GREENWASHING

Giant global asset managers have $82 billion in coal projects, $468 billion in oil and gas

PUBLISHED WED, APR 20 2022
Catherine Clifford

CNBC

KEY POINTS

Reclaim Finance found that collectively 30 asset managers have $82 billion in companies developing new coal projects and $468 billion in 12 major oil and gas companies.

In a ranking of the asset managers, six received the worst possible score — zero out of 30.

Because of its size and fossil fuel investing records, Vanguard drew particular ire and a collective of 100 organizations wrote an open letter to its CEO calling out the company’s lack of climate action.


A banner reading “Time’s up for fossil fuels” hangs from a bridge in front of the U.S. Capitol the day of President Joe Biden’s first address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress in Washington, U.S., April 28, 2021.

Erin Scott | Reuters

Giant global asset managers are still dumping tens of billions of dollars into new coal projects and hundreds of billions of dollars into major oil and gas companies.

That’s according to a report out Wednesday from Reclaim Finance, an organization disclosing financial sector investments in fossil fuels.

The report, titled “The Asset Managers Fueling Climate Chaos,” found that collectively 30 asset managers have $82 billion in companies developing new coal projects and $468 billion in 12 major oil and gas companies.

“Is the asset management industry changing its investment practices in line with climate science, reducing investments in coal, oil, or gas expansion? Unfortunately, the answer is an emphatic ‘no,’” Lara Cuvelier of Reclaim Finance said in a statement released alongside the report. “Leading asset managers are kicking the can down the road without even asking companies to stop worsening the climate crisis.”

The majority of the asset managers — 25 of the 30 — are members of the Net Zero Asset Manager Initiative (NZAM), which is a collective of asset managers with noble climate goals: “committed to supporting the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner, in line with global efforts to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius; and to supporting investing aligned with net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner.”

Yet none of the 30 asset managers surveyed by the report have required companies in their portfolios to quit coal, oil and gas projects, according to Reclaim Finance.

Vanguard was one of six companies to score the worst possible score — zero out of 30 — but it drew specific ire because of its size and lack of meaningful action. More than 100 organizations representing over 6 million people published an open letter to Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley also published on Wednesday.

“With over $300 billion in fossil fuel exposure, Vanguard has become increasingly isolated as the biggest laggard on climate in the asset management sector,” the open letter states.

“Vanguard is the world’s second largest (and currently fastest growing) asset manager after BlackRock and these two giants are the world’s two largest investors in fossil fuels and companies driving deforestation around the world,” said Myriam Fallon, spokesperson for The Sunrise Project, an environmental organization that endorsed the Reclaim Finance report.

“While BlackRock has been taking steps to address the climate crisis and its contributions to it, Vanguard has done next to nothing,” Fallon said.

Vanguard considers climate change “to be a fundamental risk to many companies and their shareholders’ long-term financial success,” a company spokesperson told CNBC. Furthermore, the spokesperson added, it is Vanguard’s responsibility to make sure investors know of those risks and that portfolio companies “are taking the appropriate steps to manage and mitigate those risks on behalf of their shareholders.”

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has been a leader in saying that climate change is a financial issue. “Climate change has become a defining factor in companies’ long-term prospects,” Fink wrote in his 2020 annual letter to CEOs. “But awareness is rapidly changing, and I believe we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance.”

Even as BlackRock has been a climate catalyst on Wall Street, its investing portfolio still has climate issues, according to Reclaim Finance. “BlackRock most embodies the hypocrisy of too many asset managers: whilst being the biggest member of the NZAM, it still invests in the 11th biggest coal producer worldwide and massive coal expansionist Glencore,” Cuvelier said.

BlackRock did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This story has been updated to include a comment from Vanguard.

Climate Crisis? Fund Managers Are Sticking

With Fossil Fuel

Tim Quinson, Bloomberg News

Larry Fink, chairman and chief executive officer of BlackRock Financial Management Inc., smiles during a panel discussion at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, on Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018. The New Economy Forum, organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, aims to bring together leaders from public and private sectors to find solutions to the world's greatest challenges. Photographer: Justin Chin/Bloomberg , Tim Quinson

(Bloomberg) --

None of the world’s largest asset managers has definitively called on fossil-fuel companies to stop the development of new oil and gas projects.

