Green Lights Jan. 23: Top stories
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 looks at what’s being talked about over the champagne and cheese fondue at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. Mark Hulbert examines investor motivation for having assets in sustainable funds. Bill Sternberg says the electric bill is due and it will impact the November elections. Have a great weekend and please subscribe to support our climate finance reporting.
. . . . At Davos, 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. David Callaway writes that 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.
. . . . 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.
. . . . During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump made a lot of promises. One particular pledge stood out for its specificity and implausibility: Trump repeatedly vowed to slash energy costs by 50%. That hasn’t happened: Residential electricity prices in the United States have increased by 12.7%. Bill Sternberg looks at how Trump’s failure to deliver has left him and his pliant Republican allies vulnerable as they head toward November’s elections, which Democrats are trying to make about “affordability.”
. . . . 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.
. . . . 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. There are about 93 potential host locations. But if countries don’t change their climate policies, that number could be cut in half, researchers say.
More greenery . . . .
Threat to survival: Antarctic penguins have radically shifted their breeding season (The Guardian)
Brrrrrr: How climate change is threatening the future of Winter Olympics (The Independent)
Watch your step: How weather, climate change and human presence are taking their toll on hiking trails (Euronews)
Food crises: Climate change could put over 1 billion people at risk by 2100 (European Commission)
They’re coming for us: Climate Change is Starving Mosquitos (Popular Mechanics)
The Hulbert piece on greenwashing motivations is facinating. That study showing investors dont actually care if sustainable funds deliver enviromental impact is brutal but makes sense. People want the social signaling benefit of "ethical investing" without doing homework on efficacy. It's performative alignment rather than outcome-driven allocation. Same pattern you see with carbon offsets where just buying credits feels like progress regardless of actual ton reduction.
Excellent analysis, it's so telling how much AI dominated the Davos conversations over actual climate action.