The Climate Nexus finance newsletter delivers a weekly update that looks ahead to the big stories and players at the intersection of climate change, finance, regulation, clean energy, and oil and gas.
Finance Newsletter | April 16, 2024
Exxon’s mask off
ExxonMobil’s latest proxy statement reads more like a battle cry against its own shareholders than a corporate disclosure document.
Finance Newsletter | April 9, 2024
Mad men or bad men?
A complex web of boardroom allegiances might be coloring the advertising industry’s environmental commitments in shades of gray.
Finance Newsletter | April 2, 2024
With Liberty and justice for oil
Liberty Energy Inc. and Nomad Proppant Services spearhead lawsuit against SEC’s climate rule, revealing deep ties with right-wing efforts to challenge environmental regulations.
Finance Newsletter | March 26, 2024
Tantrums are bigger in Texas
Texas doesn’t understand the potential financial detriment of shunning ESG strategies.
Finance Newsletter | March 19, 2024
SEC & the cities
Lawsuits to the right, lawsuits to the left.
Finance Newsletter | March 12, 2024
Who loses the most from climate change?
Climate change is worsening inequality by imposing the greatest impacts on the poorest and most vulnerable.
Finance Newsletter | March 5, 2024
It’s been a long time coming
Climate risk transparency for corporate America is here.
Finance Newsletter | February 27, 2024
Will fossil fuels force an SEC flip flop?
News broke last week that the SEC’s climate disclosure proposal was rumored to be significantly weaker than the initial draft.
Finance Newsletter | February 22, 2024
SEC climate risk rule (finally) imminent
Widespread speculation about what’s in the SEC climate risk disclosure rule can only mean one thing: the measure is close to advancing.
Finance Newsletter | February 13, 2024
Shake it off(sets)
Aiming to appease critics of her nonstop private jet use, Taylor Swift said she bought double the necessary carbon offsets for her ongoing tour.
Finance Newsletter | February 6, 2024
BoA says sike
Bank of America’s policy change not only undermines global efforts to combat climate change but also sends a damaging message to its clients, suggesting a tacit endorsement of new investments in fossil fuel assets.
Finance Newsletter | January 30, 2024
You gotta fight for your right to proxy
Investors are decidedly not happy about Exxon’s lawsuit against two shareholders who proposed a climate resolution, highlighting growing tension between corporate interests, investors, and regulators.
Exxon ‘sue’per resistant to climate action
Finance Newsletter | January 23, 2024
With climate crisis impacts ramping up, corporate America is diverging on how to address them—and whether to talk about them at all.
Finance Newsletter | January 16, 2024
Reframing ESG, defending DEI
After 2023’s right-wing outrage at companies over ESG investing policies, some business leaders are rethinking their approaches.
Finance Newsletter | January 9, 2024
New year, new SEC rules?
Words like ‘stalled’, ‘delayed’, and ‘postponed’ dominated headlines regarding the SEC’s climate risk and ESG regulatory agenda –– an incomplete agenda by any measure.
Finance Newsletter | December 19, 2023
2023 wrapped + 2024 outlook
The conversation around sustainable investing, climate-related financial risk, and emissions disclosure reached a fever pitch this year
Finance Newsletter | December 12, 2023
SEC delays and interest rate remedies
It looks like investors will have to wait until next year for the SEC’s long-delayed climate risk disclosure rule.
Finance Newsletter | December 5, 2023
Hillary’s hunch, Carney’s conundrum
Creative insurance solutions are drawing the attention of Hillary Clinton, who called for insurance industry reforms at a COP28 panel on Sunday.
Finance Newsletter | November 28, 2023
Climate summit or oil bazaar? COP kicks off with controversy
COP28 is already mired in controversy due to allegations that the UAE, the host and a leading oil producer, is using the event to negotiate oil and gas deals.
Finance Newsletter | November 20, 2023
Climate cash & fossil fuel freebies
Industrialized countries “look likely” to have fulfilled their 2009 commitment to provide $100 billion annually in climate finance to developing nations.