Surely, one would think, given all the climate-conscious talk coming from Wall Street bigwigs like BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink, that the investment industry would be using all of its muscle to press the world’s worst polluters to reduce their production of dangerous greenhouse gases.Instead, the opposite is true.

Together, 30 of the biggest asset managers have at least $550 billion invested in oil, gas and coal companies that have expansion plans, and even more alarmingly, they continue to provide “fresh cash to companies that are ignoring climate science,” said Lara Cuvelier, sustainable investment campaigner at Reclaim Finance, a nonprofit which published a scorecard Wednesday grading investment firms on their environmental commitments.

In effect, the fund industry is “adding fuel to the fire,” she said.

And this is happening against a backdrop where the world’s leading climate finance experts and economists warn too much money is pouring into fossil fuels, putting the planet on track to blow past its limit to avoid catastrophic global warming. The Reclaim Finance-led report also provides a checkup on an industry that unveiled the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero almost a year ago, when bankers and fund managers exclaimed how they’re committed to helping fight climate change.

Instead, Reclaim Finance found that all 30 of the fund managers’ policies and investment guidelines are “too flawed” for them to align their entire portfolios with a net-zero emissions target. The investment firms included in the survey ranged from BlackRock and Vanguard Group Inc. in the U.S. to Axa Investment Managers and Amundi SA in Europe.

Here are six of the key findings:

• Twenty-three of the 30 firms allow investments in companies that are starting new coal projects.
• None completely restrict holding shares or bonds of companies that are involved in new oil and gas projects.
• And none are calling for companies to “immediately and progressively decrease” their overall fossil-fuel production.
• Twenty-five say they’re pushing companies to improve on climate-related issues. However, case studies indicate this engagement work has thus far failed to lead to concrete changes.
• Ten of the asset managers have released 2030 decarbonization goals, but the targets only cover a small proportion of their total portfolios and financed emissions.
• None apply their existing fossil-fuel restrictions to their index-tracking assets, which is particularly concerning given that “passive” investments keep growing and represent 46% of the assets covered by the report. (Amundi has exclusion policies for oil, gas and coal that cover less than 40% of its passive assets, which is “insufficient,” Cuvelier said.)

The bottom line is “leading asset managers are kicking the can down the road without even asking companies to stop worsening the climate crisis,” Cuvelier said.

Reclaim Finance’s research found that, while none of the 30 firms ranked very well, though Natixis SA’s Ostrum Asset Management and Axa Investment Managers rated the highest. Ostrum was singled out for its coal-exclusion policy and to a lesser extent for its oil and gas policy, and Axa for having a better engagement policy regarding the fossil-fuel sector than other firms, Cuvelier said.

Overall, asset managers aren’t engaging companies on key climate issues to limit global warming Cuvelier said. The report calls on investors to force fossil-fuel companies to end their expansion plans.

“Let’s be clear,” she said. “Drilling a new oil well or opening a new coal mine isn’t a normal thing to do in a widespread climate catastrophe.”

Bloomberg Green publishes Good Business every week, providing unique insights on ESG and climate-conscious investing.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

Energy transition still means billions in fossil-fuel investment

The energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is increasing the world’s motivation to shift to low-carbon energy, but is also creating a near-term scramble for fossil fuels that will drive billions of dollars of new investment.

The U.S. and European countries are planning liquefied natural gas terminals that will be in service for decades. Coal demand is surging around the world and U.S. shale suppliers will be pressed to fill a potential supply gap for nations moving away from Russian natural gas.

The challenge for the world will be pivoting to cleaner technologies while also meeting current energy demand, executives and investors said Tuesday at BloombergNEF’s annual summit in New York. The transition is going to be bumpy, and it’s not going to happen quickly.

