Climate Finance Media Round-Up — January 19, 2023

Fossil fuel divestment:

• YES! Magazine: Divesting Money From Fossil Fuels
• BestColleges: What Is Fossil Fuel Divestment? Q&A With Stand.earth’s Lindsay Meiman
• NJ.com: 13 climate change bills and issues N.J. residents should have on their radar in 2023 
• Times Higher Ed: Fossil fuel divestment is not enough to tackle climate change 
• Stanford Daily: New Stanford committee to review fossil fuel funding 

The road to… shareholder season:

• The Globe and Mail: Shareholder advocates take aim at climate plans as proxy season begins
• FT: Republicans target proxy advisers ISS and Glass Lewis in ESG backlash 

The Great Enablers:

• The Guardian: Banks still investing heavily in fossil fuels despite net zero pledges 
• Globalnews: Canadian pension funds improving on climate mitigation, but still falling short: report
• Financial Post: Report takes Carney climate alliance to task for providing billions for new fossil fuel projects 
• Bloomberg: How the World Bank Can Help Save the Planet
• Reuters: BlackRock U.S. inflows dwarf $4 bln lost in ESG backlash
• Bloomberg: Citi, BofA Lead Wall Street Banks Funding Fossil-Fuel Expansion
• BBC News: UAE names oil chief to lead COP28 talks
• National Observer: Confidential documents reveal Bay Street’s attempt to greenwash Canadian regulations
• FT: Activists criticise insurance industry’s first attempt to measure carbon emissions 
• The Bureau of Investigative Journalism: HSBC’s secretive loan to a coal company bulldozing a village 

Global Finance:

• The Globe and Mail: New Canadian investing rulebook would disqualify new oil and gas projects from ‘green’ tag
• Reuters: ECB can cut carbon footprint by shedding bonds of biggest polluters
• Bloomberg: Green Lending Tops Fossil Fuel as Big Oil Gets Cash Elsewhere 
• FOX News: More insurance companies pull out of Louisiana: ‘We are in a crisis’
• Pensions & Investments: Investors’ resolve to forge ahead with ESG goals deepens for 2023
• FTAdviser: Investors will be hoping for a less interesting year
• IPE: Pension funds must improve ESG risk management, says Dutch regulator
• RI: Interim net-zero targets ‘may not be met by any of us’, says NYS Comptroller 
• FT: Banks need financial prod to tackle climate change, warns chief supervisor
• Pensions & Investments: Norway sovereign wealth fund manager launches new climate board

Biden admin, Congress & US agencies:

• POLITICO: North America should be ‘clean energy powerhouse of the world’
• POLITICO: Powell vows that Fed ‘will not be a climate policymaker’
• Semafor: Fed climate stress tests for big U.S. banks are coming soon
• E&E News: Fake hurricanes and oil protests: How the Fed will test banks
• POLITICO: Treasury climate lead heads for the exit
• Reuters: U.S. energy head warns Republicans oil bill would lift pump prices
• The Washington Post: Here’s why Biden is ‘falling behind’ on environmental rules

Woke Capitalism, Anti-ESG & opposition:

• POLITICO: Boycotting comes with a cost 
• The New York Times: BlackRock’s Pitch for Socially Conscious Investing Antagonizes All Sides
• Reuters: Anti-ESG drive in U.S. could have cost taxpayers up to $708 mln
• The Hill: Republicans thrust gas stoves into the culture wars
• POLITICO: House to try to override veto of EPA spending bill 
• Bloomberg: Larry Fink Says ESG Narrative Has Become Ugly, Personal
• NewsBreak: DeSantis Against ‘Woke’ Companies – Florida Pension Funds Will Not Consider ESG Principles While Investing
• The Sentinel: New state Treasurer taking hard look at ESG, who manages state pension funds
• Reuters: Vanguard’s climate group exit shows retail investors trail on ESG
• National Observer: Oil giants who ‘make more money than God’ lobbied the federal government and got $2.6 billion in taxpayer dollars
• Volts: The right-wing groups behind renewable energy misinformation 

No such thing as safe fossil fuel project:

• CBC News: RCMP, Coastal GasLink deny conspiring to intimidate, harass Wet’suwet’en members
• BBC News: No new oil and gas fields, say Scottish ministers
• The Narwhal: CGL accused of failing to prevent sediment from entering river
• Context: ‘They want to silence us’: Uganda cracks down on anti-oil protests
• Grid: Gas stoves can harm your health — scientists have known it for decades 
• Gas Stoves Contribute to Nearly 19% of NY’s Child Asthma Cases, Analysis Estimates 
• FT: Saudi Aramco bets on being the last oil major standing
• E&E News: N.Y. weighs East Coast’s first statewide building gas ban
• Mother Jones: How the Fossil Fuel Industry Convinced Americans to Love Gas Stoves
• Reuters: Electricity constraints force Canada’s first LNG terminal to delay renewable shift
• Bloomberg: Colonial Restarts New York Harbor-Bound Fuel Pipe After Leak

Litigation & accountability:

• Bloomberg: What’s the Legal Definition of Greenwashing?
• CNBC: UN slams oil and gas giants for ignoring their own climate science 
• The New York Times: Exxon Scientists Predicted Global Warming, Even as Company Cast Doubts, Study Finds
• E&E News: Environmental lawyers to watch in 2023
• The Guardian: Why 2023 will be a watershed year for climate litigation 

Climate (in)justice:

• Unicorn Riot: Protester Shot and Killed by Officers During Raid on Atlanta Forest
• NBC News: Jackson, Mississippi, still dealing with water crisis
• E&E News: Majority of disabled people never go home after disasters
• Yale Climate Connections: Puerto Rico group helps protect abuse survivors during and after disasters 
• The Economist: Gender inequality and climate change are not separate challenges 
• The Guardian: More than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest provider are worthless, analysis shows 

Creative action:

• The Guardian: Climate activists vow to take to streets to stop fossil fuel extraction
• The Guardian: Natural History Museum under fire for gagging clause with Danish oil sponsor
• The Daily Wire: Colleges Ban Oil And Gas Companies From Recruiting Students
• E&E News: Meet the future of the environmental movement
• The Local: German police to start evicting anti-coal activists from Lützerath this week
• NBC News: Amazon workers press company on climate change response after Pakistan floods
• VOGUE: Billie Eilish on Climate Activism and Radical Hope 
• ​​Atmos: Tripping for the Planet: Psychedelics and Climate Activism
• Atmos: Is Extinction Rebellion Right To Move Beyond Disruptive Tactics?
• Scientific American: The Right Words Are Crucial to Solving Climate Change
• The Drum: Why Edelman’s Trust Barometer Is Undermined By Its Work With Fossil Fuels 
• HEATED: Edelman’s climate cop-out 

Russia’s fossil fueled war:

• CNBC: The West’s oil war against Russia is starting to take its toll — sparking calls for tougher measures 
• OilPrice: BP Still In Spotlight Over Incomplete Russia Exit

Op-eds: 

• National Observer: 2022 connected the dots between fossil fuel finance and climate chaos 
• Context: Why Germany’s coal mine struggle matters to all of us
• CNBC: Republican efforts to limit ESG investing are anti-capitalist
• Philly Inquirer: Gas stoves should be banned in Philadelphia
• Philly Inquirer: Vanguard’s withdrawal from Net Zero endangers all of us
• LA Times: 2022 brought more heat and pollution. We’re still careening toward climate disaster 
• The New York Times: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Other Dreams 
• The Hill: 4 reasons to give up defending fossil fuels
• The Guardian: How did gas stoves ignite a culture war in the US?
• Bloomberg: A Tighter Oil Market Is Coming After an Unsteady Start
• Edmonton Journal: Enough denial; Alberta should start talking about a just transition

Climate impacts:

• E&E News: U.S. emissions went up in 2022
• Scientific American: We Can’t Solve Our Climate Problems without Removing Their Main Cause: Fossil-Fuel Emissions
• POLITICO: NOAA: U.S. climate and weather disasters killed 474, cost $165B in 2022 
• Reuters: Hurricanes and floods bring $120 billion in insurance losses in 2022
• CNN Philippines: Death toll from heavy rains, floods rises to 27 
• LA Times: Mass evacuations in Montecito as storm pounds L.A. with intense rain, flooding 
• The New York Times: Despite Rain Storms, California Is Still in Drought
• The New Yorker: What to Do When It Rains on the Winter Games
• New Scientist: The worst-case climate scenarios are no longer plausible today
• The New Humanitarian: Why these 10 humanitarian crises demand your attention now 
• Toronto Star: Climate change causing more frequent warm winter temperatures: extreme weather expert
• Inside Climate News: One of the World’s Coldest Places Is Now the Warmest it’s Been in 1,000 Years, Scientists Say
• Salt Lake Tribune: Great Salt Lake set to vanish in 5 years, experts warn Utah lawmakers