Finance Newsletter | November 13, 2023
Anti-ESG in its flop era
Despite a “red wave” of backlash against the use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics by GOP politicians, a Bloomberg Intelligence survey indicates that global investors and executives are largely acting as if those efforts will fail.
Finance Newsletter | November 6, 2023
Feds eye insurance, investors eye oil mergers
The Treasury Department, two U.S. senators, and a national group of state regulators sought information last week to determine climate impacts on the insurance industry.
Finance Newsletter | October 30, 2023
Banks get fresh guidance on climate, lending discrimination
Banking regulators updated the Community Reinvestment Act last week and introduced foundational climate-related financial risk principles for the biggest banks.
Finance Newsletter | October 23, 2023
Regulatory ease-up?
The European Union said it may delay some key elements of its new rules around corporate sustainability reporting, citing a need to keep Europe competitive.
Finance Newsletter | October 16, 2023
Inflation bites, Citi exposed
NY regulators deny requests from renewable energy developers to hit consumers with billions in additional costs for large-scale projects.
Finance Newsletter | October 2, 2023
Climate change is burning a hole in your wallet
After a significant legal win in Texas for President Biden’s ESG rule and new climate-related disclosure legislation in California, the outlook for sustainable investing seems to have improved substantially in the past month.
Finance Newsletter | September 25, 2023
BFD week for ESG, climate regs
Governor Gavin Newsom said he’d sign both the state’s global-leading climate risk and emissions disclosure bills and the Treasury Department announced new Principles for Net-Zero Financing and Investment.
Finance Newsletter | September 18, 2023
Golden State sets new bar
California Governor Gavin Newsom said Sunday he’ll sign landmark legislation requiring companies to disclose a host of information, including how much they pollute.
Finance Newsletter | September 11, 2023
Insurance for the 1%
Turmoil continues in the insurance market, with California lawmakers scrambling last week to cut a deal enticing insurers to remain in the fire-prone state while not skyrocketing rates for homeowners.
Finance Newsletter | September 5, 2023
UAE bets big on carbon
Voluntary carbon markets shrank for the first time in at least seven years, after an investigation into credits derived from protecting forests showed that the vast majority were worthless.
Finance Newsletter | August 28, 2023
Fed forgets climate risk
The Fed’s annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole passed without mention of climate change by Chair Jerome Powell, despite this year’s focus on structural shifts in the global economy and a summer of climate-related extremes and economic disruptions.
Finance Newsletter | August 21, 2023
Climate-driven inflation: olive oil edition
It might have been fun while it lasted, but anti-ESG funds have lost their steam. With just $2.42 billion under management, anti-ESG assets are currently over 100 times smaller than funds that integrate ESG factors.
Finance Newsletter | August 14, 2023
IRA’s first birthday
The Inflation Reduction Act—or the “Manufacturing Renaissance Act”—turns one this week. Over the past year, we’ve seen an uptick in investment in an already growing clean energy industry in the United States.
Finance Newsletter | August 7, 2023
Republicans downgrade America
The U.S. economy’s recent credit downgrade from AAA to AA+ by Fitch Ratings is a stark indication of the real economic fallout from the GOP’s assaults on democracy.
Finance Newsletter | July 31, 2023
Private equity stuck in Stone Age
Despite myriad sustainability targets and ESG reports, only two of the 15 largest European and North American private equity firms have policies that restrict investments in fossil fuels.
Finance Newsletter | July 24, 2023
Insurance giants cry poor while fueling fire
Insurance companies are apparently in financial trouble and need to raise rates and weaken price gouging protections in high-risk states like California. Not so fast, say the New York Fed.
Finance Newsletter | July 17, 2023
Big oil ghosts climate commitments
Despite extreme weather and previous commitments to reduce emissions, major energy companies have been quietly backtracking on their climate change promises.
