Amazon confirmed the existence of the fund to The Verge:

Bezos said that the money will be used to help scientists, activists, NGOs, and “any effort that offers a real possibility” to help preserve the earth from the impact of climate change. ...

https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/17/21141132/jeff-bezos-earth-fund-ten-billion-climate-change

[blumenkraft]

Oh, setting up his presidential run for 2024?   

[Neven]

Indeed, what's the catch?

[Sigmetnow]

Atoning for his un-green footprint of Amazon and Blue Origin?  I’m sure he’s gotten a lot of criticism for that.  Easier and faster to let others act in his behalf.

[blumenkraft]

Indeed, what's the catch?

Well, there doesn't necessarily needs to be a catch.

10 billion is nothing! Even if he gave 129 billion, he still would be a billionaire. He still would be insanely, perversely rich!

[blumenkraft]

[TerryM]

"The Age of the Oligarchs" won't be available in print, audio or film.


They'll see that it never sees the light of day, & any author that dares to distribute a chapter will find himself a companion to Assange, (or Seth).
Terry

[Sigmetnow]

Pressure mounts on Harvard to divest from fossil fuels as Medical School faculty votes by almost 5-1 margin in favor, pointing out the health calamity that climate change is causing.

HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL FACULTY CALL FOR DIVESTMENT, DECLARATION OF CLIMATE EMERGENCY

CAMBRIDGE, MA — A week after Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to divest from fossil fuels, the Faculty Council of Harvard Medical School has issued a call of their own. Their overwhelming passage of a resolution calling for divestment and declaration of a climate emergency, which is yet another accomplishment of one of the largest faculty activism movements in university history, sends a clear message to university administration that it’s time for real climate action.

“Health professionals have a unique responsibility to defend scientific integrity as one means of protecting our patients from harm,” said James Recht, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. “Consistent with this, we condemn the fossil fuel industry’s use of pseudoscience to sow doubt about the health harms of carbon pollution, and confusion about the urgent need to eliminate fossil fuels as rapidly as possible.”

The 23–5 vote officially puts the Medical School Faculty Council, a representative body of faculty from across the school’s various disciplines and institutions, on the record as “call[ing] on the Harvard Corporation to divest Harvard’s endowment from the fossil fuel industry, by eliminating all direct investments and commingled assets in companies that generate the majority of their profits from the exploration for, production of, transportation of, or sale of fossil fuels.” The Council also voted to call on HMS to sign on to the US Call to Action on Climate, Health, and Equity, which has been endorsed by over 130 medical and public health groups, and voted unanimously to call on the school to declare climate change a health emergency requiring urgent action. ...

https://medium.com/@DivestHarvard/harvard-medical-school-faculty-call-for-divestment-declaration-of-climate-emergency-b064bb48f013

[wili]

Too little, too late, but still glad to hear it

[nanning]

JP Morgan economists warn climate crisis is threat to human race

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/21/jp-morgan-economists-warn-climate-crisis-threat-human-race
  by Patrick Greenfield and Jonathan Watts


Excerpts:
The research by JP Morgan economists David Mackie and Jessica Murray says the climate crisis will impact the world economy, human health, water stress, migration and the survival of other species on Earth.

“We cannot rule out catastrophic outcomes where human life as we know it is threatened,” notes the paper, which is dated 14 January.


“Although precise predictions are not possible, it is clear that the Earth is on an unsustainable trajectory. Something will have to change at some point if the human race is going to survive.”

The investment bank says climate change “reflects a global market failure in the sense that producers and consumers of CO2 emissions do not pay for the climate damage that results.” To reverse this, it highlights the need for a global carbon tax but cautions that it is “not going to happen anytime soon” because of concerns about jobs and competitiveness.

The authors say it is “likely the [climate] situation will continue to deteriorate, possibly more so than in any of the IPCC’s scenarios”.


edit: I now see that AbruptSLR posted this info from another source yesterday
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,2205.msg250706.html#msg250706

[Iain]

So the gist is that the transition won’t happen fast enough to avoid the upper end scenario of the IPCC forecast, business as usual.

