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To: locogringo who wrote (1189443)12/31/2019 2:53:26 PM
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BOOM: Pension funds could be hit by 'WORTHLESS' fossil fuels - Bank of England Head
Oscar Williams-Grut
Senior City Correspondent, Yahoo Finance UK
Yahoo Finance UKDecember 30, 2019
finance.yahoo.com

Mark Carney: “Up to 80% of coal assets will be stranded, up to half of developed oil reserves.” Photo: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images
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Bank of England governor Mark Carney has warned pension funds they could be stung as fossil fuels investments become “worthless” over time.

Carney said in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme on Monday that global targets to reduce emissions would render many fossil fuel companies and their assets worthless, as people ditch ‘dirty’ energy in favour of renewables.

“Up to 80% of coal assets will be stranded, up to half of developed oil reserves,” Carney said. “A question for every company, every financial institution, every asset manager, pension fund, or insurer: What’s your plan?”

Carney said pension funds “could make [the] argument” to clients that it is better to ditch fossil fuels now, even as returns remain attractive.


“They need to make the argument, to be clear about why is that going to be the case if a substantial proportion of those assets are going to be worthless,” the outgoing Bank of England governor said.

Carney called climate change a “tragedy on the horizon” and said the financial sector was “not moving fast enough” to address it.

The comments came during a special edition of the Today Programme guest edited by teenage environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg.

READ MORE: Credit Suisse exec: Firms ignoring climate change could 'go to zero'

Tackling climate change has been a major priority for Carney during his time at Threadneedle Street. The governor first raised the financial risk posed by warming temperatures in a speech in 2015 and has warned that firms “will go bankrupt” if they ignore climate risk. The Bank estimates that as much as $20trn-worth of assets could be at risk from climate change.

More recently, the Bank of England has committed to introducing regular climate risk ‘stress tests’ for big banks. Carney, who is set to leave the central bank next March, is also set to become the UN’s Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance when he leaves Threadneedle Street.

Others in the financial sector are also sounding the alarm on climate change. Marisa Drew, head of Credit Suisse’s impact advisory and finance division, told Yahoo Finance UK in November that investments could “go to zero quickly” if firms ignore the risks.



To: locogringo who wrote (1189443)12/31/2019 2:55:56 PM
From: sylvester80  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 1576627
 
BOOM: Firms ignoring climate change could 'go to zero' - Credit Suisse exec
Oscar Williams-Grut
Senior City Correspondent, Yahoo Finance UK
Yahoo Finance UK
uk.finance.yahoo.com

One of Credit Suisse’s ( CS) most senior bankers has said investments could “go to zero quickly” if companies ignore climate change.

Marisa Drew, head of Credit Suisse’s impact advisory and finance division, told Yahoo Finance UK: “If someone has not priced in the risk, you could easily see something that seems like a great investment go to zero quickly.

“Let’s take the energy sector for a second. There will be a day when the world can be 100% reliant on alternative energy. If you’re in an old school energy business and we hit that moment where we switch, guess what? The value of those old school investments isn’t going to be worth much.”

The issue is not limited to sectors like oil and gas, Drew said.

“Let’s just say you’re a real estate investor and you’ve got a pool of coastal real estate. In the past, that’s where everybody wanted to be — everybody wants to be on the water. But now you look at that and say, woah, wait a minute, if seas are going to rise 3ft in the next 20 years, those assets may not actually be worth as much.”

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney warned earlier this year that businesses ignoring climate change “will go bankrupt without question.” The Bank estimated that as much as $20trn-worth of assets could be at risk from climate change.

“The other part of the equation is the new young startups that are going to be the disruptors,” Drew said, highlighting alternative hamburger company Beyond Meat as an example.

“It’s mission is: for those that eat meat, eat less beef if you care about the environment. When we took that company public it was really only a couple of years in commercial operation — best performing IPO in 20 years, a multi-multi-billion dollar company. From zero to multi-billions because it’s tapping into this moment.

“Now what’s happening is the entire food sector is now saying, uh oh, I need part of that,” Drew said. “Food, agriculture companies very much want to play a part of this. All the old names either want to have investments in these companies because they’re the new disruptors, or they want to be a part of it somehow.”

‘There’s a visceral human response’


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Credit Suisse's chief executive officer Tidjane Thiam. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty
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Drew ran Credit Suisse’s European investment bank until 2017 when she was tasked by the bank’s CEO Tidjane Thiam with creating a new “impact” investing division. The division helps clients put money into projects with positive social or environmental outcomes, as well as strong financial returns. Examples include a project in South-east Asia to improve the quality of crops for low income famers and a private healthcare initiative in India.

“Increasingly if you’re an asset manager, the people who are giving you that money want to know what you’re doing with it, is it being invested in an environmentally friendly way?” Drew told Yahoo Finance UK at the OneYoungWorld conference in London last week.

“As an individual, so many of our clients now want to do something positive, not just in philanthropy and with their day-to-day action but with their investments. All these forces are coming together.”

Drew reports directly to Thiam and the Credit Suisse CEO name-checked her division in the bank’s recent third quarter results.

“We intend for this to become a growing part of our activities,” he said, adding “clients are increasingly interested” and promising further investment in the division.

Drew said the focus was driven by increasing awareness of climate change globally.

“You certainly had people more than a decade ago banging the drum saying: climate change is real, it’s here, it’s going to be serious,” she told Yahoo Finance UK. “But I think human nature isn’t really equipped to look 50 years out.

“Now, it’s very real for people, when you have the California wildfires and it’s your house that burns down. Or you have the electricity shut off. Or you have these increasingly violent storms that wipe out towns and villages. Now it’s real. So I think that there’s a visceral human response to say: I want to do something about this.”

Still working with oil and gas


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The Aramco oil refinery in Dahran, Saudi Arabia. Photo: MyLoupe/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
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Despite the environmental focus, Credit Suisse continues to work with oil and gas companies, which are some of the biggest polluters.

The bank is reportedly one of nine working on the planned stock market float of Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company. The state-owned company is responsible for an estimated 4.3% of all CO2 and methane emissions globally since 1965.

“There are areas that maybe today have the term old school industry or quote unquote dirty industry,” Drew said. “We believe we’ve got a role to play in helping companies finance their transition. Unless or until you have a viable global alternative, you can’t rid yourself of fossil fuels today. It’s not possible.

“It’s about quickly accelerating the transition in some of these older industries that have a bigger carbon footprint. That could be maritime, it could be long haul trucking, it can be automobiles. All of these industries are migrating, but they need to migrate faster.”

As part of the push to migrate to green energy, Credit Suisse has partnered with the Climate Bonds Initiative to create a new market for “transition bonds”. Businesses that don’t meet the criteria to issue “green bonds” can issue transition notes to help fund the move towards greener energy and practices.

“That could be a consumer products company that wants to change its packaging and not use single-use plastics,” Drew said. “It could be the food companies that want to make more investments in plant-based proteins — and on and on it goes.

“Today the green bond market is about a $600bn market. No reason why this couldn’t be similar.”



To: locogringo who wrote (1189443)12/31/2019 3:10:14 PM
From: sylvester80  Respond to of 1576627
 
PROTESTERS SHOUTING "DEATH TO AMERICA" ATTACK US EMBASSY IN IRAQ