Washington Post (May 14)
Plastic production is estimated to create roughly 5% “of all greenhouse gas emissions… more than all shipping or the entire airline industry.” But that estimate only “accounts for gases released when companies drill for oil and gas, transport it to refineries, turn it into plastic and mold it into products.” It ignores factors such as “how microplastics in the ocean and soil disrupt the natural cycles that pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and cool the planet.” Though “scientists have long known that making plastic warms the planet,” plastic may ultimately “be heating the Earth even more than we realized.”
Tags: 5%, Airline industry, Atmosphere, CO2, Disrupt, Drill, Gas, GHG emissions, Microplastics, Mold, Natural cycles, Ocean, Oil, Plastic, Production, Products, Refineries, Scientists, Shipping, Soil, Transport
Financial Times (January 10)
“BlackRock has become the latest financial firm to bail out of a big climate change industry group in the wake of Donald Trump’s election as US president and heightened regulatory scrutiny. The world’s largest money manager told institutional clients in a letter on Thursday that it had quit Net Zero Asset Managers,” which seeks “the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner.”
Tags: 2050, BlackRock, Climate change, Election, Financial firm, GHG emissions, Money manager, Net Zero Asset Managers, Regulatory scrutiny, Trump, U.S.
Washington Post (July 16)
The extreme heat events “should not be viewed in isolation.” They are “virtually impossible” to explain except for human-caused climate change. “Slashing greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning to a greener economy at the scale and pace needed would require creativity, innovation and political courage. But the cost if we fail is far more daunting: a future in which climate disasters, and all the damage and instability that come with them, become the new normal everywhere.”
Tags: Climate change, Climate disasters, Cost, Creativity, Daunting, Extreme heat, Fail, GHG emissions, Greener economy, Innovation, Isolation, Pace, Political courage, Scale, Transitioning
Wall Street Journal (October 7)
“Natural gas stocks are alarmingly low around the world, and prices in most places have never been higher after surging to new records…. Demand has jumped as economies have bounced back from pandemic shutdowns, and the squeeze has caught traders, shipowners and energy executives off guard.” Nations that “have wound down coal-fired plants and become more dependent on gas” are particularly vulnerable and, in some cases, restarting mothballed power plants despite higher GHG emissions.
Tags: Coal, Demand, Economies, Energy, GHG emissions, Natural gas, Pandemic, Prices, Records, Shipowners, Shutdowns, Squeeze, Stocks, Surging, Traders, Vulnerable
National Geographic (June 18)
“Dangerous heatwaves are far more common than anyone realized, killing people in more than 60 different parts of the world every year.” Approximately “30 percent of the world’s population is currently exposed to potentially deadly heat for 20 days per year or more—and like a growing forest fire, climate change is spreading this extreme heat.” Barring major reductions in GHG emissions, “up to 75 percent of people could face deadly heatwaves by 2100.”
Tags: Climate change, Dangerous, Deadly, Extreme heat, Forest fire, GHG emissions, Heatwaves, Population
Institutional Investor (October 29)
“Just as information from barometers and thermometers can help us prepare for tomorrow’s weather, so corporate information on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues can help investors make better decisions and prepare for the future” by providing such information “as whether supply chain management takes account of climate risk, whether fixed assets are based in areas prone to flooding and cyclones and whether the scale of a company’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is contributing to more extreme weather events over the long term.” But the problem is “too few companies report on such ESG factors. And when they do, it is often voluntarily reported, which tends to mean different methodologies and measures too inconsistent for investors to compare efficiently.” There is an obvious solution. Global stock exchanges should “coordinate the reporting of sustainability metrics just as they do with financial metrics.”
Tags: Climate risk, ESG, Extreme weather, Fixed assets, GHG emissions, Investors, Methodologies, Stock exchanges, Supply chain management
