FOTOTHERM

An 80% weasel coefficient Some activists, recently had a conversation with representatives of  TIAA  to try to persuade them to divest from fossil fuels.  The conversation was mostly cordial, but predictably did not get anywhere. One of the activists summed up the response from TIAA as “a non-response with a weasel coefficient of at least 80%.”  Regarding the weasel coefficient, he also asked:  Can anyone explain to me what “our overarching strategy which targets climate-risk adjusted returns over the long-term” means in plain English?  Well, yes.  Yes I can. Climate risk adjusted returns When an investment manager says she is targeting “climate risk adjusted returns,” she is saying: Climate change is real, and it presents real risks which will impact investment returns. Those climate risks are knowable, and she has useful estimates of how those risks affect companies. She will use that knowledge to make money for her clients over the long term while n...

[...] Business is becoming  a powerful new ally  in the U.S. political battle to stop climate change. Driven by  pressure from environmental groups  and by  the increasingly competitive prices of wind and solar , many companies have  pledged  to power their operations with clean energy. But  the legal and technical complexity of U.S. electricity markets  has stalled corporate progress on their clean power goals. This has prompted companies as diverse as eBay, Mars, IKEA and Walmart to push for public policies that expand the generation of renewable energy in the U.S. and make it more accessible through  mandates ,  incentives  and other  regulations . The hybrid thermo-photovoltaic leading Company The big shots Increased business lobbying for clean energy policies  by the likes of Nestle, Salesforce, Unilever and other large companies has the potential to tip the political scale in favor of a carbon-free ec...