Shutting the door

Investors for Paris Compliance quits beating their heads against brick wall

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Honestly, you are the reason this island of sobriety within an ocean of propaganda exists. Thank you!

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Photo by Lan Gao on Unsplash

It’s depressing when one of Earth’s allies gives up. They usually throw in the towel after realizing they’re pushing against an immovable force.

One such ally was Investors for Paris Compliance, which announced the other day they were done beating their heads against a brick wall. I never really thought they’d be successful, but it still sucks to see the hopeful lose hope.

The final report from Investors for Paris Compliance reads like an obituary. The group spent 2021-2026 trying to make Canadian companies accountable to their voluntary net zero commitments.

Remember during the height of the Covid crisis, when a rush of companies promised to “do better”? Well, it was bullshit then and bullshit now. Investors for Paris Compliance stated, “To date, no Canadian bank has articulated a credible pathway to achieving net zero financed emissions.”

I don’t think this would surprise my readers, but there’s something about seeing the final period at the end of that sentence that makes it real. The saddest part is their realization that the companies making these promises were essentially lying from the start.

“In our engagements with financial companies, we heard that banks and investors will keep making financial decisions they know to be damaging to the climate and to their long-term interests because if they don’t, then their competitors will.”

Long-term self-destruction in the name of short-term competitiveness. That’s just the way the system works. If captains of industry don’t maximize short-term profits, shareholders would vote to replace the board with a team that will.

“The climate risk identified over ten years ago by (Mark) Carney has only increased, yet the willingness of the financial industry to even talk about it has waned.”

The financial sector is actively shutting down conversations even as physical and transition risks escalate. God forbid anyone point out their hypocrisy and bullshit.

The main reason no publicly-traded company is willing to tackle their emissions is that costs of climate change are externalized. This is true for all industries, the energy industry being the largest beneficiary:

“If the cleanup bill for the oil and gas industry came due tomorrow, the industry would go bankrupt.”

“As long as market actors are rewarded for short-term returns without bearing the full cost of climate risk, they will continue to compound that risk, even when they recognize the problem.”

Investors for Paris Compliance closed its doors because five years of data proved that capital markets will not price climate risk accurately without mandatory regulatory intervention and legal consequences. Free markets don’t solve regulatory problems. Unfortunately, the regulators are captured by industry.

“Our experience with securities and financial regulators consistently revealed limited follow-through, even where credible concerns were raised regarding greenwashing, system stability, or market conduct.”

“The remaining provincial securities regulators and market conduct authorities are mostly silent, occasionally expressing concern about climate risk or disclosure, but doing almost nothing.”