A new beginning for Callaway Climate Insights
Why your support will lead to greater climate finance journalism from around the world
(David Callaway is founder and Editor-in-Chief of Callaway Climate Insights. He is the former president of the World Editors Forum, Editor-in-Chief of USA Today and MarketWatch, and CEO of TheStreet Inc.)
SAN FRANCISCO (Callaway Climate Insights) — Next week, Callaway Climate Insights begins a new chapter in its nascent journey, much like the evolution of climate investing itself.
At the end of the day on Monday, Feb. 8, we’ll flip the switch on a subscription model for our coverage and data, and ask for support from our growing number of readers as we expand our daily coverage to include more interviews, more company and startup profiles, and many more insights on the news as it happens.
Those who have already signed up to our founders rate, for $349, will notice from the beginning a special relationship with me and our team, including priority access to our team and our take on the news, and to upcoming events and interviews. A small gift will also make its way toward you as a sign of our thanks for your special support.
You will be free next year to roll over your founder’s payment into a regular annual payment at whatever the current rate is at that time, or to stay at the founders rate, which will never rise. To start, the annual rate will be $249 a year, but a monthly rate of $25 is available for those who prefer to space it out.
As someone who is buffeted like you with subscription requests, and/or demands, I understand why some of you might be on the fence. So for the next week, ahead of our start, we’ll discount the annual rate by 20% to $200. I hope you’ll take advantage of it.
Group rates and student rates are available upon request.
With your support, we aim to grow into a 24/7, climate finance analysis leader, with news and data to support our reasoned insights, access to CEOs and politicians who are making the decisions to transition the world from fossil fuels. And most important, to the entrepreneurs and startups whose creativity and sense of purpose are leading the movement into industries such as electric vehicles, energy efficient buildings, and renewable forms of energy.
In three weeks, on Feb. 23, we will have a special webinar with European Union Climate Commissioner Frans Timmermans, led by our European bureau chief, Stephen Rae. As it is our first, it will be open to all readers, with those under the founders rate able to send questions for Timmermans in advance. Read more about the webinar.
We are setting up a portfolio of some 50 environmental, social, and governance stocks that we will follow closely for you, from the electric vehicle SPACs and the battery storage plays to the growing wind and solar securities to the transition opportunities, such as General Motors (GM).
So far this year, we’ve brought you analysis of President Joe Biden’s rapid foray into climate orders and the who’s who behind his growing climate team. We’ve posted analysis of the European Union’s challenges as it navigates Brexit and a Covid recovery with ambitions green intentions.
We’ve looked at ESG opportunities in Latin America and profiled one of renewable energy’s public pioneers, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. We’ve examined the pros and cons of fossil fuel divestment and the systemic risk of stranded assets.
We have interviews with a list of several fund managers scheduled, from the U.S. to Hong Kong. And we’ll be closely watching China, the world’s largest polluter with the U.S., for next steps in its pledge to go carbon neutral.
This year, 2021, as we hopefully defeat Covid, the largest economic recovery since the great financial crisis begins. The implications for investors, entrepreneurs and executives, as well as low-income communities and those in carbon-heavy jobs that power the world, could not be more crucial.
We will be there with you, helping make sense of everything along the way and pointing ahead to what we can expect to come. With your support, we will grow our journalism at a time when journalism has never been more important, or more challenged. Thank you for considering us.
Cheers.
— David A. Callaway
More insights below. . . .
Don’t forget to contact me directly if you have suggestions or ideas at dcallaway@callawayclimateinsights.com.
. . . . While the U.S. is still mostly talking about it, there’s a whole lot more motion across the ocean in Europe for divestment of fossil fuel assets. Following news last week that Europe now generates more power from renewables then fossil fuels, two major divestment announcements came out — one by government and the other by private enterprise — to be rid of oil and gas assets. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world, has sold its entire portfolio of companies focused on oil exploration and production, reports Bloomberg. The assets, worth about $6 billion in 2019, were fully dumped at the end of 2020, said Trond Grande, the fund’s deputy chief executive. The significance, aside from the fact that Norway’s wealth fund used to be widely known as the Oil Fund, is how quickly it divested. Many companies have said they will divest over a five-year period, but the Norway fund dumped a $40 billion position in less than a year. Across the North Sea in London, Aviva Investors, one of Britain’s biggest asset managers, announced that it will divest from a list of 30 large oil, gas, mining and utilities companies that do not meet climate change targets. Aviva, which manages about $458 million in assets, is a big shareholder in oil giants such as Shell and BP. . . .
. . . . The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), has shelved a last-minute Trump move to protect oil, natural gas and firearms manufacturers from being rejected for loans. The OCC, reports TheHill.com, announced Thursday that it would wait to publish its “Fair Access” rule in the Federal Register until it can be fully reviewed by a new Comptroller, preventing it from taking effect until President Biden’s as-yet-unnamed nominee assumes office. It is seen as improbable that the pick would OK the rule, which has been loudly condemned by Democrats and came after many top banks have backed away in recent years from financing oil and gas drilling projects and firearm makers. . . .
News briefs: Inspectors slam China’s energy watchdog over pollution failures
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Inspectors slam China’s energy watchdog for punting on pollution
MIT to bang industry heads in search for green solutions
Prepared for the ‘pause’: Energy bigs stockpiled drilling leases
Schumer: Use Defense Dept. moolah to whip warming