I’m optimistic the transition will happen sooner, because renewable energy is so much cheaper now and there is a much greater awareness.

I don’t see renewables as a threat to business as a whole, just new winners and losers, it's a transition.

The more difficult one is the environment, which is mostly a problem of too much consumption of resources (not energy) by either too many people or each consuming too much stuff. No easy way out of that, either curb consumption or have fewer people.

[Iain]

"Study finds quarter of climate change tweets from bots"

Mostly in denial:

"The finding showed 25% of tweets on climate change were likely posted by bots. Most of those tweets centred on denials of global warming or rejections of climate science."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51595285

I think I experienced this

I was posting in a pro Nuclear anti renewable forum about large EV batteries (several days worth of normal commuting) absorbing excess renewable energy production.

The responses were about EV batteries supporting the grid, not my point.

Also, there were posters making the same grammatical and spelling errors as the author of the blog, I suspected it was the same person replying in support of his own article.

[Sigmetnow]

Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) 3/2/20, 8:12 AM
Hearing reports this morning that campaigners in the UK have shut down nearly 100 branches of Barclays Bank, Europe's biggest funder of fossil fuels.
Since @Chase is an even bigger cash supplier, [ StopTheMoneyPipeline.com ] is coming on April 23

https://twitter.com/billmckibben/status/1234466605029085186

[nanning]

Focus on coronavirus shows need for climate law, says EU official

Frans Timmermans calls for bloc to legislate so it does not lose track of net zero target

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/04/focus-coronavirus-shows-need-climate-law-says-eu-official-frans-timmermans
  by Jennifer Rankin in Brussels


The long-awaited climate law unveiled on Wednesday is the centrepiece of the European Green Deal, a plan to transform Europe’s economy, promised by the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, within her first 100 days.

“It will be our compass for the next 30 years and it will guide us every step as we build a sustainable new growth model,” Von der Leyen said announcing the law.


Growth must stop!      This cannot go on!      No more growth!

[Sigmetnow]

University of California becomes nation’s largest university to divest fully from fossil fuels

The University of California announced Tuesday that it has fully divested from all fossil fuels, the nation’s largest educational institution to do so as campaigns to fight climate change through investment strategies proliferate at campuses across the country.

The UC milestone capped a five-year effort to move the public research university system’s $126-billion portfolio into more environmentally sustainable investments, such as wind and solar energy. UC officials say their strategy is grounded in concerns about the planet’s future and in what makes financial sense.

“As long-term investors, we believe the university and its stakeholders are much better served by investing in promising opportunities in the alternative energy field rather than gambling on oil and gas,” Richard Sherman, chair of the UC Board of Regents’ investments committee, said in a statement.


The movement against fossil fuels has mushroomed to encompass more than 1,100 faith, educational, government, corporate and nonprofit institutions with $14 trillion in assets in the last decade, according to 350.org, a global climate justice organization. Among them, more than 50 universities have committed to full or partial divestment. ...

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-19/uc-fossil-fuel-divest-climate-change

[Sigmetnow]

Biden’s $2 Trillion Climate Plan Promotes Union Jobs, Electric Cars and Carbon-Free Power

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden unveiled a $2 trillion clean economy jobs program Tuesday that marked a significant expansion in his plan for tackling climate change, with jobs-creation and environmental justice as its pillars.

With a blue "Build Back Better" placard on his lectern, the former vice president sought to signal that the coronavirus crisis will not displace the imperative to act on climate. Instead, he framed the immediate and long-term crises as linked, requiring the same sort of government intervention: a massive program to ramp up electric vehicles, carbon-free power and energy efficiency throughout the economy. ...