“We need fossil energy as part of this transition,” said Keo Lukefahr, head of energy derivatives and renewables trading at Motiva Enterprises LLC. “This is a long transition. This is not overnight.”

The gas market has been upended as nations seek alternatives to Russia, especially in Europe. However, current global output won’t be enough and that’s going to drive investment in new production, especially in the U.S. shale patch, Anastacia Davies, BNEF’s head of oil supply and U.S. oil said at the conference. 

“The days of unchecked U.S. growth are likely behind us,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean that shale’s role is gone.”

The war may also help accelerate the green transition, said Bertrand Millot of Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, Canada’s second-largest pension fund manager. 

Countries are suddenly sensitive to energy security concerns, and are seeing the advantage of wind and solar farms that don’t require regular deliveries of fuel.

Guyana Oil Plan

Guyana has substantial oil reserves and is positioning itself to benefit from the crisis. It’s considering channeling resources into a national oil company to facilitate efforts to meet demand from industrialized nations, while also seeking to pursue climate goals.

“Demand for our resources is largely from the developed world,” said Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyana’s vice president, at the summit. “We don’t believe we are betraying a net-zero goal if we develop these resources,” 

That’s hardly a universal view.

Justin Guay, director of global climate strategy for the climate-justice organization Sunrise Project, said some energy companies are cynically taking advantage of the current European energy crisis by planning costly infrastructure projects that will take years to complete and won’t address short-term needs.

“It takes three to five years to build a new LNG terminal,” he said. “Europe needs a new gas supply by the end of the year.”

But, while the Ukraine war has focused a spotlight on the global reliance on fossil fuels, it’s also identifying ways to get away from traditional energy sources.

“When everything is in chaos, it’s good to think about the job to be done,” said Jon Moore, the head of BNEF.

Warner Bros Discovery to shut down CNN+ a month after launch

The service, which eclipsed 100,000 subscribers in its first week, succumbed to cost cutting by the firm’s new bosses.

CNN+ offers a mix of lifestyle shows and traditional news, including a daily interview show from Chris Wallace and a food and travel show hosted by actress Eva Longoria [File: Bloomberg]

By Gerry SmithBloomberg

Published On 21 Apr 202221 Apr 2022

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is shutting down CNN+ after just a few weeks, as the company’s new leaders reassess their online strategy and look to cut costs following their big merger.

The service will cease operations on April 30, according to an emailed statement Thursday. Customers will receive prorated refunds of their subscription fees end of list

Andrew Morse, who led CNN+, will leave after a transition period. Alex MacCallum, general manager of the service, will now run the network’s digital operations.

Discovery Inc. completed its merger with AT&T Inc.’s media business earlier this month. Management, including Chief Executive Officer David Zaslav, has said they are considering combining the company’s online offerings, which include HBO Max and Discovery+, into one subscription for consumers. CNN+ was championed internally by Jeff Zucker, the longtime media executive who stepped down in February.

“Our customers and CNN will be best served with a simpler streaming choice,” Chris Licht, the new CEO of CNN, said in the statement.

CNN+ offered a mix of lifestyle shows and traditional news, including a daily interview program from Chris Wallace and a food and travel series hosted by actress Eva Longoria. The company charged $5.99 a month for the product, the same as Fox News’ paid streaming service.

Bloomberg News reported earlier this month that the service topped 100,000 subscribers in the first week after its March 29 launch. Warner Bros. Discovery said CNN content will be a key component of its streaming offerings going forward.

When it was owned by AT&T, CNN spent hundreds of millions of dollars to program and market the product, which executives described as the news organization’s most ambitious new venture since the founding of the network more than 40 years ago.

Zaslav, who wasn’t allowed to make management decisions at the business until the deal closed, has promised at least $3 billion in cost savings as a result of the merger.

Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery fell as much as 8.7% to $21.01 in New York, in part over continuing skepticism about the future of streaming following Netflix Inc.’s surprise subscriber decline this week.

