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TBLI Radical Truth Podcast
Its Time for a New Finance Paradigm in Development /w Arthur Wood
The current chasm between the rhetoric of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the capital available for development leads to why a new financial paradigm is now needed.
UNCTAD projects that we are now 20% below where we started in 2015 - ergo we have spent 3.2 trillion to have gone backwards.
The context cannot be ignored: the twin pillars of demographics – ageing populations in the West/China with substantive unfunded liabilities in health and pensions on the one hand and the pincer of youth populations in the developing world on the other hand – exacerbate instability.
The existential threats of world resource usage now estimated by the World Resources Institute at 1.7 times the planet’s ability to replenish. Arthur Wood is leading authority on New Financial paradigm that addresses UNSDGS.
Speaker: Arthur Wood - Founding Partner, TOTAL Impact Capital
Climate crisis driving exponential rise in most extreme wildfires
Scientists warn of ‘scary’ feedback loop in which fires create more heating, which causes more fires worldwide
The climate crisis is driving an exponential rise in the most extreme wildfires in key regions around the world, research has revealed.
The wildfires can cause catastrophic loss of human life, property and wildlife and cause billions of dollars of damage. Scientists say this is climate change “playing out in front of our eyes”.
The analysis of satellite data showed the number of extreme fires had risen by more than 10 times in the past 20 years in temperate conifer forests, such as in the western US and Mediterranean. It has increased by seven times in the vast boreal forests in northern Europe and Canada. Australia was also a hotspot for these devastating fires.
The scientists also found that the intensity of the worst wildfires had doubled since 2003, and that the six years with the biggest numbers of extreme fires had all occurred since 2017. On average across the globe, extreme wildfires have more than doubled in frequency and intensity over the past two decades.
The researchers also warned that the rise in the huge fires was threatening to create a “scary” feedback loop, in which the vast carbon emissions released by the fires cause more global heating, which causes more fires.
The new research helps resolve an apparent paradox, in that global heating has driven an unambiguous rise in hot, dry fire weather, but the area burned by wildfires has fallen. The researchers said that most fires were small, started by humans, caused relatively little damage and may be declining due to expansion of cropland and cuts in crop waste burning. Including all fires in global analyses therefore obscured the rapid rise in the most intense and destructive wildfires.
“The fingerprints of climate change are all over this rise,” said Dr Calum Cunningham at the University of Tasmania, Australia, who led the new study. “We’ve long seen model projections of how fire weather is increasing with climate change. But now we’re at the point where the wildfires themselves, the manifestation of climate change, are occurring in front of our eyes. This is the effect of what we’re doing to the atmosphere, so action is urgent.”
Cunningham said there were very significant increases in extreme wildfires in the conifer forests of the American west: “That’s concerning, because there’s a lot of people there living in very close proximity to these flammable vegetation types and that’s why we’re seeing a lot of disasters emerge.”
He added: “The concerning thing, especially with the really carbon-rich ecosystems, boreal forests, that are burning intensely, is that it’s threatening to create a feedback effect.”
The research, published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, analysed data from Nasa satellites that pass over the Earth four times a day. The researchers identified the 0.01% most extreme wildfires, measured by the energy released in a day, giving a total of almost 3,000 events.
They include extremely destructive recent wildfire seasons in the western US, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Indonesia, Siberia, Chile and the Amazon. One region that did not suffer disproportionately was the eastern US, despite being heavily forested in places. This may be due to different tree species that are less prone to drying out, said Cunningham.
Dr Mark Parrington, at the EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (Cams), said the research showed the “changing climate is leading to clear observed increases in extreme wildfires” outside the tropics and in regions and ecosystems that have not frequently experienced wildfires in the past. High northern latitudes were heating at double the global average and this was where the biggest increases in extreme wildfires had been taking place, he said.
Parrington said the new research and his work at Cams were likely to be underestimating the actual intensity, as the satellites are unable to record data for full days and the fires can be obscured by thick smoke or clouds.
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A group of young people just forced Hawaiʻi to take major climate action
The historic agreement comes two years after 13 youth plaintiffs sued the state Department of Transportation.