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14072020/joe-biden-climate-plan-coronavirus-build-back-better

[sidd]

Decoupling economic growth from resource use unlikely:

doi: 10.1080/09644016.2020.1783951
doi: 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.06.016

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qj4z9p/green-economic-growth-is-a-myth

sidd

[Sigmetnow]

U.S.
Retirement Plans Push Back on Trump Rule Limiting Fossil Fuel Divestments

This is the most aggressive attempt so far to hamper the shift toward ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) investing, which has accelerated since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

The agency proposed the rule in late June and has since received an avalanche of public commentsfrom unions, environmental groups, and institutional investors such as the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.

How exactly the agency will determine whether a plan is putting "non-financial" goals ahead of returns is still unclear, but one common criticism of the rule questions the very idea that prioritizing goals, such as divesting from fossil fuels, is not in investors' financial interests.

'Sustainable options'
"The Department of Labor makes these rulings and shifts back and forth with each administration, but this one is flying in the face of common sense because ESG investments out-perform investments that include the whole market and therefore fossil fuels," said Sandy Emerson, board president of Fossil Free California, which has worked with state pension plans to divest from fossil fuels. "There's been a lot of activism on the part of investors to get their plan managers to provide sustainable options." ...

https://cheddar.com/media/retirement-plans-trump-rule-limiting-fossil-fuel-divestment

[Sigmetnow]

Massachusetts, U.S.
Ed Markey credits young supporters in Senate primary victory speech

Markey was endorsed early in the race by the Sunrise Movement, a national youth-led climate action group, which cited his co-authorship of the Green New Deal and long track record of environmental advocacy. By the end of the race, polls showed that Markey had turned his deficit among young voters into a double-digit lead.

Markey asserted that “no solution to any challenge will be successful” unless climate change is addressed. And he argued that his primary win reaffirmed that need.

“There will be no peace, no justice, and no prosperity unless we stop the march to climate destruction,” Markey said. “This is a matter of life and death. The very future of our civilization depends upon it. There is no time for simply doing what we can. There is no time for compromise on the existential threat on our time. We must pass a Green New Deal.”

https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2020/09/02/ed-markey-senate-primary-victory-speech

[vox_mundi]

Economic Cost of Climate Change Could Be Six Times Higher Than Previously Thought
https://phys.org/news/2021-09-economic-climate-higher-previously-thought.html

Economic models of climate change may have substantially underestimated the costs of continued warming, according to a new study involving UCL researchers.

Published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the work by an international team of scientists found that the economic damage could be six times higher by the end of this century than previously estimated.

Projections like this help governments around the world calculate the relative costs and benefits of cutting greenhouse gas emissions. However, prior analysis has shown that the models used may ignore important risks and therefore underestimate the costs.

Currently, most models focus on short-term damage, assuming that climate change has no lasting effect on economic growth, despite growing evidence to the contrary. Extreme events like droughts, fires, heatwaves and storms are likely to cause long-term economic harm because of their impact on health, savings and labor productivity.

The study shows that by 2100, global GDP could be 37% lower than it would be without the impacts of warming, when taking the effects of climate change on economic growth into account. Without accounting for lasting damages—excluded from most estimates—GDP would be around 6% lower, meaning the impacts on growth may increase the economic costs of climate change by a factor of six.

Yet, there is still considerable uncertainty about how much climate damages continue to affect long-term growth and how far societies can adapt to reduce these damages; depending on how much growth is affected, the economic costs of warming this century could be up to 51% of global GDP.

[morganism]

ALEC Launches Attack on Banks That Divest From Fossil Fuels

"Today at the annual States and Nation Policy Summit of the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a pay-to-play organization that brings together corporate lobbyists and mostly Republican state lawmakers to author model legislation, members of the group’s energy task force voted unanimously to approve a new model policy that would prevent financial companies that end investments in oil, gas, and coal companies from receiving state government contracts or managing state funds.

The bill, the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act, directs state treasurers or comptrollers to maintain a list of firms that boycott fossil fuels. Each government contract with a business that has more than 10 employees must include a verification that the company does not boycott fossil fuel businesses.

