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Carbon Tracker

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Kvng (talk | contribs) at 15:26, 21 June 2017 (Commenting on submission (AFCH 0.9)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

  • Comment: I am ready to accept this. There is good consensus among AfC reviewers that notability requirements are met. The alleged NPOV issue is relatively mild and editors should be able to resolve it through editing. Despite the history, I beleive wholesale deletion is unlikely. I have contacted Seraphimblade to get creation unblocked. ~Kvng (talk) 15:26, 21 June 2017 (UTC)
  • Comment: Good news: you've improved it so it passes notability guidelines. Bad news: it's not got a neutral tone. Please read up on WP:NPOV and WP:TONE, rectify issues and resubmit. DrStrauss talk 20:45, 9 March 2017 (UTC)
  • Comment: I would accept this but the main space target is protected. The article does not necessarily have to include all the sources to constitute notability; rather their presence is sufficient enough, which seems to be the case for this in my understanding. — Yash talk stalk 02:50, 9 March 2017 (UTC)
  • Comment: Deleted twice before for concerns in our policies and this isn't far from it because the sources still consist of announcements, listings and mentions; we would need all additional major independent news. SwisterTwister talk 17:00, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
  • Comment: Is likely notable but is written too much like an advertisement. ProgrammingGeek (Page! • Talk! • Contribs!) 19:29, 18 December 2016 (UTC)
Carbon Tracker Initiative
TypeNon-profit financial think tank
HeadquartersLondon
Websitewww.carbontracker.org

The Carbon Tracker Initiative is a London-based not-for-profit think tank researching the impact of climate change on financial markets.

The Carbon Tracker Initiative popularized the notion of a carbon bubble, which describes the incompatibility between the continued development of fossil fuel projects and combating climate change..[1][2]

History and work

Carbon Tracker was founded by UK fund manager Mark Campanale, with Jeremy Leggett serving as chairman.[3] The organisation's first two reports - Unburnable Carbon (2011) and Unburnable Carbon (2013) - argued that up to two-thirds of the world's known reserves and resources of oil, coal and gas could not be burned while avoiding dangerous levels of climate change. As summarized by Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf: "The conclusion is quite simple: burning known reserves of fossil fuels is incompatible with meeting the climate targets governments have set themselves."[4]

The Paris Agreement – adopted internationally in December 2015 – aims to keep the global average temperature rise below 2°C of warming, to avoid and reduce some of the most severe risks and impacts of climate change. But this requires carbon dioxide levels emitted in the atmosphere by 2050 to not exceed a "carbon budget" of up to 900 gigatonnes.[5] Drawing on research from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Carbon Tracker's reports showed that the world's reserves and resources of coal, oil and gas, if burned, would emit more than three times this amount: approximately 2800 gigatonnes. This raises the possibility that, by financing the development and production of fossil fuels that might never be consumed, investors are exposed to the risk of "stranded assets", rendered unprofitable by climate regulations and technological alternatives such as renewable energy.[6] Reuters described this idea – that investors were financing a "carbon bubble" – as having become 'part of "the climate change lexicon"; it has formed the basis for warnings about "stranded assets" by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney and inspired groups like Norway's sovereign wealth fund to divest billions in fossil fuel holdings'[7]

Carbon Tracker's subsequent research investigated the implications of lower demand and low-carbon scenarios for the different fossil fuels of fossil fuels against lower demand, price and carbon emissions scenarios[8] [9][10][11]

Mark Carney echoed Carbon Tracker's warning on stranded assets in a 2015 speech to London insurers[12] followed by the launch of a task force on climate-related financial disclosures under the auspices of the Financial Stability Board.[13]

Reports

The Carbon Tracker Initiative's reports include:[14]

  • Unburnable carbon – Are the world's financial markets carrying a bubble? (2011)
  • Unburnable carbon 2013: Wasted capital and stranded assets (2013, joint research with the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics)[15]
  • Carbon Supply Cost Curves series:
    • Carbon Supply Cost Curves: Evaluating Financial Risk to Oil Capital Expenditures (2014)[16], [17]
    • Carbon Supply Cost Curves: Evaluating Financial Risk to Coal Capital Expenditures (2014)[18]
    • Carbon Supply Cost Curves: Evaluating Financial Risk to Gas Capital Expenditures (2015)[19]
  • Lost in Transition: How the energy sector is missing potential demand destruction (2015)[20] [21]
  • The $2 Trillion Stranded Asset Danger Zone: How fossil fuel firms risk destroying investor returns (2015)[22]
  • Sense and Sensitivity: Maximising Value with a 2D Portfolio (2016)[23] [24]
  • Expect the Unexpected: The Disruptive Power of Low-carbon Technology (2017, joint research with the Grantham Institute - Climate Change and Environment at Imperial College)[25] [26]

