patrick.net

Yes I'm invested in coal (hey you make EVs with coal - no so unloved after all eh?)

@mich Thanks, this was indeed a really good read.

What is remarkable is that over the past 30 years, we have emitted far more carbon dioxide than predicted (due primarily to rapid growth in China and other parts of the developing world), and yet temperature change has undershot even the low end of projected increases in mainstream climate models (the leaked 'climategate' emails also revealed consternation amongst the alarmist fraternity about the fact that the climate wasn't warming as much as it should be, and revealed coordinated efforts to obfuscate that fact). Sea level rises have also been far less than was predicted, and despite claims that more extreme weather and famine would befall the earth, catastrophe experience and reinsurance prices have significantly declined over the past 15-20 years, and real food prices are also at record lows. This new data, and prior failures of prediction, suggests that at the very least, alternative perspective should be considered, but the problem is that existing orthodoxy can become so ossified into existing institutional arrangements that, in combination with bad incentives and the 'institutional imperative', responding adaptively to new evidence can prove nigh on impossible.

Patrick says

Exactly! Russian Oiler are not afraid to be oil companies. Continue to built reserves and in 5-10 years will still be producing oil while European companies embarrassed to be oil company. Shell only sits on 7 years of reserves, Russia has been replacing reserves. Long Lukoil low debt level and has almost as much cash as debt.

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/esg-tyranny-editorial/

For the most eye-opening example of the problem, look no further than Sri Lanka. The leaders of the developing island nation sought to cash in on the responsible investing boom, passing a slew of environmental regulations to earn a sky-high ESG score of 98. One of those measures, a 2021 ban on chemical fertilizers, wreaked havoc on a farming-intensive economy. After the ban came into effect, production fell, food prices shot up and tea exports plummeted. From there, things spiraled out of control. A cost-of-living crisis and a sovereign debt crisis culminated in protesters storming the presidential palace and the president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fleeing the country on a military jet. Sri Lanka was promised a green pathway to prosperity on the ESG model. Instead of eco-riches, it got the total collapse of the state. ...

The more important ESG becomes for firms hoping to access capital, the more power goes to ESG rating agencies and other financial institutions. They are free to make arbitrary-seeming decisions with far-reaching consequences. In May, Tesla was dropped from the S&P 500 ESG Index. The reason? Apparently, the world’s most innovative electric car producer’s “lack of a low-carbon strategy.” A curious claim, especially given Exxon still made the cut. “ESG is a scam,” Elon Musk tweeted. “It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors.” Peter Thiel takes a similar view. He has described ESG as “just a hate factory; it’s a factory for naming enemies.”

Thiel is on the money. While investors should be free to make decisions in line with their values, ESG threatens something more sinister: the systematic punishment of wrongthink.

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/esg-tyranny-editorial/

Why ESG is sinister
There’s a long overdue backlash brewing...

Far more damaging than hollow virtue-signaling, though, are the firms who really do walk the walk on ESG. Across the world, people are learning the hard way what it means for capital to be allocated according to the woke verities of a narrow clique of money managers, regulators and rating agencies.

For the most eye-opening example of the problem, look no further than Sri Lanka. The leaders of the developing island nation sought to cash in on the responsible investing boom, passing a slew of environmental regulations to earn a sky-high ESG score of 98. One of those measures, a 2021 ban on chemical fertilizers, wreaked havoc on a farming-intensive economy. After the ban came into effect, production fell, food prices shot up and tea exports plummeted. From there, things spiraled out of control. A cost-of-living crisis and a sovereign debt crisis culminated in protesters storming the presidential palace and the president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fleeing the country on a military jet. Sri Lanka was promised a green pathway to prosperity on the ESG model. Instead of eco-riches, it got the total collapse of the state. ...

Then there are the democratic problems that accompany the rise of this supposedly ethical investing. The more important ESG becomes for firms hoping to access capital, the more power goes to ESG rating agencies and other financial institutions. They are free to make arbitrary-seeming decisions with far-reaching consequences. In May, Tesla was dropped from the S&P 500 ESG Index. The reason? Apparently, the world’s most innovative electric car producer’s “lack of a low-carbon strategy.” A curious claim, especially given Exxon still made the cut. “ESG is a scam,” Elon Musk tweeted. “It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors.” Peter Thiel takes a similar view. He has described ESG as “just a hate factory; it’s a factory for naming enemies.”