Dire Warnings from Dr. James Hansen . . . again Those who receive Dr. James Hansen's occasional newsletter from his Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions team, will have seen some dire reports before. Still, nothing we have seen is quite as unimaginable or alarming as learning that global warming is happening at the equivalent of 750,000 exploding Hiroshima [...]
SEC Issues Trailblazing Climate Disclosure Proposal At long last, after studying the issue for many years, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has finally released its long-awaited proposal to require companies to disclose their climate risks to investors. These proposed rules (neatly summarized in a 506 page notice) will require all publicly traded companies to disclose both their greenhouse [...]
By Valerie Gardner Since our founding in 2002, we have seen it as our job to help our clients invest prudently in the market, in order to participate in the overall market growth and returns generated by business. We have always known that our clients will do best if we reduce their unnecessary costs and uncompensated risks, while providing [...]
Nuclear energy primed for private investment Rod Adams’ marvelous Atomic Insights blog published an article in February titled "Advanced nuclear energy systems are ready for investors who seek ground floor opportunities," that asked an important question: “How do we match the ingenuity and enthusiasm of atomic innovators with the large magnitude financing sources needed to advance the field so [...]
Dr. Jonathan Tiemann Would it really be possible to replace our existing energy system with renewables? Mark Jacobson, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford, thinks we can do so by 2050.1 Prof. Jacobson has done an impressive job of synthesizing demographic, economic, and engineering data to develop a formula that seems to show a path toward a fully [...]
By Dr. Jonathan Tiemann This February, a group calling itself the Climate Leadership Council published a paper titled, “The Conservative Case for Carbon Dividends.” The paper’s eight authors constitute sort of a blue-ribbon panel of thoughtful conservatives. They include former senior Republican officials (James A. Baker III, George Schultz, Henry Paulson), prominent economists (Martin Feldstein and N. Gregory Mankiw, who [...]
Is it time to think about how climate change might impact your portfolio? Apparently, some 120 CEOs and investment managers representing more than $12 trillion in assets think so. They were worried enough to send an open letter on May 25, 2015 to the Group of Seven (G-7) Finance Ministers to urge them to commit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions [...]
Despite the well-pronouced and increasingly strident warnings from scientists about the deleterious effects of burning fossil fuels on the environment, there is a surprising amount of "business as usual" going on in corporate America. This makes the news about the way Anne Stausboll, the chief executive of Calpers, addresses climate change all the more impressive. According to an article in [...]
There is much irony to ponder in the news released last week that the Rockefeller heirs have chosen to divest from oil investments. As reported by John Schwartz in and article in the New York Times entitled Rockefellers, Heirs to an Oil Fortun, Will Divest Charity of Fossil Fuels, "John D. Rockefeller built a vast fortune on oil. Now his heirs are abandoning fossil fuels."
The news, coming as it did in advance of the start of the United Nations Climate Summit, nearly trumped financial news reporting of the fact that some 400,000 people representing over 3,000 organizations had turned out in New York City to protest inaction on climate change by marching across Manhattan in the People's Climate March. Additionally, massive supporting marches were held in major cities around the world, including Paris, London, Berlin and Rio de Janeiro. Unofficial counts put the total number of marchers worldwide at over half a million. Well, these numbers are staggering and record-breaking but, gosh (snark alert), it just can't be news since readers can already assume that those folks marching are tree-huggers.
By Pilita Clark, Financial Times Environment Correspondent [Cross-Posted from the FT.com] BlackRock, the world’s biggest fund manager, has teamed up with London’s FTSE Group to help investors avoid coal, oil and gas companies without putting their money at risk. In a sign that a global campaign against fossil fuels is entering the financial mainstream, companies that extract or explore for [...]