Finance Newsletter | July 10, 2023
An ESG summer
Barbie and Oppenheimer won’t be the only blockbusters this summer. House Republicans are gearing up for an anti-ESG crusade in July.
Finance Newsletter | June 26, 2023
The anti-ESG circus is coming to This Town
July is shaping up to be a big month for ESG-related hearings in the House Financial Services Committee. House Republicans released an interim report last week targeting ESG metrics, climate risks, big asset managers, shareholder proposals, proxy voting, and authority of regulators including the SEC.
Finance Newsletter | June 12, 2023
Insurance industry doublespeak
Legislators launched an investigation into seven insurance companies that continue to invest in and insure various fossil fuel projects.
Finance Newsletter | June 5, 2023
Uninsurable nation
Major insurers are withdrawing from the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance, prompted by backlash over ESG issues in the US and fears regarding potential antitrust lawsuits.
Finance Newsletter | May 22, 2023
Bad news at big banks
This year’s Annual General Meetings of the six major US banks have revealed a concerning disparity between the financial risks associated with climate change and the banks’ current investment decisions.
Finance Newsletter | May 15, 2023
Bicoastal battles over ESG
Lawsuit in NY and legislative pressures in CA illustrate public pension funds are becoming a battleground for the direction of ESG investing.
Finance Newsletter | May 8, 2023
House sets first ESG hearing
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, whose members include right-wing culture warriors Jim Jordan, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, will hold its first hearing on sustainable investing Wednesday.
Finance Newsletter | May 1, 2023
Fed says it f-ed up, but not on climate
When supervisors did identify vulnerabilities, they did not take sufficient steps to ensure that Silicon Valley Bank fixed those problems quickly enough.
Finance Newsletter | April 24, 2023
Carlyle’s climate impact/venture’s net zero news
The Carlyle Group is once again in the news, and no, that’s not just because they’re having trouble raising funds.
Finance Newsletter | April 17, 2023
Shareholders target banks, far-right targets shoppers
Following this month’s contentious and exclusionary RBC shareholder meeting, more major bank annual general meetings are on tap. TD Bank, which expanded its fossil fuel financing more than any other Canadian bank last year, is set to hold a vote on numerous climate-related resolutions on Thursday.
Finance Newsletter | April 10, 2023
Hopes of reform blossom at the World Bank
The World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings start today, and climate change is high on the agenda, alongside how to make the banks more responsive to the needs of developing countries, many of which face intertwined debt and climate crises.
Finance Newsletter | April 3, 2023
Indigenous delegation descends on RBC annual meeting
Members of the Wet’suwet’en Indigenous delegation are traveling to Saskatoon, Canada for a press briefing and panel ahead of the annual general meeting of the Royal Bank of Canada on April 5th.
Finance Newsletter | March 27, 2023
Credit Suisse’s climate consequences
Before merging with UBS, Credit Suisse became a key player in the debt-for-nature market, which aims to help developing nations alleviate their debt in exchange for environmental protection.
Finance Newsletter | March 20, 2023
UN notes cash crunch, Biden wields veto
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s latest report, released today, will be the last such report for about 5-7 years.
Finance Newsletter | March 13, 2023
SVB is a climate story (really)
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has big implications for how banks and regulators deal with climate risks.
Finance Newsletter | March 6, 2023
CERAWeak
CERAWeek began today, the “preeminent annual gathering of fossil fuel billionaires and their enablers in government, finance, insurance, and consulting who lead the way in polluting our Gulf Coast communities while destroying the global climate.”
Finance Newsletter | February 27, 2023
There are some things money can’t buy
…for everything else, there’s Mastercard, apparently, as the Biden administration banks on former payment-processing CEO Ajay Banga’s expertise to bring forth much needed World Bank reform
Finance Newsletter | February 21, 2023
World Bank Refresh?
World Bank Chief David Malpass is out. So, who’s next? An ideal candidate wouldn’t deny the overwhelming evidence of climate change.