The government of Hawaiʻi and a group of young people have reached a historic settlement that requires the state to decarbonize its transportation network. The agreement is the first of its kind in the nation and comes two years after 13 Hawaiian youth sued the state Department of Transportation for failing to protect their “constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment.”
The settlement, announced last Thursday, requires the department to develop a plan and zero out greenhouse gas emissions from all transportation sectors by 2045. The agency is also required to create a new unit tasked with climate change mitigation, align budgetary investments with its clean energy goals, and plant at least 1,000 trees a year to increase carbon absorption from the atmosphere.
“It’s historic that the state government has come to the table and negotiated such a detailed set of commitments,” said Leinā‘ala L. Ley, a senior associate attorney at Earthjustice, one of the environmental law firms representing the youth plaintiffs. “The fact that the state has … put its own creativity, energy, and commitment behind the settlement means that we’re going to be able to move that much quicker in making real-time changes that are going to actually have an impact.”
According to a press release from the office of Hawaiʻi Governor Josh Green, the settlement represents the state’s “commitment … to plan and implement transformative changes,” as well as an opportunity to work collaboratively, instead of combatively, with youth plaintiffs, “to address concerns regarding constitutional issues arising from climate change.”
“This settlement informs how we as a state can best move forward to achieve life-sustaining goals and further, we can surely expect to see these and other youth in Hawaiʻi continue to step up to build the type of future they desire,” Green said in a statement.
The 13 teenagers who brought the suit, Navahine v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation, have cultural practices tied to the land. They are divers, swimmers, beachgoers, competitive paddlers, and caretakers of farms and fishponds. Many are Native Hawaiian. In the lawsuit filed in 2022, they alleged that the state’s inadequate response to climate change diminished their ability to enjoy the natural resources of the state. Since they filed, at least two plaintiffs were affected by the Lāhainā wildfire, the deadliest natural disaster in the state’s history.
Hawaiʻi has been a leader in recognizing the effects of climate change. The archipelago is battling rising sea levels, extreme drought, and wildfires among other climate calamities. In 2021, it became the first state in the nation to declare a “climate emergency” and committed to a “mobilization effort to reverse the climate crisis.” But the non-binding resolution did not translate directly into statewide transportation policies that reduced greenhouse gas emissions, according to the youth plaintiffs.
Between 1990 and 2020, carbon dioxide emissions from the transportation sector increased despite advances in fuel efficiency, and now make up roughly half of all greenhouse gas emissions in the state. The plaintiffs argued that the Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation is largely to blame. Instead of coordinating with other agencies to meet the state’s net-zero targets, it has prioritized highway construction and expansion. The agency operates and maintains the state’s transportation network in such a way that it violates its duty to “conserve and protect Hawai‘i’s natural beauty and all natural resources,” the plaintiffs noted.
Other similar constitutional climate cases are pending across the country. Our Children’s Trust, a public interest law firm that represented the Hawaiian youth with Earthjustice, has also brought cases against Montana, Alaska, Utah, and Virginia on behalf of young people. Ley said Hawaiʻi is a “great model” for other states to follow. “This settlement shows that these legal obligations have real effects,” she said.
The settlement requires the state transportation department to meet a number of interim deadlines and to set up a decarbonization unit. The agency has already hired Laura Kaakua, who was previously with the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources, to lead the unit. Ley said that they plan to monitor every report the agency publishes, submit comments, and educate their young clients on how they can stay involved.
“Often in the climate field, young people feel betrayed by their government,” Ley said. “But this settlement affirms for these young people that working with the government can be effective and that this is a way that they can make a difference in their lives and in the world.”
Source
Joe Biden’s Climate Law Has Created More Than 300,000 Clean Energy Jobs
Donald Trump wants to gut the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides more than $369 billion in clean energy incentives.
WASHINGTON ― U.S. companies have created more than 300,000 clean energy jobs since President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in August 2022, according to a detailed new analysis from an environmental advocacy group.
