Climate Action 100+ deploys asset managers of $40 trillion to pressure corporate action on climate

Climate Action 100+ (CA100+), the largest asset manager activist alliance, with more than 450 investor members which collectively manage $40 trillion in assets, has secured climate action commitments from 70% of the 161 targeted companies, which account for the vast majority of CO2e emissions, since the group was organized 2.5 years ago.

BlackRock, which joined CA100+ earlier this year and manages $7 trillion in assets, is now among hundreds of large investors which have committed to work to get the targeted corporations (the ‘systemically important emitters’ accounting for two-thirds of annual global industrial emissions) aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement. These asset managers are now actively driving change at the worst emitter companies from PetroChina to BP, forcing them to make public commitments to reduce emissions from their lines of business.

As the largest investor-to-company climate initiative in history, CA100+ has become the flagship investment industry group demanding that global corporations act on climate change.

Read more by Attracta Mooney at the Financial Times: "Corporate eco-warriors driving change from Shell to Qantas."

Published by Nucleation Capital in Asset manager support, Capital reallocation, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Corporate purpose, Fund sustainability, International support for nuclear, LINKS, Public companies

July 27, 2020

Apocalypse Maybe: Thoughts from MIT’s Kerry Emanuel

National Academy of Sciences member Kerry Emanuel of MIT felt compelled to explain his views on climate change, risk assessments and the debates rekindled by climate deniers and nuclear deniers following the publication of Michael Shellenberger's Apocalypse Never, which bore a review blurb from Emanuel.

Just as it is difficult to have a rational discussion about reducing Covid-19 risks for the broader community when some people are shouting about their right to not wear a mask, the climate debate has been greatly hampered by noisy extremists. Rather than finding any value in the debates about the uncertainties, debates about impacts, or debates about best solutions, Emanuel urges us to "step out of the fray" and take a hard look at the risks. It is worthwhile to invest in mitigating the risks to avert the worst case scenarios and improve on other metrics of health and happiness, just as rational people do with every other type of serious risk they are exposed to.

Read Kerry Emanuel's thought provoking statement published with a foreward by Editor, Bud Ward, at Yale Climate Connections: "Apocalypse Maybe," by Dr. Kerry Emanuel.

Published by Nucleation Capital in 100% Renewables, Anti-nuclear campaign, Brilliant thinkers, Climate change, LINKS, Scientific debate, US competitiveness

July 23, 2020

DNC draft climate platform includes nuclear power

A draft of the Democratic Party's policy platform backs aggressive climate change proposals to reach net-zero emissions as quickly as possible using a technology-neutral approach that values "existing and advanced nuclear" alongside other methods.

The draft language specifically says: “recognizing the urgent need to decarbonize the power sector, our technology-neutral approach is inclusive of all zero-carbon technologies, including hydroelectric power, geothermal, existing and advanced nuclear, and carbon capture and storage.” Methods include challenging "the best and brightest scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs in the world to pursue breakthrough opportunities in . . . direct air capture and net-negative emissions technologies. We will advance innovative technologies that create cost-effective pathways for industries to decarbonize, including carbon capture and sequestration that permanently stores greenhouse gases . . ."

Read more analysis of the platform by Timothy Cama at E&E News: "DNC draft Climate platform more progressive than 2016."

Published by Nucleation Capital in Carbon negative, Climate change, Climate innovation fund, Climate policy, Future of Energy, History Timeline, History-making, LINKS

July 21, 2020

Good Energy Collective seeks to rebuild nuclear’s climate credentials

A new non-profit, Good Energy Collective, has been founded to build the progressive case for nuclear energy as an essential part of the broader climate change agenda. The group, founded by Jessica Lovering and Suzy Hobbs Baker, seeks to develop and advocate for smart, nuclear-inclusive policies that will equip communities to meet their diverse energy needs with the most suitable and diverse energy solutions available, including deployment of advanced nuclear technologies.

Emerging from progressive concerns to give communities the tools to most effectively rout carbon emissions — whose impacts are being felt by the most vulnerable — the founders see opportunities for the new generation of nuclear plants, which are smaller, cheaper, and safer than their predecessors, to fit in with the general movement toward distributed energy, microgrids, and community ownership.

Read the interview conducted by David Roberts with Jessica Lovering and Suzy Hobbs Baker at Vox: "Nuclear power has been top-down and hierarchical. These women want to change that."

Published by Nucleation Capital in Climate change, Climate policy, Environmental support for nuclear, Future of Energy, LINKS, Nuclear innovation, Pro-nuclear campaign

July 7, 2020

Lagarde puts fighting climate into agenda of European Central Bank’s bond program

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, wants to use the €2.8tn asset purchase scheme in the fight against climate change. This marks the first time that the ECB president has committed to “greening” the central bank’s operations, including asset purchases. “I want to explore every avenue available in order to combat climate change,” Lagarde told the Financial Times. “This is something that I hold very strongly.” The move makes the ECB the first main central bank to examine using a flagship bond-buying programme to pursue green objectives.

Read more by Roula Khalaf and Martin Arnold at the Financial Times: "Lagarde puts green policy top of agenda in ECB bond buying."