In the media

In 2012, a Rolling Stone article by writer and campaigner Bill McKibben presented Carbon Tracker’s research on the ‘carbon bubble’ to a wider audience[27][28] The article led McKibben to start a campaign calling for fossil fuel divestment which, as of December 2015, has seen organisations managing over $5.46 trillion committing to partial or total divestment.[29] [30]

Carbon Tracker's analysis has been cited by investment banks HSBC[31], Citi[32] and JP Morgan[33], consultancies such as Accenture[34], and the Dutch Central Bank.[35] It has also provoked a range of responses from major oil companies: ExxonMobil has stated it is 'confident that none of our hydrocarbon reserves are now or will become “stranded.”' [36] Chevron, while admitting that ' certain high-cost assets around the world could be impacted by a hypothetical GHG-constrained case', has similarly argued that the risk of stranded assets is 'manageable'[37]. Different positions have also been expressed by BP [38] and Statoil [39]

References

  1. ^ Jackie Wills, "Carbon Tracker has changed the financial language of climate change", The Guardian, 15 May 2014 (page visited on 8 November 2016).
  2. ^ Katharine Earley, "Carbon Tracker measures oil and coal risk for investors", The Guardian, 30 April 2015 (page visited on 8 November 2016).
  3. ^ "September-October - The Unburnable Carbon Bubble".
  4. ^ Martin Wolf, A climate fix would ruin investors, Financial Times, 17 June 2014, https://www.ft.com/content/5a2356a4-f58e-11e3-afd3-00144feabdc0
  5. ^ Malte Meinshausen, Nicolai Meinshausen, William Hare, Sarah Raper, Katja Frieler, Reto Knutti, David Frame and Myles Allen, "Greenhouse-gas emission targets for limiting global warming to 2°C", Nature, volume 458, pages 1158-1163, 2009.
  6. ^ " At about that time, the carbon budget idea was plucked from academia by Carbon Tracker, a small London think-tank founded by Mark Campanale, one of the city’s first sustainable investment analysts. Applying the research to the world’s coal mines, oil wells and gasfields, the think-tank said that to have even a small chance of meeting the 2C target, only 565 gigatonnes of CO‎2 could be emitted up to 2050. But the known fossil fuel reserves of energy and mining companies were equal to 2,795 gigatonnes of CO2. So if the world ever took serious action to meet the 2C goal, most of those reserves would become “unburnable” stranded assets." Carney on climate: Stranded fossil fuel theory proves potent, Financial Times, 30 September 2015: https://www.ft.com/content/97ba13d4-6772-11e5-97d0-1456a776a4f5.
  7. ^ "From Bangladesh flood map to the Bank of England, a 'carbon bubble' is born". 7 December 2016 – via Reuters.
  8. ^ 'Oil Sands are Biggest Losers From Low Crude Prices: Study', Bloomberg, August 15, 2014, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-08-14/oil-sands-are-biggest-losers-from-low-crude-prices-study
  9. ^ Carbon Tracker Sees $283 Billion of LNG Projects as Uneconomic,Bloomberg, 2015, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-06/carbon-tracker-sees-283-billion-of-lng-projects-as-uneconomic
  10. ^ "New coal mines uneconomic as China demand growth slows: Report", Economic Times, 22 September 2014, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/business/new-coal-mines-uneconomic-as-china-demand-growth-slows-report/articleshow/43135420.cms
  11. ^ "Energy Companies Risk $2.2 Trillion as Climate Goals Cut Demand". 25 November 2015 – via www.bloomberg.com.
  12. ^ Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/622de3da-66e6-11e5-97d0-1456a776a4f5. "wholesale reassessment of prospects, especially if it were to occur suddenly, could potentially destabilise markets," he [Mark Carney] said, echoing warnings from the Carbon Tracker think-tank in London that pioneered the stranded carbon assets idea several years ago. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. ^ Energy Companies Risk $2.2 Trillion as Climate Goals Cut Demand, Bloomberg, 25 November 2015, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-04/carney-backs-effort-for-standard-company-disclosures-on-climate
  14. ^ Brochure, Carbon Tracker Initiative (page visited on 8 November 2016).
  15. ^ Investor Group Presses Oil Companies on 'Unburnable Carbon', Bloomberg, 2013, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-24/investor-group-presses-oil-companies-on-unburnable-carbon-.html
  16. ^ "Climate rules could put $1.1 trl in oil investment at risk -report", Reuters, 7 May 2014, http://reut.rs/1s4JZUC
  17. ^ "Oil groups warned over spending on high-cost areas", Financial Times, 8 May 2014, https://www.ft.com/content/24655c5c-d5f3-11e3-a017-00144feabdc0?siteedition=uk#axzz31VIbGjvX
