If you think about 4 short years ago, the President of the US talked about no need for the the US to sign the Paris Accord on Climate Change. The President and many in his cabinet believed climate change was debatable and could be ignored. During the COVID we have seen pictures and results that the environment was improved with the shutdown, which simply means we all have an effect on climate change. Very few people believe that the economy should stay shut in and fewer people drive vehicles and factories do not make goods, however the air over China was much improved during its shutdown.

The oil giants including Exxon Mobil which for a long time help fund the science to cause doubt on if climate change was a thing or not, joined the biggest oil company in the world, Aramco, China’s CN
PC to set goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In an article by Ron Bousso of Reuters, the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) set targets which the oil companies is achievable but will allow them to stay in business. The OGCI said the group’s collective carbon intensity would be reported annually with data reviewed by EY (Ernst and Young) as an independent third party.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, there were growing number of funds including Norway’s Soverign Fund which decided not to invest in bonds and stocks of oil and gas companies because of climate change. If the data shows the OGCI is lowering carbon in the atmosphere, then the funds can buy stock and bonds again. Similar to most transactions in the stock market, price and access to capital play a significant factor in decision making process, this is a reason most large corporate concerns have policies to reduce greenhouse gas and it is the right thing to do.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.