CANADA

Temperatures over 40 Celcius, longer heatwaves: report offers advice to adapt

Grand Bend Beach in Lambton Shores. July 4, 2020. (Screenshot from the Grand Bend Beach cam)

By Adelle LoisellApril 20, 2022 

Unless governments, communities, property managers, and individual Canadians act, a new report by researchers at the University of Waterloo suggests heat-related deaths in Canada will double by 2080.

That’s under its best-case scenario. Under its worst, it predicts those deaths will increase by 450 per cent over rates from the last half-century.

The report stresses governments need to recognize extreme heat events as natural disasters the same way it classifies flooding and wildfires. It says 17-million Canadians living in cities and towns are vulnerable, and Southwestern Ontario should anticipate some of the worst impacts.

In Windsor, “Irreversible Extreme Heat: Protecting Canadians and Communities from a Lethal Future” suggests between 2051 and 2080, the number of extreme heat days, those with temperatures over 30 Celcius, could increase from the current 23 to 79 days a year under a high carbon model. Maximum temperatures will jump to 40 degrees, and the duration of heatwaves could be 9.8 days.

In comparison, between 1976 and 2005, Windsor’s maximum temperature was 35 Celcius on average, and heat waves typically lasted four days maximum.

London could anticipate 61 days a year with temperatures over 30 Celcius and heat waves that last eight days.

The report did not provide projections for Chatham-Kent, Sarnia, or Leamington but did say those communities are also at risk.

Pavement on Hwy 3 in Tecumseh buckles in heat on July 15, 2018. Photo courtesy Gary McNamara/Twitter.

Not only are lives and the healthcare system at stake, but infrastructure like roads, railways, and bridges could fail in extreme temperatures while failing crops threaten food security. It also suggested cities that suffer the worst heat could see more crime as mental health and the economy suffer.

While air conditioning has helped Canadians weather the worst impacts of heat so far, it may offer less benefit in the years to come because it requires electricity. As demand grows during hot days, greenhouse gas emissions rise, and power grids could fail.

However, the Intact Centre for Climate Adaptation also said Canadians are not helpless in the face of rising temperatures. It points out that heat-related deaths are preventable, and adaptation is possible.

There is no doubt the document offers some dire predictions for the next six decades. It also recommends actions individual Canadians, property owners, and communities can take. Some have already started to adapt.

Individual Canadians might consider using ceiling and portable fans more, improving home insulation, installing window coverings like shutters, and modifying living, working, and sleeping arrangements.

30 maple trees were planted as part of the Diamond Project in Durham. (Photo courtesy of the Diamond Project via Facebook)

Both individuals and communities can plant more trees, but cities and towns are encouraged to promote green roofs and building facades. Property managers can prompt apartment dwellers to create balcony gardens.

Municipalities can develop extreme heat emergency plans, extend opening hours at beaches, public pools, water parks, and cooling centres, and offer free public transportation to those locations that offer residents respite. Patrols could check on residents in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, and flexible hours might keep outside workers safe.

These B.C. cities will get hit hardest by future heat waves

The B.C. Interior cities of Kelowna, Kamloops, Penticton, Creston and Vernon are expected to face some of the hottest and long-lasting heat waves starting in 2051. A lack of preparedness, however, still leaves the big cities of Metro Vancouver vulnerable.

Stefan Labbé
a day ago

Heat-buckled concrete in Kelowna.Jeremy Spurway via Castanet

Kelowna is projected to face the longest-lasting heat waves and the hottest maximum temperatures of any major Canadian city, a new report says. 

The report, published Wednesday from the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, outlines several measures tenants, landlords and communities can take to prepare for the fallout from extreme heat. 

Modelling heat waves between 2051 and 2080, the researchers found Kelowna will become among the top 10 “hottest” metropolitan areas in Canada.

Smaller Interior communities like Kamloops, Penticton, Creston and Vernon are also expected to reach similar temperatures. 

In another metric, Windsor, Ont., is expected to have the most number of very hot days with an average of 78.8 days over 30 C under high-emission scenarios. In that field, Kelowna came in fourth after three other southern Ontario cities. 