Climate Power, a left-leaning organization focused on combating climate change, has been tracking public announcements of clean energy jobs from the private sector since the law’s passage. As of May 31, it found that U.S. companies have announced or moved forward with projects accounting for more than 312,900 new clean energy jobs for electricians, mechanics, construction workers, technicians, support staff and others.
Other researchers have projected the law will create more than 5 million clean energy jobs over the next decade. Both Climate Power and E2, a group of business leaders who advocate for environmental polices, have noted that Republican-led congressional districts benefited the most from the bipartisan law in its first year.
The Inflation Reduction Act, which provides more than $369 billion in clean energy incentives, is one of Biden’s major accomplishments as president. It is also considered the most significant action Congress has ever taken on clean energy and climate change.
Climate Power also just released new polling on clean energy and climate issues, and found that a top concern among voters is Donald Trump’s stated plans to gut the law. The former president and presumptive 2024 Republican nominee criticized the Inflation Reduction Act last month at a campaign event in Wisconsin. At a rally in September 2023, Trump claimed that Biden’s electric vehicle mandates would “spell the death of the U.S. auto industry.”
Earlier this month, Climate Power led a letter to congressional leaders with more than 300 clean energy business leaders from 42 states, urging them to resist any efforts to weaken the Inflation Reduction Act. House Republicans are currently using the 2024 appropriations process to push for cuts to the law’s climate and infrastructure investments.
“Repealing the clean energy provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act would be nothing short of an economic and national security disaster,” the business leaders warned.
Trump recently met with oil and gas executives and asked them for $1 billion for his campaign ― in exchange for dismantling Biden’s climate regulations if he wins the election in November. Senate committee chairmen have since launched an investigation into Trump’s apparent quid pro quo with oil and gas companies.
Trump reportedly made even more promises to oil industry executives at a fundraiser last month. A campaign spokesperson declined to answer The Washington Post’s questions about the fundraiser, instead saying that “Trump is supported by people who share his vision of American energy dominance to protect our national security and bring down the cost of living for all Americans.”
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This coal-heavy rural co-op utility is buying its first solar plants
Colorado-based Tri-State will soon serve half its customers’ electricity needs with renewable energy, thanks to new Inflation Reduction Act policies.
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, one of the largest rural cooperative utilities in the U.S., is bringing the energy transition home to its massive western service territory. It’s acquiring its first large-scale solar power plants as it prepares to shift away from its current dependence on coal power.
Tri-State generates and transmits power to 41 member cooperatives, which retail to 1 million customers in rural Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Nebraska (four states, despite the name). The customer base spans 200,000 square miles, more land than the entirety of California, with an average density of just five customers per mile of power line. Just a few years ago, two member cooperatives quit Tri-State to seek cheaper, cleaner power elsewhere. Since then, Tri-State has rolled out a series of clean energy commitments that it says will deliver 50 percent renewable electricity by the end of 2025, up from 33 percent in 2023.
The cooperative announced last week it will buy the forthcoming Axial Basin Solar, a 145-megawatt project in Moffat County, Colorado, and Dolores Canyon Solar, a 110-megawatt project in Dolores County, Colorado. Both projects are still under construction, but they are slated to deliver power by late next year. Tri-State also signed three new power purchase agreements from solar plants that will come online by the end of this year.
Within days of that announcement, Tri-State also reported that electricity was flowing from the largest third-party solar project it has contracted for thus far, a 200-megawatt site developed by Origis Solar at the former Escalante Station coal-fired power plant in New Mexico. The cooperative also filed an innovative proposal with federal regulators to collaborate with its members that wish to generate clean energy for themselves locally.
“In the past several months and years, Tri-State has been a very significant leader in the cooperative space in identifying ways to bring the benefits of clean energy to their members, and use the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act to a maximum degree,” said Uday Varadarajan, a senior principal at climate think tank RMI who tracks rural cooperative decarbonization. (Canary Media is an independent affiliate of RMI.)