Published by Nucleation Capital in Brilliant thinkers, Capital reallocation, Carbon emissions, Central bank support, Climate change, Climate policy, Government support, International support for nuclear, LINKS, Nuclear financing

November 26, 2019

UN Environment Programme: Emissions Gap Report 2019

Each year for the last decade, the UN Environment Programme’s Emissions Gap Report has compared where greenhouse gas emissions are headed, against where they should be to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Each year, the report has found that the world is not doing enough. Emissions have only risen, hitting a new high of 55.3 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2018. The UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2019 finds that even if all unconditional Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement are implemented, we are still on course for a 3.2°C temperature rise.
Read more about our emissions challenge at UN Environment Programme: "Emissions Gap Report 2019."

Published by Nucleation Capital in Carbon emissions, Climate change, Climate policy, Future of Energy, LINKS

October 29, 2019

All Pathways to 1.5°C Limit Include Nuclear

Hoesung Lee, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), delivered an address on the opening day of the International Conference on Climate Change and the Role of Nuclear Power, held in Vienna in the second week of October. 2019. He will review the findings of the report released a year ago by the IPCC, which featured four model pathways for limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, the threshold at which most experts believe the worst impacts from climate change can still be avoided. All four model pathways included increases in nuclear power generation by 2050, ranging between 59% and 501%.

To support the low-carbon energy transformation needed to achieve climate change goals, the conference focused on opportunities and challenges for nuclear power development. To this end, organizers brought together representatives of low-carbon energy sectors, international organizations and national experts.

IAEA Acting Director General Cornel Feruta opened the conference. Other prominent speakers included Liu Zhenmin, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs; William D. Magwood, IV, Director-General of the NEA ; Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency; LI Yong, Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization; and senior officials and scientists from 75 countries including Argentina, China, Egypt, France, India, Mongolia, Morocco, the Russian Federation and the United States of America.

“Nuclear power has long made a major contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and currently produces one-third of the world’s low carbon electricity while also supporting sustainable development and fulfilling growing energy demands,” said IAEA Deputy Director General Mikhail Chudakov, Head of the Department of Nuclear Energy. “We are honoured that Dr. Hoesung Lee, one of the world’s leading scientific voices on climate change, is bringing his expertise to this first-of-a-kind conference.”

Read more at the International Atomic Energy Agency, "IPCC Head to Speak at International Conference on Climate Change and the Role of Nuclear Power," by Jeffrey Donovan, August 29, 2019.

Published by Nucleation Capital in 100% Renewables, Advanced Nuclear, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Climate policy, Environmental support for nuclear, Future of Energy, History Timeline, LINKS, Politicians supporting nuclear, Scientific debate, Solving climate

May 6, 2019

Ocasio-Cortez’ Green New Deal Leaves the Door Open to Nuclear

Green New Deal sponsor Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez still has an “open mind” on nuclear energy. “I don’t take a strong anti- or pro-position on it,” the New York Democrat said about nuclear energy in an interview in mid-2019.

While Ocasio-Cortez has an "open mind" on nuclear energy, she differentiates between the decades-old plants in the United States and more advanced technologies under development. Her Green New Deal resolution, which calls for “clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy” to meet 100 percent of U.S. power needs in the next 10 years, “leaves the door open on nuclear so that we can have that conversation,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez, alongside many other progressive lawmakers and environmental groups, is pushing for an expedited U.S. energy transition, showed that she retains an open mind towards getting answers to the typically controversial questions over whether the technology will improve and whether the markets would adopt future generations of nuclear power.

Passing the Green New Deal resolution, she said, “is what will allow us to have these substantive conversations.”

Read more at Morning Consult, "Ocasio-Cortez: Green New Deal ‘Leaves the Door Open’ on Nuclear."

Published by Nucleation Capital in 100% Renewables, Brilliant thinkers, Climate change, Climate policy, Future of Energy, Government support, LINKS, Nuclear innovation, Politicians supporting nuclear

April 6, 2019

Nuclear power can save the world

Some of the smartest thinkers on the planet recognize the potential for nuclear power to be the white knight we need for climate change. Writing for the The New York Times, Nuclear Power Can Save the World, Joshua S. Goldstein, Staffan A. Qvist, and Steven Pinker extol the technology as the fastest way to slash greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonize the economy.

Drs. Goldstein and Qvist are the authors of “A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow.” Dr. Pinker is a psychology professor at Harvard and author of "Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress" and "The Better Angels of our Nature" among many other books.

Published by Nucleation Capital in Carbon emissions, Climate change, Climate policy, Future of Energy, LINKS, Nuclear innovation

October 15, 2018

The Nature Conservancy: The Science of Sustainability

The Nature Conservancy recognizes that nuclear must be part of our clean energy mix. They state in their Sustainability: "In order to both meet increased energy demand and keep the climate in safe boundaries, we’ll need to alter our energy makeup to curtail emissions of carbon and other harmful chemicals. The reduction in carbon-based energy could be offset by increasing the share of energy from renewable sources to 54 percent and increasing nuclear energy to one third of total energy output—delivering a total of almost 85 percent of the world’s energy demand from non-fossil-fuel sources.

See The Nature Conservancy: "The Science of Sustainability" (see the section entitled "A Changing Energy Portfolio.").

Published by Nucleation Capital in Climate change, Climate policy, Environmental support for nuclear, Future of Energy, LINKS, Reduced ecosystem impacts