Climate Finance Media Round-Up — February 6, 2023

Fossil fuel divestment: 

• AP: Calif. climate bill would make companies disclose emissions | News 
• Willamette Week: Treasurer Tobias Read Pushes Back on Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill
• Health Europa: Aligning the healthcare sector with global climate goals 
• Investment Executive: Pension funds improving on climate but still falling short: report
• Maine Public: Unity College was a leader in fossil fuel divestment. But what has the movement delivered so far?
• ICN: Diocese of London to divest from fossil fuels

The road to… shareholder season

• Yahoo! Finance: RBC, Wall St. banks face climate demands from NYC pensions
• Reuters: Musk tweets proxy voting firms have ‘far too much power’ 
• The Guardian: Shell and BP face tough job of keeping customers and investors happy as profits roll in
• Yahoo! Finance: ‘Toothless’ big Canadian investment firms vote down shareholder climate asks

The Great Enablers:

• Financial Times: Activists criticise insurance industry’s first attempt to measure carbon emissions
• Bloomberg: Climate Is Forcing the Most Risk-Aware Industry to Reinvent Itself
• Salon: How vulnerable is Wall Street to climate change? The Fed wants to find out 
• Bloomberg: Credit Suisse’s Wealth Unit Halts Margin Loans on Adani Debt
• Reuters: CEOs face challenge over sluggish climate efforts
• CNBC: Bank of America CEO says new ESG rules are needed to reboot capitalism
• Fortune: How Wall St fossil-fuel money pipeline undermines the fight to save the planet 

Global Finance:

• Bloomberg: Wall Street’s CO2 Agenda Drives Green Bank to Quit Alliance
• The Guardian: World’s biggest investment fund warns directors to tackle climate crisis or face sack  
• Bloomberg: PE in Crosshairs in $11 Trillion Investor Group’s CO2 Plan
• Reuters: Campaigners urge bond investors to shun Adani Group on green concerns
• Washington Post: Oil companies Chevron, ExxonMobil post record profits
• Reuters: Bank funding for renewables stagnates vs oil and gas – report
• Financial Times: BP cuts long-term forecast for oil and gas demand
• Energy Monitor: How green bonds could turbocharge the energy transition in 2023 
• Financial Times: Federal Reserve shifts to quarter-point rate rise but warns of more to come
• Inside Climate News: New Wind and Solar Are Cheaper Than the Costs to Operate All But One Coal-Fired Power Plant in the United States
• Grist: 10% of new cars sold last year were EVs
• The Guardian: US renewable energy farms outstrip 99% of coal plants economically
• Responsible Investor: How many future climate deaths are linked to your fund?
• BNN: Europe’s Biggest Pension Fund Issues Warning to Banks Over CO2
• Reuters: Creative green finance can go a long way in 2023
• Reuters: U.S. wants to see quicker progress on World Bank reforms
• AP: French finance minister backs pension push, UAE’s COP28 pick
• New York Times: IMF Upgrades Global Economic Outlook as Inflation Eases 

Woke Capitalism & Anti-ESG:

• The Washington Post: Meet the group sharpening the GOP attack on ‘woke’ climate policies
• Axios: The right’s anti-ESG crusader 
• Indiana Public Radio: Lawmakers try again to cut ties with banks that divest from coal, study says it could be costly
• Orlando Weekly: Florida pension-fund managers focus on getting that money — even from firms that care about climate crisis and child labor
• New York Times: Politicians Want to Keep Money Out of E.S.G. Funds. Could It Backfire?
• YES! Magazine: Florida’s Anti-Woke Laws Deny Existence of Systemic Racism
• Top1000funds: Utah Retirement Systems: Why ESG is a waste of time
• Forbes: What’s Behind The ESG Investment Backlash 
• Bloomberg Law: State Lawmakers Push Texas-Style Business Penalties Against ESG
• E&E News: One Republican stands between the far right and ESG 
• CIO Magazine: 25 States, and 3 Fossil Fuel Industry Actors Sue to Block DOL Rule Permitting ESG Investing 
• POLITICO: House Republicans have a playbook to fight ESG investing

Disinformation & greenwashing:

• ​​Energy Monitor: EU prepares to ban greenwashing 
• AP: Climate misinformation ‘rocket boosters’ on Musk’s Twitter
• The Guardian: Google let Daily Wire advertise on ‘climate change is a hoax’ searches 
• HEATED: Fearmongering over footballs 
• New York Times: The New Soldiers in Propane’s Fight Against Climate Action: Television Stars
• DeSmog: Fossil Fuel Groups ‘Spent Millions’ on Social Media Ads Spreading Climate Disinformation During COP27
• The Verge: Climate change denial is making a ‘stark comeback’ on social media
• Yale CCC: Myths about fossil fuels and renewable energy are circulating again. Don’t buy them. 
• Washington Post: Gas industry hires Democrats to win support of liberal voters 

No such thing as safe fossil fuel project:

• The Guardian: Colombia announces halt on fossil fuel exploration for a greener economy 
• Reuters: Uganda approves construction licence for $3.5 bln crude pipeline 
• The Guardian: The eviction of Lützerath: the village being destroyed for a coalmine
• Canary Media: Can clean-energy advocates stop new gas plants in North Carolina? 
• Financial Times: US jobs boom in the ‘busiest spot in the busiest oilfield’
• AP: North Dakota landowners at odds in carbon pipeline plans 
• New York Times: Administration Expected to Endorse Limited Drilling in Alaska Project 
• Gas Outlook: Louisiana LNG terminals spread pollution on local districts 
• Vox: 5 myths about gas stoves, the latest culture war clash
• Canary Media: How the LNG export boom clashes with climate goals

