Political Stuff 2

So, this first video is not really political per se, but it touches on all kinds of aspects of Capitalism. Brett Christophers is an economic geographer and professor at the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Uppsala University. He has written extensively on the modern financial sector, the financial management of real economic assets, and the environmental impacts of managing land and natural resources.

Here’s a brief excerpt from around 13:00:

“Recently, in May 2021, the International Energy Agency came out with what I think is an incredibly significant report called “Net Zero by 2050.” They basically said that, for the energy sector—which is obviously at the very heart of the climate problem—to achieve Net Zero by 2050, this is the kind of path it has to take over the next 29 years; from now, it will be 2021, so the next 21 years. For that to be possible, there can be no new approvals for oil and gas field developments or coal mines anywhere in the world from this day forward. None. Zero. To have any chance of hitting Net Zero by 2050.

As I mentioned, I was in Norway a few weeks ago, and over 160 approvals for new oil and gas field development licenses have been approved just in Norway since May 2021. So, no, the governments have not remotely stopped issuing oil and gas field development licenses; they have been showered like confetti around the world since then. The investment world looks at what governments are doing and says, “If governments, which have to be the ones that take the lead, are not serious about this, then why should we be serious about it? If governments are not taking the types of actions that will make fossil fuel investments less profitable and green capitalism much more profitable, then why would we bother with ESG?”

I found this quote to be discouraging in its brutal honesty.

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