Green Lights May 9: 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 what Pope Leo XIV can do about climate change. He also focuses on Warren Buffet’s record and his successor, as well as Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Plus, don’t miss the news on Tony Blair, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. We hope you have a great weekend. Please subscribe to support our climate finance journalism.
. . . . Much speculation will now be spent on what Greg Abel, Warren Buffett’s chosen successor, will do after Buffett retires at the end of the year. Most of it turns on what Abel will do with the massive cash hoard Berkshire Hathaway has amassed. A dividend or some sort of share buyback, perhaps? Yet, as the energy industry continues to evolve into a more powerful mix of traditional fossil fuels along with renewable energy, and the electricity business resets to accommodate these changes, one of the great opportunities in next-generation value will begin to emerge. It’s hard to believe Berkshire won’t be there.
. . . . What do Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tony Blair and Danny DeVito have in common? For one, they’re on the lineup for Schwarzenegger’s Climate Initiative Austrian World Summit set for June. But Blair stepped in it last week when he said current climate policies were doomed to fail. He was right, but for simplistic, misguided reasons, writes David Callaway in his Zeus column. Advocating for fossil fuel strategies such as carbon removal might please Blair’s current consulting clients in the Middle East, but they should not be done at the expense of political commitments to renewable energy and the reduction of fossil fuels.
. . . . Part of a pope’s remit as leader of the world’s one billion Catholics is to speak truth to power and keep the world’s leaders on the path to the church’s teachings to help the poor. One of the early touch points people will look for, especially Catholics in America, is how Pope Leo XIV handles President Donald Trump, who is vehemently against any measures to fight climate change and views it as a hoax. Here’s to hope.
. . . . Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese led his Labor Party to a second term in office in a national vote over the weekend, which marked the second time in two weeks a pro-climate transition politician won a major election in a historically oil- and gas-focused country.
. . . . Tech companies began latching on to the nuclear idea last year, as it became clear that other forms of renewable energy wouldn’t be adequate to accommodate their needs to build new AI data centers. But don’t tell President Trump that nuclear energy is renewable energy. The White House’s ambition to make the U.S. the data center capital of the world and dramatically boost energy production to meet demand is about to result in a new executive order to speed up the building of new nuclear reactors.
. . . . Judging from the circus in the financial media around a possible takeover of BP Plc BP 3.62%↑ by Shell PLC SHEL 0.53%↑ this week, a bid of more than $100 billion seems inevitable. Judging from the market reaction in their stock prices, it seems shareholders for both would much prefer a jump in oil prices. David Callaway writes that BP shareholders need more than an acquisition from Shell, and they’re showing it.
More greenery . . . .
Closer look 👀: How genetically enhanced crops could help fight climate change (Earth.com)
Need to know?: NOAA ending its "billion-dollar disasters" database (CBS News)
Check, please: If oil companies have to pay for climate change, consumers probably will, too (CalMatters)
Deep breath: Wildfire smoke blamed for thousands of U.S. deaths and billions in damages (Environmental Health News)
And now the good news: Fish door bells, plastic-eating fungi and tree hugging (Euronews)