Climate change falls to earth in Swiss Alps
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Wherever you fall in the spectrum of Davos watchers — from adherent of the globalization-for-good mission to critic of an annual elite business scrum — the one thing most agree on is that the annual World Economic Summit each January at the Swiss mountain resort sets the tone for the business conversation each year.
From that perspective, although a long time coming, the passage of the global elite from decarbonization and climate improvement efforts to domestic energy security and international resource-grabbing has finally been completed this week.
President Donald Trump pounded home his demands for global domination in his speech, arguing Greenland — or Iceland — or anywhere else were better off under American control and that most countries wouldn’t exist without U.S. support. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the old-world order of allies working together, born after World War II, has given way to protectionist power grabs.
And most business leaders wanted to talk AI and rare earths over their champagne and cheese fondue rather than carbon storage or electric vehicles. Only China, of all places, continued to sing the green energy song, inviting other nations to join it as it expands what is real control over energy around the world.
While many pundits this week rang the final death knell for the globalization that Davos had come to represent, investors have long been on the energy security escalator, powering to gains in each of the past three years as AI and the data center arms race drive all sorts of power, especially solar.
The script and the actors may have changed but the story remains the same for green energy as far as investors are concerned. The financial markets, even without the snowy alps and champagne, are a leading indicator after all.
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Hulbert: The root cause of greenwashing
. . . . Financial regulators made huge efforts a few years ago to rein in mutual fund companies from over-promoting the green effects of their sustainable investment funds, a process known as greenwashing. But now a new study finds that green investors for the most part didn’t care about all the new information, writes Mark Hulbert. The study by leading climate academics from four universities found that for most investors, just having assets in a sustainable fund was good enough, whether the assets actually helped improve global warming or not. The authors of the study referred to the preference as a “warm moral glow” that investors might get from holding a fund labeled green or sustainable, Hulbert writes. Greenwashing has faded from style in the past year as more marketers have switched to “energy security” in its place, but markets swing back and forth and when climate investing gets back in vogue, it appears greenwashing will be right there with it.
Thursday’s subscriber insights
New trade era for Canada opens market to China EVs
. . . . One of the Trump era realities for many countries is that they will now start trading more with each other and avoid the U.S. and its tariffs when possible. A ripple effect from that hit last week when Canada and China announced a new relationship that will include bringing up to 50,000 BYD electric cars into Canada each year.
BYD has long coveted the North American market and has made big inroads in Mexico with its less expensive but good quality EVs. The U.S. still has a prohibition on Chinese EVs but Canada relaxed its rules as part of its deal next week, meaning BYD vehicles will be in almost every major market except the U.S.
The deal puts at least a temporary end to seven years of frosty relations between Canada and China after Canada detained a senior executive from Huawei, in part over corporate espionage allegations tied to EV batteries. Those days seem quaint compared to the angst Canada and Europe and other U.S. allies are going through with Trump and his tariffs, producing odd bedfellows.
No sooner did Canada and China announce their trade deal when Ford Motor F 0.00%↑ said it was in talks to put Chinese EV batteries from BYD in some of its hybrid vehicles outside the U.S., a move which would be certain to rankle the executive branch.
In the bigger picture, it means that Chinese EVs and batteries are here to stay on global markets, whether the U.S. shuts itself out or not.
Editor’s picks: The end of the world; plus, Fukushima nuclear plant powers up
Watch the video: In this episode of Weathered from PBS Terra, host Maiya May talks with civilization collapse researcher Luke Kemp and strategic climate risk expert Laurie Laybourn about why high-end warming scenarios are often dismissed as “doomerism,” even though worst-case planning is standard in most fields. We break down how uncertainty in climate sensitivity and political derailment could push warming higher than expected and how climate shocks can trigger cascading failures across food systems, financial markets, and geopolitics. Understanding the climate endgame isn’t pessimism. It’s risk management.
Fukushima reactor restarted
Japan has restarted operations at Fukushima — the world’s largest nuclear power plant — and it is expected to begin operating commercially next month. It’s the first time a reactor at the plant northwest of Tokyo has been in operation since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster that forced Japan to shut down all its reactors, the BBC reports. The decision to restart reactor number 6 at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa was taken despite local residents’ safety concerns, according to the report. The BBC notes that all 54 of Japan’s reactors had to be shut in 2011 after the most powerful earthquake it had ever recorded triggered a meltdown at Fukushima, causing one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. Since 2015, Japan has restarted 15 out of its 33 operable reactors.
Latest findings: New research, studies and projects
Olympic, Paralympic Winter Games under threat
New research into the impact of climate change on snow sports is prompting scientists to urge organizers to make the Olympic and Paralympic Winters Games more weather resilient. The study focused on efforts to work to identify reliable locations for the Winter Games as global warming accelerates. The study continues research from the University of Waterloo, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Innsbruck and the University of Toronto. In that earlier work, the team analyzed the 93 potential host locations where the International Olympic Committee indicated the necessary winter sports infrastructure was already in place. They found that if countries continue with current climate policies, only 52 would remain climate-reliable for the Olympics and 22 for the Paralympics. Daniel Scott, professor in the Faculty of Environment at Waterloo and the lead author on the paper, said in a university news release, “Climate change is altering the geography of where the Winter Olympics and Paralympics can be held. We have to prioritize solutions to the much greater risk facing the Paralympics and explore ways that the One Bid, One City partnership can survive in an era of climate change.”
Words to live by . . . .
“The vast majority of reserves are unburnable.” — Mark Carney, prime minister of Canada.