The top 10 metropolitan areas based on projections for warmest maximum temperature and the average length of heat waves until 2080. Irreversible Extreme Heat: Protecting Canadians and Communities from a Lethal Future

Over 17 million urban Canadians are expected to face extreme heat in the coming years. The report also warns of “red zones” in low-lying areas in B.C., southern Prairies, the St. Lawrence River valley in Quebec, and regions north of Lake Erie in Ontario.

Whereas flooding and wildfire — expected to increase in frequency and intensity this century — will cost Canada vast sums of money,  heat waves will ramp up as a kind of silent killer.

“The impacts of heat are death,” said lead author Joanna Eyquem, managing director of Climate Resilient Infrastructure at the centre.

The parts of the country expected to be hit with the hottest heat for the longest aren’t always the most vulnerable. Heat waves that occur outside of the summer or in communities unaccustomed to extreme heat can face massive human casualties, as was seen in Metro Vancouver last summer when nearly hundreds died alone in hot, poorly ventilated rooms. 

Eyquem called on all levels of government to start taking extreme heat more seriously.

After last year’s heat wave in B.C., Eyquem said she expected to see a growing recognition of heat’s deadly potential. But when she looked at Canada’s federal disaster database, it still failed to mention the disaster. 

On a Health Canada webpage outlining its role in a disaster, Eyquem said the agency did not include extreme heat among other risks like earthquakes, floods and outbreaks of disease.

“It’s not seen as an emergency,” she said.

To date, local governments have largely been left on their own to deal with extreme heat — whether creating cooling centres or deploying misting fountains. But as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, provincial and federal governments play key roles providing funding, coordinating action plans and delivering messages. 

In the interim, an individual who chooses to adapt their home to extreme heat also makes life more comfortable and affordable at the same time. 

And while the report doesn’t specifically target Indigenous communities or the acute challenges of Canada’s North, Eyquem says it offers a baseline for action at the local level.

“There are simple things, even just sticking up some window films to kind of cut the sun coming through your windows,” she said. 

“That's very affordable. So I don't know why we're not doing that.” 

This ‘silent killer’ of climate change may hit 17 million Canadians the hardest. Here’s what a new report suggests as protection

APRIL 20, 2022

It’s floods that lead to repairs costing billions of dollars. It’s fires that burn images of charred buildings and communities into our minds.

But of all the extreme weather events made more likely by climate change, it’s another — extreme heat — that is the deadliest. And a new report by Canadian experts on climate adaptation says there are clear ways to make sure fewer Canadians die of extreme heat in the future.

Without action, the picture painted by a report on irreversible extreme heat from the Intact Center on Climate Adaptation — a University of Waterloo climate adaptation research center — is dire. The documentwhich is meant to instruct individuals, communities and higher levels of government in Canada to prepare for and avoid the worst effects of extreme heat, concluded that 17 million Canadians — including the population of Toronto — live in metropolitan areas that the report’s authors regard as at highest risk for extreme heat events.

In the best case scenario, with lower carbon emissions and stable population, the frequency and severity of extreme heat events until 2080 will mean 50 per cent more people are expected to die compared to the past 50 years for heat-related reasons.

In the worst case scenario — high carbon emissions and large population growth — the rate of excess deaths could be 450 per cent greater than in the last 50 years.

Joanna Eyquem, managing director of climate-resilient infrastructure at the Intact Center and the lead author of the report, said the high death toll from extreme heat — most recently highlighted by the heat dome in British Columbia that claimed 526 lives in eight days last year — make it apparent why adaptations to extreme heat events are urgently needed. Extreme heat, the report states, is the “silent killer” of climate change — and is avoidable.

“Heat-related deaths are avoidable, with the right action, information and adaptation,” Eyquem told the Star. “That’s something we can avoid.”

It’s not that Canadians have not been exposed to extreme heat before, and suddenly will be. Item explains that instances of extreme heat, usually defined as temperatures above 30 Care already more common as a result of climate change, and are likely only to become more common.

That has direct effects on our health, such as by causing heat stroke in people who can’t avoid the heat, and indirect effects, such as by exacerbating mental-health issues and keeping people indoors and alone.

