New era of war footing for spring banking meetings in Washington
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The Cherry Blossoms in Washington D.C. are the same this month but the focus of the annual spring meetings of global bankers next week are a far cry from the growth and climate themes of just a few years ago. Now it’s all war, energy shortages and downgraded economic outlooks.
While global leaders spend their time these past few weeks trying to guess what outrage President Donald Trump will send their way next, bankers at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which host the meetings of international financial leaders, are left to estimate the impact of the war in Iran.
“Had it not been for this shock, we would have been upgrading global growth,” said Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, in a speech today ahead of the meetings. “But now, even our most hopeful scenario involves a downgrade.”
It was just three years ago that the investing world was looking forward to the arrival of Ajay Banga as the new head of the World Bank, amid speculation he would boost its climate investing around the world. Now his IMF counterpart Georgieva speculates the war will lead to as much as $50 billion in new support from her fund to help repair Middle Eastern economies, on top of the $140 billion in existing investments.
Like most global summits these days, leaders are left simply to gather together and speculate what will happen next, their long-term vision completely eclipsed by the Trump rollercoaster. But Georgieva has set the tone for a week of lowered growth estimates, concern about a banking crisis, and a new era of energy shortages whose impact at this point is simply anybody’s guess.
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Zeus: TACO trade won’t help struggling state climate efforts
. . . . One of the silver linings cited by climate advocates after Donald Trump was re-elected was that no matter how much damage he did to federal environmental efforts, the states would still carry the climate baton, writes David Callaway. A year-and-a-half later, even the most climate-friendly states, such as New York and California, are scaling back their ambitions in the face of soaring energy costs, budget restraints, and rising anti-climate populism in an election year. The pushing back of energy reduction targets and shifting of funds from climate projects to other priorities sets states back years in their efforts and is difficult to reverse. Unlike the popular Trump TACO trade, which was in full effect again this week after the president declared a ceasefire in Iran, policy changes in state and local communities don’t reverse themselves on a dime.
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Candela founder names new CEO for next stage of growth
. . . . Gustav Hasselkog, the entrepreneur who founded growing Swedish electric boat and ferry company Candela Technology AB, said this week he will step aside after 11 years and name a new CEO to manage the next stage of the company’s growth.
Candela said Sofia Graflund will be its new chief executive starting in June, when Hasselkog assumes the role of executive chairman after the company’s annual meeting. Graflund is currently chief strategy officer at Candela, and previously worked at EQT Ventures, an early investor in Candela. She also worked for Swedish battery maker Northvolt and at Heart Aerospace.
Astute readers of Callaway Climate Insights will remember that we took a ride on one of Candela’s speedboats in San Francisco Bay several years ago, and have been closely following the company ever since. It has gone on to become a primary designer of electric ferries and has won several contracts in both Sweden and Norway, which are heavily reliant on ferry traffic. It signed a new contract to supply 20 electric hydrofoil ferries to Norway just this week.
Candela is one of Europe’s most promising electric transportation startups, developing technology to build ferries that save up to 80% of the energy required to power similar diesel vehicles and leave hardly any wakes. A lot of its business is still focused on the Nordic countries, but it has expanded into America as well.
The company has raised more than €129 million ($151 million) to date, from investors including EQT, Ocean Zero LLC, and lately, the International Finance Corp. (IFC) a member of the World Bank Group. Analysts expect Candela to seek an IPO in the next few years.
Editor’s picks: Should fossil fuel ads be banned? Plus, a ‘Jurassic’ El Niño?
Listen to the podcast: Should we ban fossil fuel ads? Amsterdam is about to become the latest big city to ban ads for fossil fuels in order to fight climate change. But are bans a good idea, and do they make any difference? Hear more on the Climate Question podcast from the BBC World Service.
Signs of a ‘super’ El Niño
Forecasters and climate models are signaling a powerful “super” El Niño could develop later this year. USA Today reports a super El Niño — also referred to as a “Jurassic El Niño” by Colorado State University hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach — refers to unusually strong warming of sea surface temperatures across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. That warming can disrupt global weather patterns, shifting storm tracks, rainfall and temperatures for months at a time. The report says it’s not a certainty yet. But multiple long-range models are trending warmer, with some pushing into territory rarely seen in modern records. “El Niño typically brings cooler, wetter conditions to the Southern U.S. and milder winters to the North. While El Niño often suppresses Atlantic hurricane activity, major storms can still make landfall.”
Latest findings: New research, studies and projects
New tool: making climate scenarios work for finance
The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative has introduced a new tool designed to close a critical gap in climate decision making across global finance. ESG News reports the new platform, the Climate Pathways Navigator, offers banks, insurers, asset managers and export credit agencies direct access to the scenario data required to align portfolios with decarbonization targets. Built in collaboration with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), the tool translates complex climate modeling into usable, sector-specific insights. According to the report, the launch comes as financial institutions face mounting pressure from regulators and investors to demonstrate credible transition plans. Without standardized, accessible data, many have struggled to move from commitments to execution. Read more from the UNEP about the Climate Pathways Navigator Tool here.
Words to live by . . . .
“The time is past when humankind thought it could selfishly draw on exhaustible resources. We know now the world is not a commodity, is not a source of revenue; it’s a common good, it’s our heritage. And the consequences of climate change are fully known now — we’re not talking about theories anymore, we’re talking about certainties.” — Former French President François Hollande.