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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>April 1, 2021</b></font></i></p>
[no foolin,]<br>
<b>Janet Yellen: Climate change poses ‘existential threat’ to
financial markets</b><br>
The FSOC focused on climate for the first time since Congress
established the body in 2010.<br>
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday called climate change
“an existential threat” and the biggest emerging risk to the health
of the U.S. financial system, pledging to marshal regulatory forces
to guard against its harmful effects.<br>
<br>
Yellen made the promise during her inaugural appearance as the head
of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, a panel of top
regulators tasked with policing Wall Street behavior that has the
potential to crash the entire economy...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/31/yellen-climate-change-fsoc-478769">https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/31/yellen-climate-change-fsoc-478769</a><br>
- -<br>
[source material]<br>
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY -- SECRETARY STATEMENTS &
REMARKS<br>
<b>Remarks by Secretary Janet L. Yellen at the Open Session of the
meeting of the Financial Stability Oversight Council</b><br>
<blockquote>"The three areas that I highlighted—vulnerabilities in
nonbank financial intermediation, the resiliency of the Treasury
market, and climate change—are major challenges that will require
our collective efforts."<br>
</blockquote>
more at - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0092">https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0092</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[pushing money for making change]<br>
<b>More than 100 climate groups press Kerry on Wall Street's role in
global warming</b><br>
BY TAL AXELROD - 03/31/21<br>
Nearly 150 climate advocacy groups are calling on John Kerry, the
special presidential envoy for climate, to curtail the amount of
money Wall Street sends to fossil fuel companies and recognize the
role the firms play in the planet’s changing temperature.<br>
<br>
A combined 145 organizations, including Greenpeace and Friends of
the Earth, pressed Kerry in a letter to focus on money that flows
from banks and investors to companies that contribute to climate
change, mainly those investing in fossil fuel extraction and
deforestation. <br>
<br>
“Today we write to request your support and leadership in urgently
addressing one of the most important and overlooked drivers of
climate change: ending the flow of private finance from Wall Street
to the industries driving climate change around the world — fossil
fuels and forest-risk commodities,” the groups wrote.<br>
<br>
“We must recognize that Wall Street isn’t yet an ally,” they added.
“As long as U.S. firms continue to pour more money into the drivers
of climate change, they are actively undermining President Biden’s
climate goals.”<br>
<br>
The letter singled out a number of banks, including JPMorgan Chase
& Co. and Citigroup Inc., for their donations to companies they
say are exacerbating the temperature changes across the globe. <br>
<br>
The groups specifically requested that Kerry press U.S. corporations
to divest from “pure-play” coal, oil and gas companies and have
those companies’ discussions “appropriately reflect climate risk.”<br>
<br>
They also said he should apply pressure to banks and insurers that
have already committed themselves to have net-zero fossil fuel
emissions to expedite their efforts, including “an immediate end to
financing for fossil fuel expansion” and “a phase-out of all
financing for fossil fuel projects.” <br>
<br>
“Until we can hold Wall Street firms to account, no amount of new
green-finance commitments can credibly undo the damage that their
fossil-fuel financing is doing to the climate, to U.S. climate
leadership, and to our chances of meeting the goals of the Paris
Agreement,” the groups wrote.<br>
<br>
When asked about the letter, the State Department, which houses
Kerry's office, said the administration would work to balance
government action on climate change with outreach to the private
sector.<br>
<br>
"There’s no question the climate crisis requires assertive
government action. But given the global funding gap, we can’t look
to government alone to deliver the resources we need. We also need
the full engagement of the private sector. So even as we work to
pursue the most ambitious climate agenda in history, we are focused
on mobilizing public and private sector financing alike," said a
State Department spokesperson.<br>
<br>
The letter comes as the Biden administration touts its efforts to
tackle climate change. Among its efforts were rejoining the Paris
climate agreement, a key goal of which was pushing financial markets
away from fossil fuels, and ordering the creation of a climate plan,
which Kerry said would include “ending international financing of
fossil fuel projects with public money.”<br>
<br>
It is also pushing a massive infrastructure plan that would include
a number of climate change provisions.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/545719-145-climate-groups-call-on-kerry-to-acknowledge-wall-streets-role">https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/545719-145-climate-groups-call-on-kerry-to-acknowledge-wall-streets-role</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[money demands a following]<br>
<b>US urged to invest in sun-dimming studies as climate warms</b><br>
National academies report is most explicit call yet for a government
research programme to explore the controversial field of solar
geoengineering.<br>
29 MARCH 2021<br>
- -<br>
Although scientific agencies in the United States and abroad have
funded solar-geoengineering research in the past, governments have
shied away from launching formal programmes in the controversial
