The New York Times: There’s a Messaging Battle Right Now Over America’s Energy Future

“Efforts to move the world away from fossil fuels have been proceeding in slow motion for years, as nations and corporations advance scattershot efforts to reduce emissions. But the transformation is reaching an inflection point today, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompting climate advocates and the oil and gas industry to advance dueling narratives about what the energy transition is and how it should be carried out.”

Atmos: Striking for Reparations

“And that’s why thousands of youth were rallying in the streets last week. They want global action to address this inequality. In 2009, the world’s richest nations (including the U.S.) agreed to give $100 billion a year to countries that need to mitigate and adapt to climate change but can’t afford to. However, 2020 came and went without countries meeting that goal. In fact, the U.S. only approved $1 billion in international climate finance this year.”

Protocol: New SEC rules would force tech companies to disclose their climate impact

“The proposed rules would require public companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions for the first time and provide more details on their climate pledges. They would push forward President Joe Biden’s effort to curb climate-related financial risks and help investors better understand how the companies they invest in are dealing with climate change.”

Bloomberg: Chicago City Council Bans Fossil-Fuel Investments

“The measure was supported by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, who manages investments for the city as well as its pension funds and oversees $9 billion in assets. The city plans to create a list of companies that are coal, oil, and gas-reserve owners, ranked by potential carbon emissions. The treasurer won’t invest any city funds and will divest securities or other obligations of the companies on the list, according to the ordinance.”

S&P Global Market Intelligence: Investor networks that promised big on climate are falling short, critics say

“’No investor can credibly claim that they don’t understand the risks of blowing past 1.5 degrees of warming, and no investor can credibly claim that they can’t measure companies against that objective,’ Eli Kasargod-Staub, Majority Action’s executive director and co-founder, said in an interview. ‘What we see are investors that are failing to uphold their fiduciary responsibility.’”

Washington Post: U.N. secretary general says global climate target ‘is on life support’

“But that report carried a message that Guterres echoed Monday: that the world can still pursue a less catastrophic path. That some climate impacts are unavoidable, but humans can still prevent many future disasters because the amount that Earth ultimately warms depends on the choices that we make now.”

CNN: Jamie Dimon to Joe Biden: We need a ‘Marshall Plan’ for US and European energy security

“The source said Dimon believes the federal government should focus on four areas: increasing natural gas production in an environmentally responsible way, building additional liquefied natural gas facilities in Europe, investing in new technology for hydrogen and carbon capture resources and streamlining permitting for renewable alternatives like wind and solar.”

The Narwhal: Bay Street bankers lobby to delay climate transparency rules 

“Despite these warnings, an investigation by The Narwhal found two-thirds of companies and organizations that wrote to regulators in recent months were opposed to key climate financial transparency measures. The opposition includes a prominent Bay Street lobby group, the Canadian Bankers Association, that represents the “big five” Canadian banks — TD Bank Group, Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank), Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), CIBC and BMO Financial Group.”

Bloomberg: Greenwashing Is Increasingly Making ESG Investing Moot: Green Insight

“For years now, managers of big funds touting their supposed focus on the environment, social issues and corporate governance have been faulted for holding shares of fossil-fuel purveyors (including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp.), weapons manufacturers (like Raytheon Technologies Corp.) and mining companies (such as Newmont Corp.).”

Bloomberg: Wells Fargo’s $28 Billion Oil Lenders Are Ready for This Boom

“The specialists in oil and gas have worked through a streak of ­money-burning years capped by a brutal pandemic. Now the hydro­carbon business is roaring back, and Wells Fargo’s lenders sit right at the top. No one in the world put together more fossil fuel loans last year as book­runner, according to data Bloomberg compiled: The bank’s 2021 tally in the sector topped $28 billion; it’s racked up more than $188 billion in oil and gas loans since late 2015, when the landmark Paris Agreement was adopted. That sum is more than the market capitalization of BP, Marathon Petroleum, and Valero Energy—combined.”

Reuters: EXCLUSIVE Dutch bank ING ends financing for new oil and gas projects

“ING Groep NV (INGA.AS) will no longer finance new oil and gas projects, its energy chief said, becoming the biggest bank yet to commit to such a step in the fight against climate change.”

The Nation: Climate Research Shouldn’t Be Funded by Fossil Fuel Companies

“Yet at the same time that our universities have taken a crucial step toward climate leadership, they continue to engage in repugnant hypocrisy that undermines such progress: raking in fossil fuel funds for the critical climate-change-related research on which our futures depend. To end our universities’ sponsorship of a deadly core business model once and for all, we need a new strategy to expose and dismantle these toxic ties by calling for fossil-free climate research.”

The Globe and Mail: Op-ed: Canada’s major banks confront the hidden role of financed emissions

“These are by far the largest sources of greenhouse gases stemming from the business of the financial institutions. They are the hardest to tally and out of their direct control. But these ‘financed emissions’ must be dealt with if the banks have any hope of achieving their commitments to get to net-zero emissions by 2050.”

The New York Times: Opinion | We’re in a Fossil Fuel War. Biden Should Say So.

“‘If all the major banks in the U.S. and major institutions like BlackRock and Blackstone feel comfortable investing in hydrocarbons, and they are not going to be criticized, we will develop $100 billion worth of infrastructure we need,’ said Charif Souki, executive chairman of Tellurian, a U.S. gas producer that is planning to build an export terminal in Louisiana.”