Global warming could melt your portfolio
Fortune reports that, "Long-term investors, take heed: Global warming will have a significant impact on the financial performance of companies in your portfolio.
Some companies -- General Electric, DuPont, Cinergy, American Electric Power, BP, Toyota and Honda -- are seriously grappling with the risks and opportunities posed by climate change. They will be better prepared as governments and shareholders focus on the issue.
Many others -- ExxonMobil, Dominion Power, Sempra Energy, Nissan, BMW and Volkswagen -- have been slow to address climate change, and they could put their owners at financial risk."
Fortune further notes that, "The risks posed by global warming aren't only regulatory. There's compelling evidence that world temperatures are rising, glaciers are melting and storms are becoming more fierce. Food, fishing and forestry businesses could all be affected, the report says.
The cost of natural disasters exceeded $225 billion in 2005, up from the previous record of $118 billion in 2004, according to reinsurance giant Swiss Re. A Swiss Re executive is quoted in the report as saying, "Global warming has accelerated from a problem that might affect our grandchildren, to one that could significantly disturb the social and economic conditions of our lifetime.""
That's $225 billion that didn't go towards finding a cure for HIV or breast cancer. That's $225 billion that didn't go towards putting computers in the homes of those on the wrong side of the digital divide. That's $225 billion that didn't go towards paying off the national debt. There's a cost to doing nothing about global warming -- a point not very often made when Exxon's lobbyists claim that it would ruin our economy to clean up the environment. And, while Exxon, Sempra, and BMW reap the profits of global warming, they've managed to externalize the costs, including that $225 billion, to the rest of us.
Additionally, "ExxonMobil was singled out for criticism by Meredith Miller, the assistant state treasurer of Connecticut, because she said the company won't meet with investors to discuss climate change. Last year, nearly 30 percent of ExxonMobil's shareholders supported a shareholder resolution asking the company to disclose its plans for complying with greenhouse gas reductions targets in countries that have adopted the Kyoto Protocol, which regulates emissions.
ExxonMobil . . . opposed the shareholder resolution as
unnecessary . . . ."
The report comes from, and I love this, a group called Ceres; Ceres was the Roman version of Demeter, the Goddess of agriculture and grain. Have you checked your 401k lately? How well-positioned are you to invest in a carbon-constrained world? I'm thinking seriously this year about both thriving and fear. How do we thrive in such a challenging world? Is such a thing even possible? Can investing in companies that take global warming seriously help us to thrive?
2 comments:
Discussing environmental, global warming issues w/ friend last night who told me in Germany you can use as much electricity as you wish, but, and it's a pocket issue, above a certail level your rates go through the roof. Much more than the summer increase for additional usage here, she said.
I need to find out more, but that will have to wait a bit--but makes sense, has a direct effect. Only, of course, it's basically regressive in that those with the most discretionary income feel such a constraint the least. The poor would watch their usage anyway; so the middle gets the hit.
Have no idea how much is at the lower cost.
Yesterday, I mentioned some excellent discussions available on wnyc.org. One, Tim Flannery on his book Weather Makers and the other an underreported news segment on the Leonard Lopate Show--easy to find in archives.
It is looking dire: Our children or grandchildren may see the end of the fauna of the Arctic region as it warms. I would not like to meet a hungry polar bear, but I will miss them in our world.
jawbone
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