Beyond Neoliberalism: Toward a Trade Agenda for People and the Planet

CCPA senior trade researcher Scott Sinclair's presentation to the conference, "Beyond Neoliberalism: Toward a Trade Agenda for People and the Planet," which took place at the Impact Hub in Ottawa on October 30, 2019.

As Director of the CCPA's Trade and Investment Research Project, Scott has written widely on the impacts of trade treaties on public services and public interest regulation. He is the co-editor(with Ethan Earle and Manuel Perez Rocha) of "Beyond NAFTA 2.0: A Trade Agenda for People and Planet."
The "Beyond Neoliberalism" conference was co-organized by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Trade Justice Network, with support from Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung-New York (U.S.).

Climate change writing on the wall for investments

Andy Gregory of the Independent reports that climate breakdown could render investments held by millions of people “worthless”.

Investments and climate change

This warning is from the outgoing governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney.

England’s central bank has previously suggested that while £16tn of assets could be wiped out by climate change, companies at the forefront of efforts to curb emissions could be handsomely rewarded.
“There will be industries, sectors and firms that do very well during this process because they will be part of the solution,” he told The Guardian in October. “But there will also be ones that lag behind, and they will be punished.”1

Climate risk analyst Karl Mallon concludes in an article by Erica Alini of Global News

Policies and divestment

comments that data on exposure to flood risk is already driving decisions about whether to issue mortgages in some cases.

 Over time, Mallon sees areas where getting a mortgage will become very difficult. The risk for those properties is that they’ll become hard to sell and eventually decline in value, he added.2

The BlackRock company, in a report by Joanna Partridge said it intended to play an active role in solving the climate crisis.

BlackRock direction

A fundamental reshaping of finance may make continuing investment in fossil fuels less secure and may strand assets of the fossil fuel companies.

 The company said it intended to play an active role in solving the climate crisis: “BlackRock does not see itself as a passive observer in the low-carbon transition. We believe we have a significant responsibility – as a provider of index funds, as a fiduciary, and as a member of society – to play a constructive role in the transition.”3

CBC News and the Montreal Times report that 90% of Encana shareholders have approved a name change and the former Encana company's headquarters move to U.S. The Calgary-based company will be known as Ovintiv Inc.

Encana declaring itself American is a gut punch for Alberta. It says a corporate domicile in the United States will expose it to increasingly larger pools of investment in U.S. Index funds and passively managed accounts, as well as better align it with its U.S. peers.4

The winners and losers in investments based on energy are being sorted out by analysts of climate change.

References

1	(2019, December 30). Climate change could render assets 'worthless', Bank of .... Retrieved January 14, 2020, from https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-finance-assets-worthless-mark-carney-bio-divestment-a9263861.html
2	(n.d.). What Australia's fires could mean for insurance and real estate .... Retrieved January 13, 2020, from https://globalnews.ca/news/6376312/australia-fires-home-insurance-mortgages-property-values/
3	(2020, January 14). BlackRock says climate crisis will now guide its investments .... Retrieved January 14, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/14/blackrock-says-climate-crisis-will-now-guide-its-investments
4	(2020, January 14). CBC News - MontrealTimes. Retrieved January 14, 2020, from https://www.montrealtimes.news/90-of-encana-shareholders-approve-name-change-companys-hq-move-to-u-s-cbc-news/

Climate emergency is altering how investors view the long-term

Joanna Partridge of The Guardian reports that the world's largest fund manager, BlackRock, CEO Larry Fink says climate crisis will now guide its investments.

Changing investment emphasis

He predicts fast reshaping of global finance. In his annual letter to chief executives, the BlackRock boss, Larry Fink, writes that the climate emergency is altering how investors view the long-term prospects of companies. “Awareness is rapidly changing, and I believe we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance.” Fink’s statement marks a step change at the US investment firm. In his 2019 annual letter, Fink said his overriding duty was to make customers money.

BlackRock identifies several new measures in its investment approach, such as lowering its exposure to fossil fuel companies, which has been a major demand by environmental protesters. These include: “Making sustainability integral to portfolio construction and risk management; exiting investments that present a high sustainability-related risk, such as thermal coal producers; launching new investment products that screen fossil fuels; and strengthening our commitment to sustainability and transparency in our investment stewardship activities.”
The company said it intended to play an active role in solving the climate crisis: “BlackRock does not see itself as a passive observer in the low-carbon transition. We believe we have a significant responsibility – as a provider of index funds, as a fiduciary, and as a member of society – to play a constructive role in the transition.”1

A fundamental reshaping of finance may make continuing investment in fossil fuels less secure and may strand assets of the fossil fuel companies.

References

1(2020, January 14). BlackRock says climate crisis will now guide its investments .... Retrieved January 14, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/14/blackrock-says-climate-crisis-will-now-guide-its-investments

Australia’s bushfires and mitigation of climate change

Erica Alini of Global News reports on what Australia’s fires could mean for insurance and real estate in Canada.

