Green Lights July 18: 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 writes about the unexpected summer climate stock pops, and about how drone use for climate security and weather measurement is going to be bigger than military uses. We hope you’re having a great summer. Please subscribe to support our climate finance journalism.
. . . . Two massive stock pops have burst out in as many weeks. First it was rare earths company MP Materials MP 0.00%↑, and then Lucid LCID 0.00%↑ roared to life yesterday. David Callaway says these market moves can’t be predicted with charts. They don’t come from watching fundamentals. They are simply part of the mysterious chaos that makes markets so attractive to stock investors and occasionally delivers a home run in the event of a big deal that comes along.
. . . . Issuance of catastrophe bonds, a niche financial instrument that allows insurers to dump their environmental risk on investors who bet nothing is going to happen, have hit a record this summer as disasters pile up. And amid floods and fires, the science behind the idea of geoengineering is becoming more mainstream. As our options dwindle, it’s inevitable that we’ll turn to technology to try to change nature. That’s what investors are starting to bet on.
. . . . HSBC joined the parade of global banks leaving the UN-backed Net Zero Banking Alliance this week, one of the last major banks to do so but the first one from the UK. The financial giant said all the right things about remaining committed to its own sustainability ambitions but at the heart of it, the alliance was costing it time and money.
. . . . Drones are in the news this week as a report that the U.S. is unprepared for the type of drone warfare happening in Russia and the Ukraine caused a spike in the small number of public drone stocks, writes David Callaway. But Callaway, (who knows a thing or two about drones because his new novel, Unregulated Militia, is all about how they could be used against the U.S.) says that in reality, drone use for climate security and weather measurement is going to be bigger than military uses. From spreading seeds to fighting wildfires, we have entered a new drone age. Investors have taken notice. Check out some of the drone stocks and upcoming startups.
. . . . The Department of Defense’s $400 million investment in rare earths company MP Materials portends the possibility of a round of strategic investments in minerals and rare earths companies by the administration, which brings us around again to Greenland, writes David Callaway. And it brings Greenland, miners and natural resource opportunities back into focus for investors.
More greenery . . . .
Broken records: Extreme weather now 'normal' for UK (World Economic Forum)
Blame it on extreme weather: Steve Miller Band cancels all upcoming tour dates (USA Today)
Wet weather ahead: Climate change is amplifying extreme rain events in the Northeast (ABC News)
And hotter weather: How climate change fuels wildfires in Europe (Reuters)
FIFA’s World Cup calendar: A fierce reckoning with summer heat (The Associated Press)
Before it’s gone?: Tourism may accelerate the loss of glaciers, coral reefs, Pacific islands, and rainforests (La Voce Di New York)