Environment

Aussie climate ambition will restart at ballot box

20 Dec 2021

The $1.4 trln economy has all it needs to be an energy-transition leader, except a proactive government. The 2022 election will change that, making independent, global warming-savvy candidates the kingmakers. Stronger policy also will be lucrative for domestic and export markets.

TSMC can fix Taiwan’s stalled green transition

17 Dec 2021

Referendums on a nuclear power plant and a fossil-gas terminal spotlight the island’s 20% renewables target. Bureaucracy and red tape, though, have held up wind and solar projects. The local chipmaking champion’s voracious appetite for cleaner power offers a much-needed spark.

Rentokil’s latest U.S. gambit looks a stretch

14 Dec 2021

The $15 bln pest control giant is paying a 47% premium for stateside rival Terminix. Rentokil has picked an opportunistic moment to cement its expansion into the U.S. market. But the valuation still looks ambitious for a company notorious for over-eager dealmaking in the past.

Exxon and activists have one point in common

9 Dec 2021

Some of the fossil fuel giant’s investors think the new board isn’t making enough progress on carbon targets and want boss Darren Woods to go. With oil prices above $70, the board can resist most of their demands. But both sides have an interest in keeping investment in check.

Nissan’s green drive hits yellow light

30 Nov 2021

Shareholders booed the Japanese automaker’s plan to invest $18 bln in clean cars over the next five years and make half its fleet electric by 2030. The erstwhile electric-car leader wants to regain ground, but it’s a financial stretch with profit weak and the stock overvalued.

Reliance-Aramco no-deal is sign of the ESG times

22 Nov 2021

A Saudi plan from 2019 to invest $15 bln into the Indian company’s refining arm is being re-evaluated as Reliance’s green ambitions complicate matters for both sides. The impasse reflects the hectic pace of the energy transition, and the cheap capital available to fund it.

Glasgow’s carbon market overhaul is only half done

18 Nov 2021

The U.N.’s COP26 summit agreed tougher accounting standards for emissions credits, a market ex-BoE Governor Mark Carney hopes can swell to $100 bln a year. It’s a step forward, but loopholes remain. Companies that don’t like greenwashing have a strong incentive to help police it.

Australia deserves to pay climate risk premium

18 Nov 2021

Canberra adopted a net-zero emissions target mainly to keep the country from being punished by investors. Its newly released assumptions on electric vehicles, mining and more confirm a lack of seriousness in the plan. Sustained pressure from fund managers could make a difference.

China’s central bank tries brighter shade of green

16 Nov 2021

A new lending programme could, by one estimate, lead to nearly $1 trln of investment in clean energy projects. It’s a bolder policy than from Western peers, and also a clever way to tackle the stagflation dilemma. Runaway stimulus remains a risk, as does misallocated capital.

Breakdown: COP’s bare minimum is still a ratchet

15 Nov 2021

Glasgow’s UN global climate shindig needed to outline a clear path to halve emissions by 2030 and secure way more cash for developing states. It managed neither. Still, the final agreement, and a joint U.S.-China pact, make it harder for companies to delay on climate change.

Viewsroom: GE goes for breakup; COP not out yet

11 Nov 2021

Though Larry Culp’s move to separate the U.S. industrial conglomerate into three parts marks the end of an era, the decision was inevitable, John Foley argues. And the UN climate do kicks off its second week with one step backward. George Hay and Rob Cox check in from Glasgow.

U.S.-China climate pledge adds psychological lift

11 Nov 2021

The world’s two biggest polluters surprised COP26 with a joint statement, albeit one with few new greenhouse-gas cuts. At least it tries to separate global warming from other diplomatic problems, and it should help others set their sights higher. Something is better than nothing.

The Exchange: Bank of America boss Brian Moynihan

9 Nov 2021

With a $2.8 trln balance sheet, BofA is one of the largest banks in the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. Moynihan tells Rob Cox what this means operationally, how the bank is helping “hard to abate” firms to transition, and what it’s like to be back at conferences.

America’s swing senator can save or scorch planet

8 Nov 2021

Joe Manchin effectively controls the fate of global climate policy as a centrist Democrat in a split Senate. He rejected a clean electricity plan; green tax credits may be next. President Joe Biden’s influence over other nations rests on where the coal-state lawmaker comes down.

Capital Calls: Hedge funds, Rogers, Inmarsat

8 Nov 2021

Concise views on global finance: The industry’s assets are above a new threshold, but it’s a business reaching a limit; the head of the Canadian telecom giant has won a court victory; U.S. rival Viasat pulls the UK-based satellite operator into its orbit for a pricey $7.4 bln.

COP background chatter supports Greta’s bad vibes

8 Nov 2021

The young activist declared the global climate shindig in Glasgow a failure at a weekend protest. In public, financiers and policymakers are bullish about the scope of new private-sector pledges to drive decarbonisation. In private, they fret mightily about energy security.

Forget COP26. The world needs COPPER 26

5 Nov 2021

The climate shindig is all about cutting demand for fossil fuels. The required flipside is a 2020s surge in production of metals for all those extra wind turbines and electric cars. Stay tuned for a separate forum in which governments and miners thrash out how that might happen.

Coal’s end will come sooner than Glasgow suggests

5 Nov 2021

Agreements struck at the COP26 summit point to the fossil fuel being a major carbon dioxide source for 20 years or more. But even after a recent rally, the valuations of specialist miners like Peabody and Whitehaven imply the mineral will be around for nowhere near as long.

Viewsroom: Climate and tech shindig dispatches

5 Nov 2021

World and business leaders made some headway in pledges to limit planetary frying during the first week of COP26 in Glasgow, say George Hay and Rob Cox. Also, venture capitalists and startups mingled along the banks of the Tagus in Lisbon with Peter Thal Larsen and Karen Kwok.

Mark Carney is key-man risk for bank net-zero club

3 Nov 2021

Finance firms with $130 trln of assets are pledging green targets thanks to the former BoE governor’s arm twisting. That’s good, but Carney’s job is only half-done while JPMorgan and co decide detailed goals. Were he to head off to run Canada, the momentum might get lost.