Chevron's high-carbon projects, a "rigged" National Energy board, and the threat to bees
Expect to see lots more coverage of environmental stories on Commodities (11:30am ET)as the world prepares for the global climate summit from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11 in Paris.
A breakthrough deal to curb warming is within reach but some countries are fighting a legally binding accord, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warns.
The Copenhagen climate meeting in 2009 was seen as a flop. "There is a Copenhagen syndrome,” Mr. Fabius told Reuters. “No world leaders want to (go through) that again." He predicts that those leaders will this time arrive at the start of the summit to avoid frenzied haggling.
Today we heard from activist investor Natasha Lamb of Arjuna Capital, who backed a shareholder vote at Chevron Corp. (CVX.N 0.13%) calling for the energy giant to distribute capital to shareholders instead of “spending on high-cost, high-carbon projects, including Arctic drilling, tar sands, and other 'unconventional' fossil fuels.” It won 4% support.
She argues that the company is headed for losses on such projects as the world get serious about emissions.
We were also joined by Robyn Allan, economist and former CEO of the Insurance Corp. of British Columbia. She quit as an expert intervenor at the National Energy Board hearing on the massive Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, arguing that the NEB review is “rigged” in favour of proponent Kinder Morgan (KMI.N -1.02%).
Allan says the regulator has failed to weigh issues such as the danger of failure by decades-old- equipment that will still be used in the project.
And we took a look at the pesticide threat to bees as the Ontario government pushes ahead with controversial restrictions on chemicals linked to decline in populations of vital pollinators.
Jean-Marc Bonmatin, a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, told us studies indicate that the products don’t consistently increase crop yields anyway while presenting a serious threat to the food chain and vast numbers of birds, fish and invertebrates.
A breakthrough deal to curb warming is within reach but some countries are fighting a legally binding accord, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warns.
The Copenhagen climate meeting in 2009 was seen as a flop. "There is a Copenhagen syndrome,” Mr. Fabius told Reuters. “No world leaders want to (go through) that again." He predicts that those leaders will this time arrive at the start of the summit to avoid frenzied haggling.
Today we heard from activist investor Natasha Lamb of Arjuna Capital, who backed a shareholder vote at Chevron Corp. (CVX.N 0.13%) calling for the energy giant to distribute capital to shareholders instead of “spending on high-cost, high-carbon projects, including Arctic drilling, tar sands, and other 'unconventional' fossil fuels.” It won 4% support.
She argues that the company is headed for losses on such projects as the world get serious about emissions.
We were also joined by Robyn Allan, economist and former CEO of the Insurance Corp. of British Columbia. She quit as an expert intervenor at the National Energy Board hearing on the massive Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, arguing that the NEB review is “rigged” in favour of proponent Kinder Morgan (KMI.N -1.02%).
Allan says the regulator has failed to weigh issues such as the danger of failure by decades-old- equipment that will still be used in the project.
And we took a look at the pesticide threat to bees as the Ontario government pushes ahead with controversial restrictions on chemicals linked to decline in populations of vital pollinators.
Jean-Marc Bonmatin, a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, told us studies indicate that the products don’t consistently increase crop yields anyway while presenting a serious threat to the food chain and vast numbers of birds, fish and invertebrates.
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