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Climate Risk Management

Conoco Philips to use giant chillers to refreeze the ground that climate change is thawing in order to drill for more oil

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 08.19.2020

 

ConocoPhillips, has proposed a large drilling project in northern Alaska, where climate change is causing the permafrost to melt. The company is planning to use chillers called thermosyphons to prevent the ground from thawing underneath key infrastructure, according to an environmental impact statement published last Friday. Melting permafrost could damage ConocoPhillips’ infrastructure, the Bureau of […]

 

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Scientists Attribute Record-Shattering Siberian Heat and Wildfires to Climate Change

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 07.16.2020

 

Siberia’s scorching, 100-degree temperature record made headlines in late June, but it was just the latest spike in a decade of historic heat waves across the Arctic that also set records for wildfires, thawing permafrost and melting sea ice. Such extremes, scientists said, show that Arctic warming is accelerating to outpace all but the most […]

 

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How to Realign Utility Profit Incentives to Support Decarbonization

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 05.25.2020

 

To achieve our climate goals, we’ll need to clean up the power grid while also shifting whole sectors of the economy from dirty fuels to electricity. That two-pronged approach is central to every serious study of decarbonization. A starting place is utilities. To decarbonize, policymakers will need to  fundamentally change how utilities make money. Today, […]

 

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Google Renounces the Oil and Gas Sector

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 05.20.2020

 

Google is generally considered one of the most environmentally conscious large-scale enterprises in the world today, having remained carbon neutral since 2007. However, following a damning Greenpeace report that details how the three big tech companies (Google, Microsoft and Amazon) aid oil and gas exploration by providing tailored AI and cloud solutions, Google has upped […]

 

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2019 U.S. Army Climate Report

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 12.11.2019

 

NOTE: This post is a synopsis of the Executive Summary of the entire 52 page report. The report is well-researched. It’s a comprehensive primer on our climate crisis. And it is sobering, given that it was published by a branch of the US Department of Defense. You can read the entire publication at 2019 Report – […]

 

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End of 2019 IMF Report – Climate and Financial Risk

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 11.28.2019

 

Climate change is already a reality. Ever more ferocious cyclones and extended droughts lead to the destruction of infrastructure and the disruption of livelihoods, and contribute to mass migration. Actions to combat rising temperatures, inadequate though they are, have the potential to drive dislocation in the business world as fossil fuel giants awaken to the […]

 

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Bank Regulators Present a Dire Warning of Financial Risks from Climate Change

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 11.14.2019

 

Home values could fall significantly. Banks could stop lending to flood-prone communities. Towns could lose the tax money they need to build sea walls and other protections.   These are a few of the warnings published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco regarding the financial risks of climate change. The collection of 18 papers by […]

 

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Central Banks Must Address the Climate Crisis

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 11.06.2019

 

Read the entire article at The Financial Times.    Climate change is a financial problem. Insurers stand to lose billions from wildfires raging in California. Banks will suffer as mortgages in big port cities such as London and New York end up under water. Carbon taxes and renewable energy could make oil and gas assets worthless. […]

 

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Money Fuels Our Climate Crisis

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 09.26.2019

 

Editor’s Note: Bill McKibben, climatologist and environmental activist, writes that recycling is good, but if we really want to address the climate emergency soon enough to avoid disaster, banks, insurance companies, pension funds, etc. should divest from fossil fuel companies.   Climate change is a timed test, one of the first that our civilization has […]

 

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UK’s Largest Money Manager Issues Climate Catastrophe Warning

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 04.18.2019

 

The world is facing a climate catastrophe and businesses around the world must address it urgently or face the ultimate sanction for a public company, shareholders who refuse to back them any more. That is not a message from an environmental action group but from the largest money manager in the UK, Legal & General Investment […]

 

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