So writes the FT’s Martin Wolf in his column today, which starts out noting that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations exceeded 400 parts per million last week, the highest level in 4.5m years.
As he says, if we take a prudential view of public finances, then surely a similar approach to something irreversible and much costlier” is warranted.< Read more
How much of the oil and gas sector’s asset valuations could be at risk from climate mitigation policy?
The International Energy Agency’s latest annual World Energy Outlook, released in November, followed the popular practice in long-term forecasts of using several scenarios. One involves global policymakers moving to limit atmospheric CO2 concentration to 450 parts per million, in order to limit to 50 per cent the probability of average temperatures rising 2 degrees or more.
The problem for fossil fuel companies is that could limit their ability to utilise all their reserves. Read more
This is the most awesome chart we’ve seen since Lisa’s Starbucks tax graphic: Goldman Sachs comparing the attention given to climate change, the eurozone crisis, and Justin Bieber. Read more
There is dystopian financial innovation and there is financial innovation for dystopia.
Here’s an idea from an Asian Development Bank study into dealing with costs from climate-induced migration (H/T Artemis). The future costs of millions moving from affected areas, infrastructure damage estimates, etc, remain highly uncertain. So…
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A global climate deal to extend the life of the Kyoto treaty and establish the parameters for negotiating a new pact by 2015 will provide a fresh stimulus to the world’s floundering carbon markets, according to bankers and analysts, reports the FT. Carbon prices have plunged to record lows in recent weeks as Europe’s emissions trading scheme, the world’s largest, has been hit by eurozone uncertainties and fears of an oversupply of carbon credits. Other carbon market analysts welcomed the salvaging of the Kyoto treaty, noting that some countries in Durban had threatened to try to kill off the carbon offset market created under the treaty if the conference rejected its extension. Negotiators agreed to new market mechanisms to put a price on carbon, though many details were left undecided, and it is far from certain the agreement to agree will amount to anything, explains the Guardian. Read more
The US, backed by Saudi Arabia, is refusing to sign off on a flagship global climate fund, the FT reports, days ahead of an important UN climate summit. The fund is one of the few measures to emerge from seven years of talks on how countries should share the burden of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, which risk raising global temperatures to dangerous levels. At the same time, the price of carbon permits in the European Union, whose members are virtually the only wealthy countries willing to offer conditional backing for a new phase of the Kyoto pact in Durban, crashed to record lows of €7.80 on Thursday, — in part due to eurozone debt crisis, but a UBS report claiming the schem was not working also unnerved investors. Read more
International scientists have presented fresh evidence into the debate over global warming, saying that climate change is “undeniable”, in the first major piece of research since the “Climategate” controversy, the FT says. The research, headed by the US National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration, is based on new data not available for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report of 2007, which has been attacked by critics.
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Forget equities, forex and even fixed income, emissions trading is where it’s at currently.
As a bid battle rage for EcoSecurities, the Intercontinental Exchange has just picked up a 4.8 per cent holding in Climate Exchange, the dominant carbon trading exchange in Europe. Read more
As if things couldn’t get much worse, the banking crisis is also exacerbating global warming.
The below chart, from the European Climate Exchange (via Hellasious at Sudden Debt), shows how. Read more
1Bernanke weighs in on robot wars; brings Keynes for backup
2About China's capacity to absorb more capital
3Secret liquidity and Scottish independence
4Spain's awful unemployment
5Pump up, debase
Show more6S&P 2,100, by Goldman Sachs
7Everlasting credit, the long view
8Buyback to enrich
9Apple Operations International, facts (?) du jour
10Collateral crunch-counting gets sophisticated
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