BBC (May 24)
“Climate protesters stormed Shell’s annual shareholder meeting in London, with security having to step in to protect board members.” The protestors, activists and other “campaign groups are looking to ramp up the pressure on Shell and other energy companies to bring forward those targets to absolute carbon emissions cuts by 2030 and focus more resources on renewables.” The proposed targets were, however, “rejected in a vote by shareholders at the meeting.”
Tags: 2030, Activists, Annual meeting, Board members, Carbon emissions, Climate, Energy, London, Pressure, Protect, Protesters, Rejected, Renewables, Resources, Security, Shell, Targets, Vote
Investment Week (January 27)
“Private market companies are baffled by ESG reporting requirements with 90% of companies held in private equity funds unsure how to report.” KEY ESG “surveyed over 100 industry participants including general partners and portfolio companies” based in the UK, EU and U.S., finding that 75% of the funds “were required to report on ESG and 40% of funds used ESG to differentiate themselves.” Still, these funds lacked resources and an understanding of “ESG reporting from a portfolio company level.”
Tags: Baffled, Differentiate, ESG reporting, EU, General partners, Portfolio companies, Private equity funds, Private market, Requirements, Resources, U.S., UK, Understanding, Unsure
Reuters (September 16)
“Australia’s new security pact with the United States and the UK, seen as a move to contain China, may worsen strained ties with its biggest export customer, but China’s insatiable appetite for resources may limit its punitive responses.”
Tags: Australia, China, Contain, Customer, Export, Insatiable, Punitive, Resources, Responses, Security pact, Strained, U.S., UK
The Economist (November 28)
“Investors are turning one eye away from the immediate struggle of coping with the pandemic and looking instead at the longer-term competitive picture. Who has won and who has lost? Like viruses, recessions usually come for the weakest first. Companies with sickly balance-sheets or frail margins quickly succumb. As promising startups become crushed closedowns, it is often the incumbents that have the resources to wait it out.”
Tags: Balance sheets, Companies, Crushed closedowns, Incumbents, Investors, Margins, Pandemic, Promising, Recessions, Resources, Startups, Succumb, Weakest
Wall Street Journal (August 21)
“Water crises are unfolding all across India, a product of population growth, modernization, climate change, mismanagement and the breakdown of traditional systems of distributing resources. India is running out of water in more places, in more different ways, putting more people at risk, than perhaps any other country.” Though it is “the 13th most water-stressed country in the world,” India has a population three times “the combined population of the other 16 countries facing extremely high water stress.”
Tags: Climate change, Crises, India, Mismanagement, Modernization, Population growth, Resources, Risk, Traditional
Institutional Investor (October 17)
Due to strained resources, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is less likely to investigate insider trading that occurs further afield from its field offices. Traders seem to know this. “A 100-kilometer increase in distance between a firm and the nearest SEC office resulted in a 16.5 percent jump in illegal trades at that firm. Meanwhile, firms within 100 kilometers of the SEC were less likely to engage in these types of trades.”
Tags: Distance, Firm, Illegal trades, Insider trading, Investigate, Resources, SEC, Traders
New York Times (April 19)
“Civilization’s understanding of Earth has expanded enormously in recent decades, making humanity safer and more prosperous.” But a new “dark age is a growing possibility” as our ability to predict future weather patterns is disrupted by climate change. Without the ability to accurately forecast long-term phenomena, “we will face huge challenges feeding a growing population and prospering within our planet’s finite resources.”
Tags: Challenges, Civilization, Climate change, Dark age, Disrupted, Earth, Forecast, Humanity, Patterns, Population, Predict, Prosperous, Resources, Weather
Forbes (June 16)
Putin’s oil deal with China should hardly rate a footnote. It amounts to “an annual average of $13 billion.” And rather than being a groundbreaking strategic alliance, “the deal with China underscores Russia’s core weakness. Despite its immense resources and highly educated population… Russia has a shockingly small economy that is amazingly dependent on the export of oil, gas and a few other natural resources.”
Tags: China, Deal, Dependent, Economy, Export, Gas, Natural resources, Oil, Putin, Resources, Strategic alliance, Weakness
Bloomberg (July 18)
Japan needs to mend relationships with its neighbors. After the upper house Diet elections, “LDP leaders would be wise to focus their resources on overcoming opposition to the most difficult structural reforms. That doesn’t mean Japan can’t take measures it deems necessary to bolster its defenses, such as increasing its military budget, or even making cosmetic changes such as renaming its military the ‘National Defense Forces.’ Such decisions should be based on strategic concerns, not a desire to fire up patriotic fervor. They should be communicated to Beijing quietly but transparently, well in advance.”
Tags: Asia, China, Communication, Defense, Diet, Elections, Japan, LDP, Military, Relationships, Resources, Structural reforms
Los Angeles Times (June 12)
“China will almost certainly pass the United States in the total size of its economy within a decade or so. But if one looks also at military and “soft power” resources, the U.S. is likely to remain more powerful than China for at least the next few decades.” But “the U.S. has to get away from thinking just about power over others and think about power with others. We do not want to become so fearful that we are not able to find ways to cooperate with China” in solving transnational challenges.
Tags: China, Cooperation, Economy, Military, Resources, Soft power, Transnational challenges, U.S.
