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March 27, 2023
Last week, President Biden issued the first veto of his Presidency. The veto blocks a repeal of a Department of Labor rule that allows, but doesn’t require, ERISA retirement fund managers to consider environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors when investing.
How did we get here?
Why this matters:
The Big Picture: The veto by President Biden and the attempted override of the veto by House Republicans highlights the divisions between the two sides on ESG.
Contact Chelsea Neil at cneil@crefc.org with questions about this story.
News Archive
Spreads Continue to Widen as Issuance Remains Quiet
Please contact Raj Aidasani (raidasani@crefc.org) with questions.
On March 20, the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its sixth and final report. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said that “the climate time-bomb is ticking” and, as reported by Axios, urged industrialized countries to move up their net zero emissions targets from 2050 to "as close as possible to 2040."
Why it matters: The report states that little time is left to counter the effects of climate change: “There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.”
The report also notes the limits of adaptation, emphasizing the need for immediate greenhouse gas emissions reduction:
“Adaptation options that are feasible and effective today will become constrained and less effective with increasing global warming. With increasing global warming, losses and damages will increase and additional human and natural systems will reach adaptation limits.”
The role of finance: The IPCC highlights the role that the finance and tech sectors need to play in promoting both adaptation and mitigation measures. However, it also seems to indirectly acknowledge some of the politics that are throwing up barriers to climate investment. (CREFC has reported on the anti-ESG movement in the U.S. in previous Policy and Capital Markets Briefings.)
“Finance, technology and international cooperation are critical enablers for accelerated climate action. If climate goals are to be achieved, both adaptation and mitigation financing would need to increase many-fold. There is sufficient global capital to close the global investment gaps but there are barriers to redirect capital to climate action.”
The intrigue: As reported by Axios later in the week, the crafting of the report’s Summary, which is critically important for policymakers and painstakingly reviewed by all participants, highlighted the many differences that IPCC members needed to resolve. For example, Saudi Arabia, China and India tried several times to downplay references to fossil fuels as the main cause of global warming.
Additionally, as the negotiations continued beyond the expected end date, many developing country representatives had to return home. According to Axios, no representatives from Africa and South America were in the room when the report was finally approved.
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