1. The Finance Industry Transition to Sustainability: Climate Science, Societal Issues, Regulation & Accounting
Section I – The Scientific Background to Sustainable Finance & Paris Agreement
1.1 Shumpeter’s Creative Destruction and Net zero
degree warming potential
SBTI: Science Based Targets Initiative
Lawrence Fink has gone from being somewhat indifferent to climate-change risks, to ‘coming out’ as a believer in the need for the finance industry to adapt rapidly if not to save the planet, then at least to save the finance industry.
‘stranded assets’ i.e. assets with little or no economic value.
Kondratiev Cycle
The Sun delivers more energy to Earth in an hour than we use in a year from fossil, nuclear and all renewable sources combined.
It is partly stored in the atmosphere, partly in the oceans. Much is also stored in limestone (CACO3) , , but this is released in large quantities when calcium carbonate (limestone) is converted to cement for BUILDING purposes.
The CO2 emissions absorbed by the ocean (around 25% of fossil fuel emissions) results in acidificatio
The CO2 emissions absorbed by the ocean (around 25% of fossil fuel emissions) results in acidification of the ocean which is now 30% more acidic than before the industrial revolution.
Earth does not suffer the temperature extremes of the moon (-173˚ at night to 127˚ during the day11) because the blanket of atmosphere around it creates the Natural Greenhouse Effect. T
incoming solar energy (light) on average across the earth’s surface is 340 watts per square metre or 1/3rd of a kilowatt
- 29% reflected back to space
- 23% absorbed by water vapor, dust, and ozone,
- 48% passes through the atmosphere and is absorbed by the surface.
Temperature changes can be caused by changes in the sun’s energy emission sometimes related to ‘sun spots’, to changes in the amount of snow cover or cloud cover resulting in a higher albedo14 (whiteness or reflective coefficient) . This can lead to FEEDBACK EFFECTS.
. It is generally believed that the CO2 emissions from burning coal, oil and natural gas and the methane (CH4) emissions from leaks of natural gas from exploration, production and pipeline transmission, are the main cause of this temperature rise in contrast to earlier periods on earth.
While water vapour comprises the major part of greenhouse gases it is not the direct cause of warming.
It is carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) which causes what is known by scientists as “Radiative Forcing” or Climate Forcing.
This is the difference between sunlight absorbed by the Earth and energy radiated back to space.
Milankovitch cycles