Me First -- Groups Target Finance for Fossil Fuels

January 09, 2020

Print This Article Share it With Friends

by Kelsey Tamborrino (Politico's Morning Energy) Environmental, indigenous rights and investor groups are uniting behind a new campaign targeting the financial sector for funding fossil fuel projects. Labeled "Stop the Money Pipeline," the effort builds on the years-long divestment movement aimed at endowments, philanthropies, universities and faith organizations. The groups will now train their sights on banks, insurance companies and asset managers in a new push beginning Friday. The campaign's website names JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock and Liberty Mutual as top targets.

"THE WORLD IS GOING TO HELL, so you've gotta figure out every lever you have to pull on — and I think there's really two big levers in the world," activist and 350.org founder Bill McKibben told ME. "One of them is politics ... the other is financial power." Groups involved in the push include 350.org, Sierra Club, Greenpeace USA, Union of Concerned Scientists, Oil Change International, Rainforest Action Network, Sunrise Project, Majority Action, Future Coalition, Ginew Connection and Amazon Watch. The official kickoff will occur in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with a Fire Drill Friday event led by actress Jane Fonda. READ MORE

Blackrock Announces Climate Change/Sustainability Are Now Its Core Principles For Investing (Our Daily Planet)

A Fundamental Reshaping of Finance (Blackrock)

BlackRock CEO says the climate crisis is about to trigger ‘a fundamental reshaping of finance’ (CNBC includes VIDEO interview)

WHAT TO DO WHEN 'THE BIRDS' ARE GREEN SWANS: (Politico's Morning Energy)

A Tale of Two Oil Giants With Two Strategies That Aren’t Working (Bloomberg)

Oil Stocks In “Death Knell Phase” According to Stock Market Pundit Jim Cramer (Our Daily Planet)

Goldman Sachs agreed to stop funding Arctic drilling. Will other banks join them? (The Guardian)

Heinrich, Democratic Colleagues Urge Top U.S. Banks To Not Finance Arctic Drilling (Office of Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM))

The Role of Oil and Gas Companies in the Energy Transition (Atlantic Council Global Energy Center)

JP Morgan To Stop Funding Arctic Projects, Warns Its Investors About Climate “Catastrophe” (Our Daily Planet)

Uber's Green Competitor Is Riding A $30 Trillion Mega-Trend (OilPrice.com)

GOP TO TRUMP: TAKE ACTION AGAINST BANKS THAT SHUN FOSSIL FUELS: (Politico's Morning Energy)

Rockefeller heirs to Big Oil find dumping fossil fuels improved bottom line: Since severing investments in fossil fuels, Rockefeller Brothers Fund has outpaced its financial benchmarks. (Washington Post)

HOW FINANCIAL SYSTEMS CAN GEAR UP FOR CLIMATE CHANGE: (Politico's Morning Energy)

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: WHAT TO DO WHEN 'THE BIRDS' ARE GREEN SWANS:The world's central banks must brace the global financial system for economic crises largely driven by climate change. "The Green Swan," a new book from the Bank for International Settlements, which advises most of the world's central banks on how to preserve financial stability, warns that most banks have not updated their forecast models to account for the uncertainty presented by climate change.

The title is a play on the concept of unpredictable "black swan" events that can upend financial systems. "Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to human societies, and our community of central banks and supervisors cannot consider itself immune to the risks," said Villeroy de Galhau, a governor of the Bank of France, according to Al Jazeera. READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: GOP TO TRUMP: TAKE ACTION AGAINST BANKS THAT SHUN FOSSIL FUELS: Republican lawmakers called on the president Friday to prevent U.S. banks and investors from withholding financial support for fossil fuel projects. In a letter led by Sens. Dan Sullivan (Alaska) and Kevin Cramer (N.D.) and Reps. Don Young (Alaska) and Liz Cheney (Wyo.), the lawmakers contend that the banks should not be able to benefit from the CARES Act, H.R. 748 (116) if they rule out funding for the sector. The letter — which does not specify which administrative or regulatory tools the administration should use — is intended as a major show of strength to counter a wave of announcements from financial institutions that they won't fund coal developments or oil drilling operations in places like the Arctic, Anthony reports.

Schatz responds: Sen. Brian Schatz, who heads an ad-hoc Senate Democratic panel on climate change, said in a statement to ME the move is the opposite of the free-market principles that Republicans say they support. "Banks choosing not to finance new oil and gas extraction is the free market moving to clean energy," he said. "It is also responsible risk management for banks that don't want to hold risky assets or fund a climate crisis that could take down the entire economy. What Republicans want is the opposite of the free market: they want massive government subsidies to prop up failing companies."

Related: The Sierra Club is launching a four-figure digital ad campaign today targeting senators in Colorado, North Carolina and Montana and urging against providing federal economic relief funds to the fossil fuel industry. READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: HOW FINANCIAL SYSTEMS CAN GEAR UP FOR CLIMATE CHANGE: A new report recommends a series of steps U.S. regulators and institutions should take to insulate the financial system from climate change shocks. The suggestions from business sustainability group Ceres include the Federal Reserve requiring stress tests to ensure financial health across a range of climate and policy scenarios, the Securities and Exchange Commission mandating climate risk disclosure rules and clarifying when such risks are considered material information for investors, and the Federal Housing Finance Authority researching climate risk to federally backed mortgages, among other items. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara will discuss the report today in a media call.

The report comes as the Federal Reserve has taken heat from climate activists and some in the finance world. They allege the central bank's corporate debt-purchasing programs Congress created to combat the coronavirus-fueled economic crisis potentially props up oil and gas firms that were ailing before the crisis. Sarah Bloom Raskin, former Treasury deputy secretary in the Obama administration and member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors under President Barack Obama, wrote in the report's foreword that economic rebuilding must come with sustainability "explicitly embedded in market valuation," adding, "This transformation will come, in part, from urging the leaders of our financial regulatory bodies to do all they can — which turns out to be a lot."

Related: The International Monetary Fund recommended greater disclosure by companies of their potential climate change risks in a new report Friday focused on equity prices and the "physical risks" of climate change. IMF researchers found that "investors may be paying insufficient attention to climate variables, Pro's Zachary Warmbrodt reports. READ MORE