Biden admin, Congress & US agencies:

• ​​POLITICO: House to try to override veto of EPA spending bill 
• E&E News: Republicans insist they have a climate plan
• Bloomberg: Biden’s IRA Has $46 Billion Manager in London Reviewing Options
• Washington Post: Manchin doubles down on electric car subsidies, despite Europe’s wrath
• Context: In climate resilience push, US federal cash flows to coastal rich 
• Bloomberg Law: Success of US Climate Guidance Revamp Hangs on Agency Commitment 
• Sludge: Natural Resources Chairman Hires Oil Lobbyist as Chief of Staff 
• AP: Chevron’s buyback boosts stock, get rebuke from White House 

Litigation & accountability:

• Semafor: The coming wave of climate legal action
• The Guardian: Exxon’s predictions about the climate crisis may have increased its legal peril 
• POLITICO: House to try to override veto of EPA spending bill 

Climate (in)justice:

• The Guardian: ‘Assassinated in cold blood’: activist killed protesting Georgia’s ‘Cop City’ 
• Grist: How 19 ‘Cop City’ activists got charged with terrorism
• Atmos: The Environmental Movement’s Silence on Cop City Police Killing
• CBC News: Watchdog ‘exploring options’ to address systemic issues raised about RCMP unit in B.C.
• The Guardian: ‘Hypocritical’: environmental groups blocking union efforts, US workers say 
• Ricochet: Healing from trauma in Wet’suwet’en
• The Guardian: US utilities shut off power to millions amid record corporate profits

Creative action:

• Waging Nonviolence: Climate activists and water protectors honor pipeline resister Joye Braun with a national day of action 
• Los Angeles Times: Reclaiming the river: Tribes push for change on the Colorado River 
• The Guardian: Greenpeace protesters board Shell platform bound for Shetland 
• The Arkansas Times: In defiance of the legislature, pledges to continue not investing in oil or gun companies
• Treehugger: Barcelona Offers Free Transit to Residents Who Ditch Their Cars 
• AP: Climate activists block main road into The Hague 
• Democracy Now!: “Out of the Lab and Into the Streets”: Meet Earth Scientist Fired After Engaging in Climate Protests 
• The Boston Globe: Harvard Medical School votes to embed climate change in its curriculum 
• Business Insider: Gen Zers say they’re rejecting job offers over a company’s climate credentials, survey finds 
• San Juan Daily Star: Federal study urges heavy investment in solar energy systems 
• The Guardian: ‘Super-tipping points’ could trigger cascade of climate action

Russia’s fossil fueled war:

• Axios: Russia’s Ukraine war upended energy markets forever 
• Reuters: German cabinet approves EU emergency measures to push renewables expansion
• AP: Ukraine war moves ‘Doomsday Clock’ to 90 seconds to midnight 
• OilPrice: Putin’s Energy Weapon Is Losing Its Power
• The Guardian: How Putin’s plans to blackmail Europe over gas supply failed 
• Bloomberg: Russia Can’t Replace the Energy Market Putin Broke 

Op-eds:

• LA Times: If you bank with the Big 4, your money has an alarming carbon footprint
• Teen Vogue: Atlanta’s “Cop City” Is Putting Policing Before the Climate
• The Guardian: US pension funds are on the brink of implosion – and Wall Street is ignoring it
• Bloomberg Law: How ESG Factors Should Be Bundled Inside Your 401(k) Funds 
• FTAdviser: Responsible investing is set to become even more popular 
• The Guardian: The climate crisis threatens economic stability – why are central bankers divided?
• ImpactAlpha: Is ESG an emergency from which the public needs protection? Oklahoma legislators ride to the rescue.
• The Hill: Big Oil’s day in court
• Sapiens: To Decolonize, We Must End the World as We Know It
• Newsweek: I’m a Fisherman and Natural Gas Exports Are Killing My Way of Life
• The Hill: The Fed is out of touch on climate
• New York Times: What Exxon Knew, but Concealed, About Climate Change
• Teen Vogue: ​​Tyre Nichols Was Killed By Black Police Officers Because the Whole System Is Racist
• Helena Independent Review: Montana must build housing for the fires and floods of tomorrow
• Atmos: Productivity: The Ableist Fantasy
• Context: What’s the key to climate action? Better communication 

Climate & health impacts:

• Washington Post: Scottsdale cuts off water supply to Rio Verde Foothills amid drought
• Yale Climate Connections: Dozens of billion-dollar weather disasters hit Earth in 2022
• BBC News: Afghanistan: Freezing weather kills at least 124 people
• The Guardian: ‘It used to be like heaven’: the Iraq wetlands decimated by the climate crisis – in pictures
• AP: Filipino workers: Oil company abandoned us in Hurricane Ida
• CNN: Chile wildfires leave at least 22 people dead, officials say 
• AP: S. Dakota tribes seek disaster declaration in storm recovery
• The Guardian: Storms dumped snow on California. Will it bring a reprieve from the drought? 
• The Week: The dire consequences of the world’s ‘relentless’ warming oceans
• The Guardian: Hottest day of 2022 saw 638 more deaths than normal in England
• Independent UK: Trauma from extreme climate events has long-term effects on survivors’ brains, study finds
• CBC News: Air pollution is changing how our brain functions