And heat does not strike equally everywhere. The effects of extreme heat are much worse in urban environments, where concrete absorbs heat and fewer trees and plants are present to cast shade and retain cooling water.

“Not only are (artificial city) surfaces hotter during the day because they absorb all that solar heat, they give it out at night so we don’t get this cooling effect overnight,” she said. “That’s what we call this heat-island effect in cities.”

According to the report, urban environments can be 10 to 15 degrees hotter than rural areas on the same day for these reasons.

Older people, people with chronic conditions and people who live far away from green spaces are the most likely to be affected.

Fifteen metropolitan areas were identified as most at-risk for extreme heat in the future: Kelowna, Lethbridge, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Windsor, Hamilton, Niagara Falls/St. Catharines, Brantford, London, Ottawa, Toronto, Belleville, Kingston and Montreal. A total of 17 million Canadians lived in these communities, per 2020 Statistics Canada estimates.


The Intact Centre, which consulted 60 experts for its guidance report, came up with 35 recommendations for tackling effects and deaths from extreme heat. It said that even with extreme heat events becoming much more common, deaths may not rise as much if these adaptations take place.

For individuals, the central recommendation is to make a plan for extreme heat in the way they might already have a fire or an earthquake plan. The plan would include noting any vulnerable family members you should check on in person during extreme heat, and identifying a cooling place you can go if your home is not adequately cool.

The report also recommends coming up with ways to passively cool your home if possible, such as with reflective window coverings or increasing plant areas.

The recommendations for property owners and managers also include coming up with an extreme heat plan, as well as playing a more active role in increasing green infrastructure such as trees on their properties, and maintaining designated air-conditioned cool rooms.

Communities are also encouraged to increase tree cover and vegetated areas, as well as to map which areas in the community are most vulnerable to extreme heat, prepare for extreme heat warnings, and provide incentives for owners and tenants to implement shaded areas.

Eyquem said it may not be intuitive for all Canadians to think about extreme heat, especially before the summer has started. But that’s exactly what she thinks we should do: Start thinking of heat as a climate disaster to prepare for in advance.

“I think in Canada we still have a cold climate mentality, we’re more worried about heating than cooling,” she said. “But that’s going to shift in the future. We’re warming twice as fast as the rest of the world.”

And, she said, heat is a good example of how climate change is not only an issue with carbon emissions and preventing environmental disaster.

“It’s framed as an environment issue,” she said. “But really it’s a health issue. There’s a lack of awareness that this is going to be important going forward for our health.”

Alex McKeen is a Vancouver-based reporter for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @alex_mckeen

 

Ottawa struggled to block unvaccinated from accessing EI benefits: documents

By Staff  The Canadian Press

Posted April 21, 2022 11:58 am

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The employment insurance section of the Government of Canada website is shown on a laptop in Toronto on April 4, 2020. Internal government documents show that the Liberals' pledge to prevent unvaccinated people from accessing jobless benefits didn't eliminate all avenues for them to enter the EI system. Jesse Johnston/The Canadian Press file photo

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Internal government documents show that the Liberals’ pledge to prevent unvaccinated people from accessing jobless benefits didn’t eliminate all avenues for them to enter the employment insurance system.

The briefing notes prepared for Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough say that unvaccinated workers could qualify for EI sickness benefits, even if they are sick with COVID-19.

The laws guiding the social safety net program don’t have any explicit rules around eligibility for EI for anyone who refused to get vaccinated.

7:24Disobeying clear vaccine policies seen as noncompliance in EI claims: Qualtrough

Disobeying clear vaccine policies seen as noncompliance in EI claims: Qualtrough – Oct 24, 2021

While Qualtrough was told the government could put rules around regular jobless benefits, officials suggested the same couldn’t be said of sickness benefits.

Documents prepared by Qualtrough’s department last fall suggest officials advised against preventing access to sickness benefits and removing an incentive for ill workers to stay home with symptoms.

The details are contained in documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act that outline some of the moves inside government as officials readied for a wave of layoffs for workers who refused to get vaccinated.