Source: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/6693/production/_110495262_gettyimages-1151121024.jpg 

Climate risk analyst Karl Mallon, in a recent report from his firm, Climate Risk, projects that 720,000 homes, or five per cent of Australia’s housing stock, will be uninsurable by 2100 as coverage becomes unavailable or prohibitively expensive.

 Canada is not immune.
“The warmer it is the longer the fire season,” University of Alberta wildland fire professor Mike Flannigan told the Canadian Press. “The warmer it is the more lightning you see.”
For every degree of warming, the number of lightning strikes goes up by about 12 per cent, he said. Lightning usually causes more than half of the wildfires in Canada.
“We’re going to see a lot more. Not every year, but on average we’re going to see a lot more fire, a lot more smoke,” Flannigan said.1

Bill McKibben, author of “Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?,” comments that as the world’s leading coal exporter, Australia is burning down its own house. Now Australia is suffering, harshly, the early effects of climate change. It turns out that its unique physical features are remarkably susceptible to the global warming that’s now in its early stages. The Great Barrier Reef has been damaged by several bouts of severe bleaching from hot ocean water. The enormous kelp forests that ringed Australia’s southern coasts have been all but wiped out. And now fire has come in a way it never has before.

 In other words, if Australia really were a planet it would be quickly, all by itself, destroying its climate. It can’t blame the destruction on others; in any moral calculation, Australia has done this to itself. Which is not to say individual Australians themselves are to blame. As elsewhere, the fossil fuel industry has done all it can to manipulate political systems: The election that brought Morrison to power saw one coal baron spend more money on campaign ads than the country’s major political parties combined. (The same coal baron, Clive Palmer, is also building a full-size working replica of the Titanic, if you like metaphor overload). And of course, the Australian political discussion is poisoned by its native son Rupert Murdoch, who owns most of the country’s newspapers and uses them to—well, you’ve seen Fox News.2

In a statement regarding Australian bushfires, the Australian Academy of Science is resolute that the response to the bushfires must extend beyond the immediate and essential need to rebuild and recover. Everything, including urban planning; building standards; habitat restoration; biodiversity and species preservation; and land, water and wildlife management will need careful and measured consideration.

 We must further improve our ability to forecast changing environmental threats and continually improve climate modelling predictions. We must improve our understanding of fire behaviour and other adverse weather events, and we must continually develop new technologies, practices and behaviours to assist our nation to respond and adapt to, manage, and mitigate against such extreme events.
All the while, Australia must take stronger action as its part of the worldwide commitment to limit global warming to 1.5° C above the long-term average to reduce the worst impacts of climate change.3

Australia unfortunately may be literally blazing the trail in the response of insurance companies, mortgage lenders, to the over production of GHG from burning coal on the planet.

References

1	(n.d.). What Australia's fires could mean for insurance and real estate .... Retrieved January 13, 2020, from https://globalnews.ca/news/6376312/australia-fires-home-insurance-mortgages-property-values/
2	(2020, January 9). What if Australia Were Its Own Planet? | The Nation. Retrieved January 13, 2020, from https://www.thenation.com/article/australia-fire-climate-change/
3	(2020, January 10). Statement regarding Australian bushfires | Australian .... Retrieved January 13, 2020, from https://www.science.org.au/news-and-events/news-and-media-releases/statement-regarding-australian-bushfires

Some climate answers from Katharine Hayhoe

In an interview with The Guardian, Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University, contributor to more than 125 scientific papers, prize winner for her science communication work and Stephen H Schneider award for outstanding climate science communication, is quoted saying 'A thermometer is not liberal or conservative'.

Important Answers

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/106a4c5513099a9d357810d3494de5255bf0dbee/0_59_7793_4676/master/7793.jpg?width=1125&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=de43c03a32ddfae6ac60efedada8e4e6

She responds to the questions What is the best way out of the climate crisis? What policies would make a difference?

 The most important thing is to accelerate the realisation that we have to act. This means connecting the dots to show that the impacts are not distant any more: they are here and they affect our lives. It also means talking about solutions. The technology and knowledge are there. The economics already make sense. In Texas, where I live, the biggest military base, Fort Hood, switched last year to renewables because they were cheaper than natural gas. And finally, it means weaning ourselves off fossil fuels, which is challenged by the fact that the majority of the world’s richest companies have made their money from the fossil fuel economy – so the majority of the wealth and power remains in their hands…1

Later in the interview she is asked: What’s the role of global finance? Can money managers, shareholders and multinationals exert pressure and take positive action in ways that short-termist, vote-hungry politicians seem unable to do?

