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Big Banks Are "Quiet Quitting" Their Climate Promises
- alasarmas 3y agohttps://archive.is/xVCPL https://archive.is/xVCPL
- gary_0 3y agoYour link doesn't work for me. The article is still blocked.
- richrichie 3y agoPodcast version here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/71CRr8vnJ9YJrdnrZEWOZV?si=DK8YAJDlRmqURga4fsEXfw https://open.spotify.com/episode/71CRr8vnJ9YJrdnrZEWOZV?si=D...
- rendaw 3y agoCouldn't read the article. Of all fields though, I wouldn't expect banks to be big climate affectors in the first place. Is this maybe related to compute costs for trading? Or investing in climate-positive ventures?
- tmnvix 3y agoProbably more to do with not investing in climate-negative ventures.
- rendaw 3y agoI'm getting downvoted, I _presume_ because of not reading the article. Is it expected to read paywalled articles posted here? I'm curious about the context but I'm not going to subscribe to bloomberg to read 1 article every 5 years. I wouldn't have posted this, but I was not expecting any downvotes here...
- Larrikin 3y agoThere are dozens of ways to read the articles. Posting to complain you can't read or even worse posting to complain about the source of something you didn't read is worthless to everyone including the people who didn't read the article
- politelemon 3y ago> There are dozens of ways to read the articles. It is unfair to assume everyone knows the dozen ways. It would be helpful to share some of those. So far none of the alternatives posted are working, so the article should be flagged for removal.
- richrichie 3y agoYou can register at bloomberg.com for a free account and read the article. Do you see a prompt for the same?
- leereeves 3y agoSign up for e-mail spam in exchange for reading one article? No thanks.
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago> Is it expected to read paywalled articles posted here? It's against the guidelines to complain about paywalls in comments.
- hestefisk 3y agoBanks lend to polluters.
- Biologist123 3y agoThis was very good. I’ve been working at the intersection of climate and finance for nearly 20 years, and I would add the following points to augment the story told in the podcast (article available on Apple Podcast). 1. Banks have enormous power to determine what the future looks like. This is exercised via licence to make loans (and issue money) from nothing more than a ledger entry. That loan or ledger entry often dictates the future as without credit projects don’t happen and business operations aren’t viable. 2. On a neutral reading, asking banks to change their practices is a bit like asking Kodak to make digital cameras. Banks are wired for issue of loans using their existing risk analysis tools. Adopting to a new world in which they must onboard new tools to assess climate risk is like asking Nokia to make a good smartphone. 3. On a less neutral reading, banks have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders over and above the well-being of a wider group of stakeholders. Add in that banks are staffed with employees very focused on material and financial gain, so the legal obligations are reinforced with internal cultural expectations. Banks are filled with people who don’t really want to undermine their very lucrative hustle. 4. Banks claim that they need government support and regulatory change to help them make an adjustment and level the playing field to make climate action viable. But they lobby against precisely those statutory changes that are needed. A climate catch 22.
- toast0 3y ago> On a neutral reading, asking banks to change their practices is a bit like asking Kodak to make digital cameras. Banks are wired for issue of loans using their existing risk analysis tools. Adopting to a new world in which they must onboard new tools to assess climate risk is like asking Nokia to make a good smartphone. I don't understand this whole thing. Kodak pioneered digital cameras. Nokia made several good smartphones.
- Biologist123 3y agoMaybe those aren’t the strong examples I believed them to be. My understanding was that both Kodak and Nokia struggled to adapt to the requirements of a new age, which is the point I’m making about banks, that like many businesses, they are not wired for change.
- incomingpain 3y agoAbsolutely correct that they are now quitting these promises. I would go further. Entities which arent banks like blackrock or for that matter countries are also quitting these promises. Recently withdrawing from the United Nations climate alliance. Largely speaking blackrock's move to withdraw from these resulted in massive losses to the "ESG" indexes. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/germanys-climate-efforts-not-enough-hit-2030-targets-experts-say-2023-08-22/ https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/germanys-climat... Germany for example in a major energy crisis had to choose fossil fuels and sign on to multidecade contracts dispelling any thoughts they will continue with climate efforts. Here in Canada, the next election is October 20, 2025 unless they can prove Canada has been invaded by a foreign nation or that there's an ongoing rebellion. They are even still obligated to receive approval from the conservatives(2/3rds vote) to postpone the election. Which I very much doubt will ever happen. Upon winning, the conservatives plan to scrap basically all climate initiatives especially the carbon tax. Though the Canadian part of 'extinction rebellion' which really is just the same people behind the oil blockades in 2020 has asserted they will be forced to be that rebellion to prevent the conservatives from coming to power. I wonder if the threats are legitimate.