June 27, 2022
Climate Finance Media Round-Up — June 27, 2022
Fossil fuel divestment:
- Financial Times: Fossil fuels: does divestment work?
- myScience: University of Montreal divests from fossil fuels
- Press Democrat: Public pension fund divestment bill killed in state Assembly
- OilPrice: BP Quits Canada’s Oil Sands
No such thing as safe fossil fuel project:
- CBC News: Wet’suwet’en members sue RCMP and Coastal GasLink for alleged harassment and intimidation
- Insurance Business Magazine: Adani coal mine: Insider tip off points to brokerage giant, says Market Forces
- APTN: Community-Industry Response Group: A look behind the Thin Blue Line
- The New York Times: She Spoke Out Against Vietnam’s Plans for Coal. Then She Was Arrested.
- CNN: Freeport LNG explosion raises risk of European winter energy crisis
- S&P Global: Rapid expansion of US LNG comes with climate costs: environmental group
- Grist: Across the Midwest, an ‘unlikely alliance’ forms to stop carbon pipelines
- Mlive.com: Thousands of gallons of oil-based material spilled into Flint River
- Al Jazeera: Canada’s Trans Mountain pipeline no longer profitable: Watchdog
Federal (In)action:
- Vox: The SEC did a sensible thing on climate change. A right-wing campaign is trying to kill it.
- The Hill: Climate action could be next Democratic priority the Supreme Court takes down
- The Intercept: Rep. Cori Bush Boosts Biden’s Efforts to Fight Climate Change With Executive Authority
- The Washington Post: House Democrats probe PR industry’s role in advertising for Big Oil
- The Hill: Biden bashes big oil: ‘Exxon made more money than God this year’
- The New York Times: Biden Pushes Congress for Three-Month Gas Tax Holiday
- The Lever: To Fight Inflation, The Fed Declares War On Workers
- POLITICO: House to try to override veto of EPA spending bill
- The Guardian: How millions of lives can be saved if the US acts now on climate
- E&E News: Biden admin: Stop flood insurance for new, risky homes
The Great Enablers:
- Pensions & Investments: Banks face push to disclose how their lending leads to pollution
- The New York Times: Goldman Sachs Is Being Investigated Over E.S.G. Funds
- The Georgetown Voice: For ESG investing to succeed, it needs to die
- Bloomberg: BlackRock Urges SEC to Change Climate-Risk Disclosure Plan
- Quartz: The ESG crackdown is coming for Goldman Sachs
- Business Insider: Accounting firms and financial powerhouses are spending billions to hire and even train sustainability experts
- Pensions & Investments: BlackRock gives clients greater voting choice amid ESG scrutiny
Russia’s fossil funded war in Ukraine:
- Quartz: Sky-high oil prices are a unique chance to pay for climate action
- Reuters: Germany triggers gas alarm stage, accuses Russia of ‘economic attack’
Global climate talks & COP27:
- CNN: ‘Not encouraging’: UN climate chief on world leaders’ COP27 commitments
- The Independent: G7 told not to ‘water down’ climate promises amid fears of shift back to fossil fuels
Anti-ESG/Opposition:
- The Guardian: Climate policy dragged into culture wars as a ‘delay’ tactic, finds study
- POLITICO: Wall Street firms face W.Va. boycott over alleged fossil fuel bias
- DeSmog: BP and Shell Pension Schemes Still Lack Net Zero Targets Despite Company Pledges
- E&E News: Conservative shareholders attack ‘climate clown show’
- The Lever: Dark Money Led To This Moment
- Los Angeles Times: Is a Michigan energy firm using dark money to influence California’s climate plans?
Global finance:
- The Guardian: Climate crisis is ‘battering our economy’ and driving inflation, new book says
- CNBC: Coal investments set to rise 10% this year as nations fret over energy security
- Reuters: Green investors need to get their hands dirty
- Reuters: Taiwan pension fund awards $2.3 billion ESG mandate to HSBC, Morgan Stanley, 3 others
- FTAdviser: How are regulators ensuring ESG investing is considered?
- Vox: Why investors suddenly care about saving the environment
- Financial Times: Oil and gas back in vogue for retail investors
- Bloomberg: Zimbabwe’s Biggest Bank to Invest 2% of Income in Green Projects
Climate (in)justice & solutions:
- Atmos: Climate Denial’s Racist Roots
- The Lever: A President Takes On Climate Change
- The Guardian: Disabled people being ‘systematically ignored’ on climate crisis, says study
- The Washington Post: Agreement with Native American tribes could set precedent
- CNN: Wind and solar power are ‘bailing out’ Texas amid record heat and energy demand
- USA Today: Red voters for green energy? Conservatives say they support solar and wind power too
- AP News: In Louisiana, Native Americans struggle to recover from Ida
Accountability:
- Atmos/ExxonKnews: Exxon’s Rainbow Smokescreen
- The Guardian: Young people go to European court to stop treaty that aids fossil fuel investors
- Grist: Indigenous Ogiek win ‘landmark’ reparations ruling from African Court
- Bloomberg: How 93 US Attorneys’ Offices Can Enforce Environmental Justice
Op-eds:
- New York Times: Investors Deserve to Know the Climate Risks Their Assets Face
- Science: Climate risk is financial risk
- The Guardian: Cities are banning new gas stations. More should join them
- Pensions & Investments: Texas pension participants deserve better than political interference
- The Guardian: Why bankers close their ears to the ‘climate nut jobs’ talking about the end of the world
- Bloomberg: ESG Investing’s Flaws Leaves Gen Z, Millennials Looking for Alternatives
- Toronto Star: Trans Mountain pipeline protester Tim Takaro should not do jail time
- Newsweek: Addressing Climate Change Is Safeguarding Human Rights
- The Guardian: New York has a chance to generate all its electricity from clean energy by 2030
Climate impacts:
- AP News: Sweltering streets: Hundreds of homeless die in extreme heat
- Reuters: ‘I need a home’: New Mexicans look to Biden during wildfires
- Reuters: Nigeria’s homes are vanishing into the sea from climate change
- The Washington Post: Climate change is increasingly viewed as a public health crisis
- The New York Times: California Wildfire Scorches Nearly 1,000 Acres and Prompts Evacuations
- France24: Spain in grip of heatwave as France braces for soaring temperatures
- AP News: Iraq’s ‘pearl of the south’ Lake Sawa dry amid water crisis
- USA Today: Yellowstone flooding, damage closes national park, forces evacuations
- The New York Times: Feeding a Hotter Planet
- ABC News: Large tundra wildfire in southwest Alaska threatens villages
- CNN: More than 60 million people across Southwest are under heat alerts. And summer is still 10 days away
- BBC News: Life at 50C: Qatar accused of under-reporting deaths in Gulf’s killer heat
- Reuters: In hottest city on Earth, mothers bear brunt of climate change