field. In addition to fears that tinkering with Earth’s atmosphere
could backfire in unpredictable ways, many environmentalists worry
that focusing on geoengineering could reduce pressure on politicians
— and the powerful fossil fuel-industry — to curb greenhouse-gas
emissions. The report does not in any way advocate deploying the
technology, but says research is needed to understand the options if
the climate crisis becomes even more serious.<br>
<br>
“Climate change is a genuine crisis, and we have been way too slow
to get our act together,” says Christopher Field, an ecologist at
Stanford University in California and co-chair of the committee that
produced the report. “That’s part of the reason that we need to have
a clear understanding of all of our options, including options that
we would have not been willing to consider all that long ago.”<br>
- -<br>
Still, some scientists worry about the United States going it alone
with a solar-geoengineering research programme, given the global
ramifications of any efforts to alter Earth’s atmosphere. The NASEM
report does call for the United States to promote international
partnerships, and Keith says the country should do exactly that, if
it moves forwards with the proposed strategy.<br>
<br>
“That’s one of my biggest caveats: it would be unhealthy if this
were only the United States,” he says. “International coordination
is vitally important.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00822-5">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00822-5</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[brief from the Society of Environmental Journalists]<br>
<b>Local Water, Sewer Projects May Flow From Infrastructure Funding</b><br>
March 31, 2021<br>
Water infrastructure projects are almost certainly coming your way,
as part of an all-out federal push to fix the infrastructure. And
they will bring not only more jobs, but more environmental stories.<br>
<br>
One of several federal programs affecting water pollution is known
as WIFIA (for the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of
2014). Even Republicans like it. Former U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt always put out a proud
press release whenever he awarded millions of WIFIA dollars to some
deserving locality.<br>
<br>
Now, as President Joe Biden and a Democrat-controlled Congress get
ready for the Herculean effort of passing an “infrastructure” bill,
we can expect WIFIA (and programs like it) to be conduits for larger
amounts of federal money. <br>
<br>
There is a “pipeline” for projects seeking funding and an
established administrative mechanism for vetting and funding them.
Most importantly, WIFIA and similar programs are not partisan or
politically controversial. The prospect of more money could actually
increase support in Congress.<br>
<br>
WIFIA money can go toward both drinking water and sewage treatment
projects. The money amounts to loan guarantees, which means the
federal dollars can be highly leveraged. A small federal layout can
back a much larger local project.<br>
<b><br>
</b><b>Why it matters</b><br>
In short, there are a great many places in the United States where
wastewater and drinking water systems are inadequate and harming
people’s health. This may mean pathogens carrying disease, chemical
pollutants threatening toxic harm or nutrients like nitrogen that
fertilize fish-killing algae...<br>
more at:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.sej.org/publications/tipsheet/local-water-sewer-projects-may-flow-from-infrastructure-funding">https://www.sej.org/publications/tipsheet/local-water-sewer-projects-may-flow-from-infrastructure-funding</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[Podcast collections from Yale University Produced by Yale Broadcast
Studio]<br>
<b>Pricing Carbon</b><br>
Pricing Nature, a limited-series podcast from the Center for
Business and the Environment at Yale and the Yale Carbon Charge.
We’ll tell a story about the economics, politics, and history of
carbon pricing, which many argue should play a critical role in any
national climate policy. Join us to hear from experts about the ins
and outs of carbon pricing policy.<br>
1. Intro to Carbon Pricing<br>
2. What’s the Right Price for Carbon Emissions?<br>
3. The Road to Paris: 30 Years of Climate Negotiations in Under an
Hour<br>
4. Why doesn’t the US have a national price on carbon?..<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://yalepodcasts.blubrry.net/tag/carbon-pricing/">http://yalepodcasts.blubrry.net/tag/carbon-pricing/</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
April 1, 2009 </b></font><br>
The New York Times reports:<br>
<blockquote>"The debate on global warming and energy policy
accelerated on Tuesday as two senior House Democrats unveiled a
far-reaching bill to cap heat-trapping gases and quicken the
country’s move away from dependence on coal and oil.<br>
<br>
"But the bill leaves critical questions unanswered and has no
Republican support. It is thus the beginning, not the end, of the
debate in Congress on how to deal with two of President Obama’s
priorities, climate change and energy.<br>
<br>
"The draft measure, written by Representatives Henry A. Waxman of
California and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, sets a slightly
more ambitious goal for capping heat-trapping gases than Mr.
Obama’s proposal. The bill requires that emissions be reduced 20
percent from 2005 levels by 2020, while Mr. Obama’s plan calls for
a 14 percent reduction by 2020. Both would reduce emissions of
carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases by roughly 80
percent by 2050."<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/us/politics/01energycnd.html?pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/us/politics/01energycnd.html?pagewanted=print</a><br>
<br>
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