Yes! In the world we live in, money speaks loudly. Thanks to the growing divestment movement, we have seen cities, universities and entire countries, in the case of Ireland, withdrawing investments from fossil fuel assets. This isn’t only happening for ethical reasons but for practical ones as well. As clean energy continues to expand, those assets could become stranded. When money talks the world listens..1 

This update points to the direction required to mitigate some of the disastrous and expensive consequences of climate change.

 1(2019, January 6). Katharine Hayhoe: 'A thermometer is not liberal or conservative'. Retrieved January 9, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jan/06/katharine-hayhoe-interview-climate-change-scientist-crisis-hope

Green Solutions in this new decade

Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood asks what does a Green New Deal look like?

Four pieces of the Green New Deal

The climate crisis requires rapid replacement of fossil fuels by cleaner energy sources.The inequality crisis requires massive redistribution of income and wealth and political power. The New Deal requires genuine reconciliation with Indigenous people. It requires good jobs, vibrant communities and widespread social and economic wellbeing.

 The details matter, of course, and there are many questions that GND advocates have yet to think through or agree on. For example, how can we produce enough electricity to rapidly replace all fossil fuels if we preclude new, large-scale hydro and nuclear projects in our communities? Where will we mine the environmentally-harmful resources necessary to produce lower-emission technologies? Will new, green jobs be good, unionized jobs that are accessible in the places where jobs are needed most?1

We hope the 2020s will be the decade where we get serious about the climate and inequality solutions.

References

1(2020, January 6). The 2020s will be the decade of the Green New Deal - Behind .... Retrieved January 8, 2020, from http://behindthenumbers.ca/2020/01/06/the-2020s-will-be-the-decade-of-the-green-new-deal/

Australian fires, climate and political action

Nerilie Abraman, an investigator at the ARC Center of Excellence for Climate Extremes and an associate professor at the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University, concludes that the catastrophic fires raging across the southern half of the continent are largely the result of rising temperatures.

Source: https://static.scientificamerican.com/blogs/cache/file/6E29B90E-E7D9-46AF-9DC660AAA45BF510_source.jpg?w=590&h=800&EFE3D1D5-0F10-44A8-A2A29309DDAF3513

 The angry summer playing out in Australia right now was predictable. The scientific evidence is well known for how anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are causing long-term climate change and altering climate variability in ways that increase our fire risk. The role of climate change in the unprecedented fires gripping Australia is also well understood by our emergency services. Sadly, though, this summer has occurred against a backdrop in which the Australian government has argued, on the world stage, to scale back our greenhouse-gas-emissions-reduction targets. Our leaders are literally fiddling while the country burns.1

One of the factors driving this long-term loss of winter rainfall is the positive trend in the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). This change is causing the westerly winds that circle the Southern Ocean to shift southward toward Antarctica, causing rain-bearing winter cold fronts to pass south of the Australian continent. The role of anthropogenic climate change in driving this trend in the SAM is also clear in the science.The Bureau of Meteorology has produced a video to help understand one of Australia's key climate drivers, the Southern Annular Mode (SAM).

Ben Piven at Al Jazeera News wonders will youth climate activists see their pleas answered in 2020?

If a climate-driven "act of God" sets off a true financial crisis - with insurance firms unable to stay afloat after unprecedented wildfires and cyclones - political leaders could respond in kind.2

Mark Jaccard, energy economist and adviser to world leaders, known in global climate circles as a leading architect of British Columbia's successful climate struggle, wants to tell the world there is hope.

Storm surge

He admits that in fossil fuel-producing areas of the world like Australia and Alberta, there are many who will remain impossible to sway.

 "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."3

The first step of Mark Jaccard's strategy is to put the immediate effort on two areas that mostly affect a country's domestic markets. Those two areas, energy production and transport — essentially power plants and cars and trucks — are responsible for the majority of most countries' greenhouse gas emissions.

Transition away from fossil fuel

At the same time, that transition will lay foundations that will make later industrial decarbonization easier.

 Because in the long run, getting carbon out of world's atmosphere cannot be completed by a few individuals doing good, it must instead be a project of people using politics to transform regional and national rules about carbon. Jaccard says those regions and countries will then combine to put carbon tariffs on the world's free riders, not a project for 2020.3

Jaccard recommends… donating… to a pro-climate group that can identify and support climate-sincere politicians and point a finger at the majority of those who are "faking it."

References

1	(2019, December 31). Australia's Angry Summer: This Is What Climate Change .... Retrieved January 2, 2020, from https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/australias-angry-summer-this-is-what-climate-change-looks-like/
2	(2020, January 1). Will youth climate activists see their pleas answered in 2020 .... Retrieved January 1, 2020, from https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/youth-climate-activists-pleas-answered-2020-191227161642426.html
3	(2019, December 30). What you can do in 2020 to keep the world from ... - CBC.ca. Retrieved December 30, 2019, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/climate-change-failure-1.5400663