SPOTLIGHT
Even as insurers cite climate risk as the reason for dropping out of volatile markets, a new report reveals U.S. insurers held $536 billion in fossil-fuel related assets in 2019. The report, conducted by Ceres, ERM, and Persefoni, found that the top 16 U.S. insurers held more than half of the grand total invested in the fossil-fuel industry. The top two U.S. property and casualty companies, Berkshire Hathaway and State Farm Insurance, owned 44%. These findings emphasize the hypocrisy of insurers profiting from both ends of the climate crisis while leaving many Americans without adequate coverage.
NEWS
- Bloomberg: Bitter Politics Around ESG Investing Obscure Messy Reality | S&P Drops ESG Scores From Debt Ratings After Investor Confusion | Germany Boosts Climate, Chips Fund to €212 Billion in Green Push | UK Warns Businesses to Stay Out of ‘Woke’ Culture Wars
- Bloomberg Law: Ex-Trump Officials Sue Target Alleging Pride Month Investor Risk
- Capital & Main: To Adapt to Climate Change, California Pays the Banks That Are Part of the Problem
- CleanTechnica: Red States, Do You Know That You’ve Benefited More From Climate Funding Than Blue States?
- Climate Home News: Mainstream economists accused of playing down climate threat
- Environmental Finance: Surprise as S&P drop ESG scores from credit ratings
- Fortune: Ratings agency S&P stops grading ESG credit risks | Here’s what large companies are paying board members | Ratings agency S&P stops grading ESG credit risks
- Insurance Journal: Texas Legislature Takes Aim at the Use of ESG-Related Factors by Insurance Companies
- Insurance Post: What the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance’s demise means for the industry
- Investments & Pensions Europe: S&P backs away from ESG ratings
- The Messenger: ESG Twist: Companies Embracing Diversity Become Targets of Activist Investors
- Nasdaq: World Bank says Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ law violates its values
- Pensions & Investments: ESG scores ended by S&P
- Politico: Walking the ‘woke’ tightrope | Is the GOP’s business breakup peaking?
- Responsible Investor: ESG round-up: S&P Global Ratings drops ESG ‘indicators’ from credit rating reports
- Reuters: US business owners seek increased insurance protection amid mounting risks
- Times Standard: Humboldt County supervisors vote to urge legislators to divest from fossil fuels for CalPERS
- The Wall Street Journal: ESG Roundup: Market Talk
- WION: S&P Global abandons alphanumeric ESG scores after investor feedback | World Bank halts approval for new finance projects in Uganda over anti-LGBTQ law
OPINION
- Chattanooga Times Free Press: Climate is now a culture war issue
- Fortune: Daniel Lubetzky: ‘You can’t make big ESG commitments while failing at the basics of kindness’
- Newsweek: The Poor Get Poorer with ESG Investing
- Reuters: How sovereign wealth funds can leverage their capital for social good
- The Wall Street Journal: Why Woke Capitalism Works for Ben & Jerry’s
OPPOSITION
- Cache Valley Daily: State treasurer talks ESG and why people should be concerned
- Daily Mail: GOP finance chiefs demand answers from BlackRock over ESG ‘woke capitalism’ agenda and iffy trades in coal, China, and climate change
- Newsmax: Why BlackRock Chief Larry Fink Came to Hate ESG
- Washington Examiner: S&P drops ESG scale from its debt ratings
SOCIAL
- Will Hild shared a link: BREAKING: S&P Global, one of the largest independent credit rating firms in the world, has dropped ESG scores from its debt ratings, after we exposed ESG for what it truly is: a scam used to force a political ideology onto the people.
- Vivek Ramaswamy shared a video: It’s telling that Janet Yellen is pushing for the US to adopt CBDCs, begging Americans to keep up with the Jinpings. No. CBDCs are just the latest trojan horse of the Great Reset and are a clear path to a social credit system that will permanently embed ESG into our currency itself. The fact is the dollar will be *stronger* if we protect it from digitization.
DATES
- August 23-25: Global Research Alliance on Sustainable Finance and Investment 2023 Annual Conference. Register here.
- August 24-26: The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City 2023 Economic Policy Symposium “Structural Shifts in the Global Economy.”
- September 17-24: Climate Group Climate Week NYC. View list of events here.
- September 20: UN Climate Ambition Summit.