Finance Newsletter | February 13, 2023
Fed climate fight
The Fed’s pilot climate scenario analysis faced criticism as experts pored over the details of how the central bank plans to assess climate risks.
Finance Newsletter | February 6, 2023
Shell shenanigans and trade tangles
Shell, which just booked record profits, is facing additional scrutiny from the SEC after Global Witness filed a complaint that the company misled investors by overstating how much it was investing in renewable energy.
Finance Newsletter | January 30, 2023
Big oil buyback backlash
Chevron prompted backlash with massive share buybacks last week – acquiring $75 billion of their own stock in a record purchase.
Finance Newsletter | January 23, 2023
ALEC split on ESG, doubt in Davos
Dissension in the ranks amongst ALEC’s board as it voted to pull its model ‘Energy Boycott’ legislation from the organization’s website for additional policy review
Finance Newsletter | January 17, 2023
Billion-dollar boycotts
New report shows banks and investor members of GFANZ continued to support fossil fuel expansion after committing to achieve net zero by 2050
Finance Newsletter | January 9, 2023
WEF, WBG, WTF…
The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum begins next week in Davos, Switzerland, with climate change, energy, and ESG on the agenda
Finance Newsletter | December 19, 2022
2023 lookahead
We saw huge price spikes in oil and gas, driven by an invasion few thought would happen. Some progress on international climate finance. And the term ESG moved from the boardroom to the political arena
Finance Newsletter | December 12, 2022
Big Oil gets blasted
Republican staff on the Senate Banking Committee released a report last week continuing their efforts to marginalize sustainable investing
Finance Newsletter | December 5, 2022
BlackRock Bank Shot & Frivolous FERC Fun
A last minute loss and damage deal salvaged a disappointing COP27, as an agreement was reached to establish a long overdue finance fund
Finance Newsletter | November 21, 2022
Small COP win, ESG and PE lose
A last minute loss and damage deal salvaged a disappointing COP27, as an agreement was reached to establish a long overdue finance fund
Finance Newsletter | November 14, 2022
Culture wars & COP
Republicans made it clear the SEC is in their post-midterm elections crosshairs regardless of the final results
Finance Newsletter | November 7, 2022
Money trees
The midterms are a day away, and if the polls are right and Republicans take the House, things are bound to get even more heated around ESG.
Finance Newsletter | October 31, 2022
COP27 – Nile Delta
COP27 begins next week, and negotiations will feature a showdown over money and responsibility between developed and developing nations
Finance Newsletter | October 24, 2022
BlackRock damned both ways, banks peace out
BlackRock and Vanguard told the UK government they are not planning to halt the financing of new fossil fuel projects
Finance Newsletter | October 17, 2022
Bad bets from big banks
Some very large banks have been trying to back out of their climate commitments (or “quiet quitting” as Bloomberg puts it)
Finance Newsletter | October 11, 2022
Munich Re rewinds, banks face scrutiny
The annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank kicked off Monday, with climate finance and an emerging debt crisis on top of the agenda
Finance Newsletter | October 3, 2022
Markets + mayhem
Hurricane Ian is a tragedy for the people of Florida – where less than half of homeowners in designated floodplains have flood insurance
Finance Newsletter | September 26, 2022
Big banks ghost, Carlyle has to DTR
Last week, major US banks including JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America threatened to leave GFANZ
Finance Newsletter | September 19, 2022
Private equity flunks, pension funds fight
Fourteen State Treasurers, managing the pension for millions of people, hit back against the far-right’s anti-ESG efforts
Finance Newsletter | September 12, 2022
Big Crypto Energy
The crypto world had an eventful week, starting with the SEC’s Gary Gensler declaring it time for crypto firms to register with the agency
Finance Newsletter | September 6, 2022
IRA cash & anti-anti ESG
First Solar said last week it’s spending $1.2 billion on a new panel manufacturing plant in the Southeast US