In case you haven’t been paying attention, it’s becoming more and more clear that the horse is out of the barn:  we’ve passed a tipping point.  When you can read this in Forbes, things have changed.

 

“After all the suffering of the pandemic, let’s make investments that will preserve life as we know in this planet and strengthen our economy. Addressing climate change mitigation by helping accelerate the clean energy transition can help do both.”

“As the lessons of COVID-19 take hold, let’s take the next step in ensuring both economic growth and public health by investing in sectors that are not harmful to everything from our respiratory systems to our existence on this planet. The pandemic’s positive legacies will be investments that accelerate the further development of wind and solar energy, and electric vehicles (EVs) to accelerate the transition away from a fossil fuel-based economy.”

“Transitions are always hard for industries as they come with job losses and dislocations, but the fossil fuel industry is a dinosaur, and it may go extinct sooner than we thought…while the fast-falling cost of renewables and electric vehicles continue to not only achieve parity but become cheaper in a growing number of markets, meaning these times offer a window of opportunity to accelerate the inevitable.”

“oil industry with its hand out…is also looking for relief from regulations, including reporting of climate change related emissions. Of all the bailouts currently being considered or underway, propping up the oil and gas industry will provide zero benefits to taxpayers. In fact, efforts to “help” the industry will do more economic harm than good.”

“U.S. oil companies owe $86 billion and the pipeline companies another $123 billion, much of it junk rated debt,  all coming due between now and 2024.”

“The clean energy industry, from energy efficiency to clean technologies like solar, wind and electric vehicles supports about 3.4 million U.S. jobs – 3 times more than the oil and coal industry, combined – and over the last five years has added jobs 70 percent faster than the overall economy.”  

 

If you’ve read this far, there’s more.  The Oxford Review of Economic Policy published the results of survey of the world’s top financial thinkers who agree

 

“Many of the most effective solutions are those that reduce carbon emissions.  That conclusion comes from a survey of more than 200 central bankers, G-20 finance ministers and top academics from across 53 countries, conducted by a group of star economists that includes Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, among others.”

“the top preferences were for policies with major climate benefits such as clean energy research and infrastructure, disaster preparedness, and zero-carbon transportation. In practice, that might mean funding for things like electric vehicle charging stations and grid modernization, coastal rehabilitation, and research grants in areas such as energy storage and carbon capture.”

“The authors fear that unless policymakers keep carbon emissions in mind, the world risks leaping
“from the COVID frying pan into the climate fire.””

Over the years, many people have been skeptical of what I have been talking and writing about regarding how we are warming the planet and what the consequences would be.  And once it became more and more obvious that the scientists have been correct all along the skepticism became a kind of fatalism that we wouldn’t or couldn’t do what was necessary to save the planet.  I held out hope and faith that when the human and economic consequences of NOT doing all that we would be capable of to mitigate (not avoid because there is no avoiding some serious consequences of climate chaos) climate change were undeniable and urgent that our society would make the shift and do it much faster than anyone beforehand would believe.  

Now, the urgency of the climate crisis is sweeping through the economists, central bankers and the largest financial institutions.   Money flow was already beginning to shift fast even before the COVID-19 pandemic.  With trillions and trillions of dollars being dolled out now, the imperative is really taking hold.

Buckle up.  We’re gonna be in for a wild ride.  Change is happening to our lives so much faster than anyone could have imagined just 60 or 70 days ago.  Doesn’t that seem like a long time ago already???  None too soon,  the realization of our predicament is becoming pervasive.  

 

Green Stimulus Supported by G-20 Officials, Central Bankers

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

The world appears to have reached the limit of its tolerance for economic disruption. Even as the novel coronavirus continues to put lives at risk, governments around the world are beginning the process of reopening. More than $7 trillion has been committed to relief efforts just in the past three months, and many more trillions will need to be injected into the global economy in the coming months to help it recover.
With so much at stake, it matters whether governments get bang for their bucks. The world’s top financial thinkers agree: Many of the most effective solutions are also those that reduce carbon emissions.
That conclusion comes from a survey of more than 200 central bankers, G-20 finance minsters and top academics from across 53 countries, conducted by a group of star economists that includes Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, among others. The results were released today in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy.
The authors fear that unless policymakers keep carbon emissions in mind, the world risks leaping “from the COVID frying pan into the climate fire.”
“We’ve already got enough capital stock to take us to 2° [Celsius of warming],” says Cameron Hepburn, professor of environmental economics at the University of Oxford, referring to the target set under the Paris climate agreement. There’s broad agreement in the scientific community that crossing that temperature threshold would unleash irreversible environmental changes that could lead to massive disasters, millions of deaths and a poorer world for everyone. “If we load up another $10 trillion on fossil fuels, we can pretty much kiss Paris goodbye,” Hepburn says.
Most of the money spent so far has gone toward increasing liquidity in global markets, such as direct payment to citizens and loans for businesses, mostly without green strings attached. As governments move beyond providing relief to an economy on pause and begin to set a course for recovery, however, climate objectives may come more into play.Stiglitz and Hepburn, along with colleagues such as Grantham Research Institute Chairman Nicholas Stern, wanted to gauge the zeitgeist on stimulus among the world’s financial thinkers. Among the respondents to their survey were Laurence Boone, chief economist at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development; Sylvie Goulard, deputy governor of France’s central bank; Gus O’Donnell, president of the U.K.’s Institute for Fiscal Studies; and Sandra Eickmeier, senior economist at Germany’s central bank. Many are in a position to exert direct influence over where stimulus dollars wind up.

Their task was to rank 25 different economic policies — many of which were used to boost recovery after the financial crisis of 2008-09 — on four characteristics: how quickly the policy could be deployed, what economic return would it bring for each $1 of public money spent, for how long would it provide returns and how much it would contribute to lowering emissions.

Beyond liquidity measures, the top preferences were for policies with major climate benefits such as clean energy research and infrastructure, disaster preparedness, and zero-carbon transportation. In practice, that might mean funding for things like electric vehicle charging stations and grid modernization, coastal rehabilitation, and research grants in areas such as energy storage and carbon capture.

“COVID-19 recovery packages ought to take broader priorities in mind, making us more resilient in light of a number of other risks and uncertainty — climate change chief among them,” said Gernot Wagner, associate professor at New York University.

Few governments are considering austerity measures this time around — likely because countries like the U.K. that followed the deficit-reduction track the last time around have been hit hard during the pandemic as poorly funded health care systems have come under pressure.

“It’s interesting to see that financial minds are turned toward green policies for economic recovery,” says Maeva Cousin of Bloomberg Economics. “Much more so than in 2009.” The results of the survey bode well as a prediction for the kinds of economic recovery the world is likely to see. But Cousin also warns that politics could come in the way of green recovery in certain sectors of the economy.

Tourism and aviation, for instance, are likely to get bailed out even without green conditions because of the sheer number of people they employ — even though airline bailouts were ranked lowest by survey respondents from both economic and environmental perspectives. Other policies that received little enthusiasm included income tax cuts, liquidity for large corporations and non-green infrastructure spending.

Overall, however, Hepburn is pleased that the wisdom of the crowd largely tilted toward economics policies that are inherently green. “If policymakers can be conscious of the potential to solve two problems with one set of actions,” he says, “then there’s a reasonable chance that they will.” Akshat Rathi, Bloomberg

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