Green Lights April 4: Top stories this week
Don't miss a single story from the best of Callaway Climate Insights.
. . . . Welcome back to Green Lights. Here’s our roundup of the best of Callaway Climate Insights. This week, David Callaway puts tariffs, stocks, the outlook for the energy sector, Europe’s response, and Larry Fink in perspective. Mark Hulbert explains how boycotts can be more effective than divestment. We’re watching the news for you. Have a good weekend and please subscribe to support our climate finance journalism.
. . . . The global collapse in stocks this week — entirely predictable by all but one man — will be particularly harsh on the renewable energy industry, but also is spreading pain to the traditional energy business just as the economy needs it most. David Callaway writes that the idea that Big Tech will need abundant energy — including renewable energy — to power fleets of new data centers to contend with the coming AI revolution, has been the lynchpin of the stock market’s bull case for the past three years. If this theme is beginning to unwind, for whatever reason, then tech valuations will need to dramatically come down and the market’s current levels will become the norm.
. . . . Of all the post-truth, surreal, dystopian ideas to spring from the frothing anti-globalist maw in Washington in the past 10 weeks, “Liberation Day” may be the most inaccurate and least impactful to ever grace the White House Rose Garden. At least for climate investors. Even the poorly named Inflation Reduction Act actually achieved what it said it would, while creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the meantime.
. . . . For years, debate has raged among climate investors about the effectiveness of divestment of a company’s stock, and whether would send a stronger message to management than would a product boycott. But the astonishing impact of a political boycott of Tesla products in the past two months, writes Mark Hulbert, answers that question once and for all. Even with Tesla shares down since Inauguration Day, it was the protests at Tesla dealers and boycotts of its products in Europe and parts of the U.S. that actually caused it.
. . . . Five years after calling shareholders to battle with the cry that “climate risk is investment risk,” BlackRock founder Larry Fink didn’t even mention climate change in his annual shareholder letter this week. But he still found a way in this tense, reckless Trump war on climate to tout the benefits of clean energy and decarbonization. Using China as an example of an economy moving toward energy transition . . . .
. . . . As the U.S. retreats from the global climate stage and cuts grants to U.S. projects sustainable projects, Europe is stepping up to show that the fight to decarbonize economies is still alive and well. See what French cosmetics company L’Oreal and French energy giant TotalEnergies are doing.
. . . . Like a fire racing ahead of efforts to extinguish it, weather and catastrophe losses are running ahead of the ability to manage them, and insurers are having trouble sustaining their business because they’re not getting the right rates. But proponents are betting that AI can provide more accurate estimates of property-level risk for weather calamities than the estimates provided by traditional models.
More greenery . . . .
Close your eyes, hold on: U.S. stock market news this week (Reuters)
Top insurer warns: Climate crisis on track to destroy capitalism (The Guardian)
Central Asia: Suffers ‘bonkers’ heatwave fueled by climate change (The Financial Times)
Edison CEO: It’s ‘certainly possible’ utility sparked Eaton fire. But climate change made it worse (Los Angeles Times)
Lessons from Norway: Melting Glaciers Reveal Clues to Climate Adaptation (Columbia Climate School)
You've got to love it, Trump's Bear Market... For those of us who have spent a lifetime minimizing overseas purchases and buying locally and climate friendly, oh well... I don't think much will change for me.