Story of the Week: August 2021

Canada's top five pension funds have increased their total investments in the country’s major oilsands companies by 147% compared to 2020. Many of the funds are avoiding blanket divestment action...

A moral financial movement would do everything it could to increase capital for all cost-effective energy, including fossil fuels. And including nuclear, which is by far the most promising form of low-carbon energy. Instead, ESG is starving cost-effective energy of capital.

“Global energy demand is set to rise 19% by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). This includes growth in both oil and natural gas demand, with oil and natural gas continuing to meet 54% of the world’s energy needs in 2040.”

Low-cost, reliable energy enables billions of people to enjoy the miracle of modern machines that make us productive and prosperous. Yet 800M people have no electricity and 2.6B people are still using wood or dung for heating and cooking.

A study commissioned by the Independent Association of Petroleum Producers found that the financial impacts of divestment action at universities leads to an average 15.2% drop in transfers from endowment accounts to school programs, translating to increased annual tuition rates, scholarship losses and reductions in faculty spending.