ALEC keeps its corporate member list secret, but CMD has identified hundreds of members, including numerous fossil fuel production and utility companies. On its corporate board are Energy Future Holdings, Koch Industries’ lobbying arm, and Peabody Energy. Other members include Chevron, Devon Energy, Duke Energy, EnCana, Energy Transfer, Marathon Petroleum, Pinnacle West Capital, and QEP Resources. The majority of ALEC’s revenue comes from corporate donations and sponsorships, and other funders include the foundations of GOP megadors such as fossil fuel magnate Charles Koch and right-wing dark money vehicles.

The model bill claims that “American and European fossil energy producers” are “among the most socially and environmentally responsible companies in the world.” ALEC has a history of climate change denial so extreme that Exxon, which had used ALEC to launder its climate change denial efforts, quit the business group in 2018. At its annual meeting this summer, ALEC members weighed in on several other model bills and resolutions aimed at protecting fossil fuel companies or opposing renewable initiatives."

https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2021/12/03/alec-launches-attack-on-banks-that-divest-from-fossil-fuels/

[Sigmetnow]

World Economic Forum

SPECIAL ADDRESS: DAVOS UNLEASHED #WEF22 #WEF2022 #WIF2022 #davosunleashed
1/17/22 ➡️ https://twitter.com/davosdeville/status/1483031833046618113
At the link: 2 minute music video about Davos 😂

[vox_mundi]

GOP Fury Over ESG Triggers Backlash With US Pensions at Risk
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-25/esg-pros-say-republican-anti-woke-bashing-hurts-regular-savers

Politicians from Florida and Texas go on the attack against investment firms that weigh risks tied to climate change and other societal issues.

Investment professionals are warning that a Republican campaign seeking to wipe ESG off the financial map puts at risk the savings of ordinary Americans caught in the political crossfire.

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing is now under attack in the world's largest economy. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis this week banned state pension funds from screening for ESG risks. Texas is seeking to isolate financial firms it says are hostile toward the fossil-fuel industry. And in Arizona, Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters has characterized ESG scores as an existential threat to America.

The development represents a rapid escalation of aggression toward an investing form that few people even knew existed five years ago. But the finance industry, which has embraced ever more ESG products promising to address issues like climate change and inequality, is starting to strike back, arguing that Republican policies put the financial security of US savers in serious jeopardy.

“DeSantis’s decision is clearly tied to politics because it’s certainly not in the best interest of pension fund beneficiaries,” according to Bryan McGannon, director of policy and programs at US SIF, a Washington-based group that supports sustainable investment businesses. “Reading between the lines, DeSantis is ultimately saying that climate change is a non-pecuniary issue putting the long-term savings of Florida pensioners at risk. That just doesn’t make sense.”

ESG is still a relatively new investing form, and the acronym itself has only existed for less than two decades. But over the past five years, it has outperformed. US large-cap sustainable equity funds focused on growth rose at an average annual rate of 14% in the period, compared with 11% for conventional non-ESG funds, according to data provided by Morningstar Inc. ESG funds also did better when looking at global and European data from the researcher.

A study published in May by the European Securities and Markets Authority that looked at 6,528 so-called UCITS funds found that ESG generally improves returns and cuts client costs over time. ESMA found that funds focusing on the “S” in ESG tended to perform best.

Ignoring ESG may even open the door to legal liability.

“Existing US securities laws require registrants to disclose any risks that are reasonably likely to have a material impact on their business, results of operation, or financial condition,” said Ken Rivlin, head of the international environmental law group at Allen & Overy.  “Failure to disclose such material risks—including climate-related risks, if they’re material—could create a basis for liability.”

DeSantis, who’s pegged as a possible contender for the 2024 presidential election, has promised voters to “protect” them from ESG, which he has claimed threatens their economic freedom. On Tuesday, he characterized ESG as a “perversion” of financial investing.

But evidence exists that shows US voters aren’t as hostile toward efforts to fight climate change as DeSantis suggests. A Harris Poll of US savers conducted on behalf of Nuveen last year found that more than two-thirds of people asked want their employer to offer pension plans that incorporate ESG factors.