  18. ^ "The Carbon Tracker Initiative (CTI) has also launched a new report: Carbon Supply Cost Curves: Evaluating Financial Risk to Coal Capital Expenditures, which provides investors and coal companies with a tool - the carbon supply cost curve - to help identify the projects where the most financial risk lies", Dina Medland, 'Green And Growth Can Go Hand In Hand Together', 2014, Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/sites/dinamedland/2014/09/23/recognising-that-green-and-growth-can-go-hand-in-hand-together/#3ec2d4889cde
  19. ^ "Billions in gas projects stranded by climate change action, says thinktank", The Guardian, 7 July 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/07/gas-projects-climate-change-billions-thinktank
  20. ^ www.carbontracker.org/report/lost_in_transition/
  21. ^ "Are energy companies leading shareholders astray on future fossil fuel demand?", International Business Times, 21 October 2015, http://www.ibtimes.com/are-energy-companies-leading-shareholders-astray-future-fossil-fuel-demand-2151327
  22. ^ Oil and gas companies 'risk losing $2tn', BBC News, 25 November 2015, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34921867
  23. ^ "A study just out by the Carbon Tracker initiative has a tantalizing conclusion for the oil and gas industry. If they align their investment plans with the 2° C target on global temperatures, the upstream assets of the world's seven largest listed oil and gas companies could collectively be worth $100 billion more, it says.", Oil And Gas: Change And Prosper? A New Growth Scenario In A 2-Degree World, Forbes, 5 May 2016, http://www.forbes.com/sites/dinamedland/2016/05/05/oil-and-gas-change-and-prosper-a-new-growth-scenario-in-a-2-world/#5fb3a99a31d2
  24. ^ "Two reports issued this week suggest that investors should strive to keep the spending straitjacket on oil companies even if prices improve further. One, by Carbon Tracker [...] seeks to show that pursuing new reserves at all costs would not only be bad for the environment, it would be bad business. It argues that even if climate-change policies severely constrain demand for oil, companies will still need to produce more of the black stuff. But if oil prices are anywhere below $120 a barrel, they would produce higher returns if they carry out selective drilling of low-cost wells rather than “business as usual”.", Not-so-Big Oil, The Economist, 7 May 2016, http://www.economist.com/news/business/21698305-supermajors-are-being-forced-rethink-their-business-model-not-so-big-oil
  25. ^ http://www.carbontracker.org/report/expect-the-unexpected-disruptive-power-low-carbon-technology-solar-electric-vehicles-grantham-imperial/
  26. ^ "Cheaper renewables to halt coal and oil demand growth from 2020: research", Reuters, Feb 2, 2017, www.uk.reuters.com/article/us-energy-technology-demand-idUSKBN15H011
  27. ^ Bill McKibben "Global Warming's Terrifying New Math: Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe - and that make clear who the real enemy is", Rolling Stone, 19 July 2012 (page visited on 8 November 2016).
  28. ^ Matthew C. Nisbet (March 2013). "Nature's Prophet: Bill McKibben as Journalist, Public Intellectual and Activist" (PDF), http://shorensteincenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/D-78-Nisbet1.pdf. Discussion Paper Series #D-78. Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, School of Communication and the Center for Social Media American University. p. 17.
  29. ^ “I did base that article, and the subsequent divestment campaign, on CTI’s numbers,” he [Bill McKibben, n.b.] tells RTCC in an email." www.climatechangenews.com/2015/08/18/terrifying-math-how-carbon-tracker-changed-the-climate-debate/
  30. ^ "Commitments".
  31. ^ http://www.businessgreen.com/digital_assets/8779/hsbc_Stranded_assets_what_next.pdf
  32. ^ "Energy Darwinism II. Why a Low Carbon Future Doesn't Have to Cost the Earth - Climate Policy Observer".
  33. ^ JP Morgan North American Equity Research, Clean Tech Monitor, 01 October 2013
  34. ^ https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-11/Accenture-Strategy-Energy-Perspectives-Rougher-Seas-Ahead.pdf#zoom=50
  35. ^ http://www.dnb.nl/en/binaries/TimeforTransition_tcm47-338545.pdf?2016100316
  36. ^ " http://cdn.exxonmobil.com/~/media/global/files/energy-and-environment/report---energy-and-carbon---managing-the-risks.pdf
  37. ^ the possible risk from “stranded assets” is minimal and certainly manageable", https://www.chevron.com/-/media/chevron/shared/documents/climate-risk-perspective.pdf
  38. ^ http://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/pdf/investors/bp-agm-notice-of-meeting-2015.pdf
  39. ^ "Newsroom - Newsroom - statoil.com" (PDF).
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