This embrace of the energy transition was by no means guaranteed. America’s cooperative utilities, which deliver about 12 percent of the country’s electricity but serve 56 percent of its landscape, were at serious risk of getting left behind by the clean energy transition. The U.S. incubated its renewables industry with tax credits, which don’t do much good for the many federal, municipal, or cooperative utilities that generate power as not-for-profit corporations, and thus owe little to the IRS. Many cooperatives also signed very long-term contracts, which left them committed to paying for coal plants even after they might’ve wanted to switch to cleaner, cheaper alternatives.
Those conditions are changing now, thanks to the landmark climate policies passed in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Chief among them is a “direct pay” option that lets nonprofits access the same generous clean energy tax credits as their for-profit peers — even with little to no tax burden. Once Tri-State’s leadership saw clarity on the tax rules, they decided this was the time to strike.
“Not-for-profit cooperatives simply could not take advantage of those [renewable tax credits] because we did not have the tax liability to offset,” said Lee Boughey, vice president of communications at Tri-State. Now, though, he added, “We are pursuing the maximum amount of funding available for cooperatives.”
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EU-regulated ‘sustainable’ funds invest £14bn in biggest polluters
Investigation finds funds touting ethical credentials include fast fashion labels and fossil fuel companies
Fast fashion labels, fossil fuel companies and SUV-makers are present in EU-regulated “sustainable” funds that tout their ethical credentials in their names, the Guardian and media partners can reveal, with $18bn (£14bn) of their investments going to the 200 biggest polluters.
Investors hold more than $87bn (£68bn) in funds that disclose under environmental and social sections of EU sustainable finance rules while including some of the biggest emitters of planet-heating gas, an analysis of data from the last quarter of 2023 shows. About one-fifth of the $87bn investments come from funds that also market themselves using environmentally-friendly terms.
Campaigners have called for tighter rules on labelling, arguing that the current system confuses investors and means ordinary people unwittingly contribute to climate breakdown.
“Pension savers and the general public are being misled when it comes to sustainable finance,” said Lara Cuvelier, a sustainable investment campaigner at Reclaim Finance.
The investigation, led by Voxeurop in partnership with the Guardian and other media partners, identified the 25 biggest polluters in each of the eight most carbon-intensive sectors and tracked investments from funds that disclose under the EU’s sustainable finance directive.
The bulk of investments into the 200 biggest polluters came from funds classified under article 8, which promotes environmental or social goals, with a further $2bn coming from funds classified under article 9, whose main objective is sustainable investment.
The regulations were not designed for marketing purposes but the classifications are often used to showcase a financial product’s environmental credentials. This month the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and European banking and insurance watchdogs called for sweeping reforms to the system to tackle greenwashing.
“Status as ‘article 8’ or ‘article 9’ products have been used since the outset in marketing material as ‘quality labels’ for sustainability, consequently posing greenwashing and mis-selling risks,” the watchdogs said. They called instead for simpler product categories that are clearer to investors.
Campaigners have criticised the scale of the misuse. The analysis found that $11.7bn of investments into the biggest polluters came from funds whose name included “ESG” – environmental, social and governance – while $1.1bn came from funds whose names included climate-specific words such as “clean”, “transition”, “net zero” and “Paris”.
The latter two terms refer to the Paris climate agreement that world leaders signed in 2015 to try to stop the planet from heating 1.5C (2.7F) above preindustrial levels by the end of the century – a task that entails slashing pollution fast to hit net zero emissions by 2050. Despite this, the top 10 recipients of EU-regulated green funds include fossil fuel companies drilling for more oil and carmakers selling ever bigger vehicles, the analysis found.
“Europe’s biggest green portfolios are just the same dirty companies, repackaged as sustainable,” said Xavier Sol, the sustainable finance director at the campaign group Transport and Environment.
“We need private capital to accelerate the green transition rather than hinder it,” he added. “Only investments earmarked for green activities should be given a sustainable label.”
The ESMA adopted an updated set of guidelines last month that prohibits funds with significant fossil fuel investments from marketing themselves as green. The rules, which will come into effect later this year, are not legally binding, and national regulators can choose to ignore them.
Cuvelier said regulators had so far only shown investors the carrot, and not the stick. “We’re seeing now that it’s not enough,” she said.
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