Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
via LibertarianInstitute.org: “James Corbett of the Corbett Report joined me to discuss the ESG index, corporate compliance, and why big oil is silent despite all of the current problems with production, prices, and inflation.”
Watch on Archive / BitChute / Minds / Odysee or Download the mp4
SHOW NOTES:
Year Zero podcast with Tommy Salmons
How & Why Big Oil Conquered the World
Security experts blast Bank of America for helping feds in Capitol riot probe
Who Cares Wins 2005 Conference Report: Investing for Long-Term Value
World’s Richest People Meet, Muse On How To Spread The Wealth
We Need Universal ESG Accounting Standards
Global ESG Disclosure Standards for Investment Products (CFA Institute)
‘Yes, He Would’: Fiona Hill on Putin and Nukes
Larry Fink’s 2021 letter to CEOs
The Great Reset by Glenn Beck
“Dismantling Empires Through Devolution” by Parag Khanna
Absolute Zero: The Global Agenda Revealed
Reimagining energy, reinventing BP (Bernard Looney)
– ESG –
Near the 17:30 minute mark at Blackrock (who is a major shareholder in some 1600 Wall Street corporations)…
James Corbett says:
“I think of it as a corporate social credit system, that again can be used as a model for what will ultimately be imposed on citizens somewhere down the road.”
How to Calculate Your Individual ESG Score
https://www.corbettreport.com/march-open-thread-2022/#comment-132202
Corbett Report Member NoSoapRadio provides the link along with some profound insights and quotes.
While the referenced website might not be something to pack your lunch pail with, it does gives an excellent preview of concepts.
It doesn’t take much imagination to know that much of the infrastructure is already in place…
One Example of many:
Banks and credit card companies track your specific expenditures. And they follow the foggy ESG guidelines.
Something I noticed about a week or so ago when James Corbett was reading/highlighting an authoritarian document about the Covid-19 pandemic in his episode.
I kept hearing these keywords throughout the document: ”Social” and “Governance”.
If a person viewed Covid-19 as an ”Environmental” factor, then it resonates like ESG control.
The Powers That Should Not Be are very clever with this ESG criteria. It is nebulous and arbitrary. It is not sourced from an Authoritarian set of nation states, but from a common public perception emanating from a cloudy corporate backdrop. Like a fad for tennis shoes, what an excellent way to covertly control society without them having a clue that they are aiding in that control.
Hey HRS!
I was reading the “How to Calculate your individual ESG Score” with a student who’s the managing director of a company who told me he’s known about ESG scores for at least 15 years. “What about your employees?” I queried. And in response he explained that with regards to ESG scores he recently had his company host a workshop for all his employees called “The Climate Fresk” (formerly “The Climate Collage” but maybe they decided that sounded just a tad too infantilizing? Inventing words is better).
Wikipedia explains:
The Climate Fresk is a French nonprofit organization founded in December 2018 whose aim is to raise public awareness about climate change. It proposes a collaborative serious game based on 42 cards where the participants draw a Fresk which summarizes the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change…
and
The workshops are opened to everyone but the game has been initially spread out in higher education and companies.[8] Suez Environnement is the first company to announce a partnership with the Climate Fresk in June 2020 offering a workshop to every of its 90,000 employees worldwide.[9] This announcement is shortly followed by the one of EDF which engages in a partnership with the organization to perform the workshop for its 165,000 employees.
https://climatefresk.org/
Ah! My bad! They didn’t invent a word.
So this must be what they meant:
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fresk
So it’s much more straightforward than I thought. But is it sustainable?
ADDENDUM:
I was referring to the last definition on the above link as being the most pertinent.
Oh gosh!
Exploring the website was very interesting.
The brief video capped it off for me…
…COP26 “World Leaders will decide our future” ha! I’m so relieved. 😉
yea me too! what a relief!
I know they’re gonna
Stop Climate Change NOW!!
phew.
— NEWS FLASH —
RE: How to Calculate Your Individual ESG Score
Mastercard Official Taglines: “There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s Mastercard.”
“Priceless!!”
Tuesday April 19, 2022 – Bloomberg via YahooFinance
Mastercard to Tie All Employee Bonuses to Meeting ESG Goals
https://archive.ph/LKRBr
FULL article
(Bloomberg) — Mastercard Inc. said it’s expanding an earlier push to tie executives’ bonuses to the company’s environmental, social and governance goals.
The firm will now link all employees’ compensation to those goals after earlier only doing so for those at the executive vice president level and above, Chief Executive Officer Michael Miebach said in a memo to staff on Tuesday.
Mastercard will focus specifically on those targets it has toward reducing its carbon emissions, improving financial inclusion and reaching gender-pay parity. The Purchase, New York-based company will incorporate the goals into its so-called annual corporate score, which also takes into account revenue and earnings, and is one of the metrics used in determining bonus levels.
“We’re tying compensation to emissions, financial inclusion and the gender pay gap because we have a substantial impact in these areas and because they closely align with our vision,” Miebach said in the memo.
Mastercard in November committed to reach net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2040, a decade sooner than it had previously planned as it reduces its carbon footprint. The company also has made progress toward closing its gender pay gap, with female employees now making 93 cents for every dollar male employees earn on average, an improvement from the 92.4 cents it reported in 2020.
In its proxy statement last year, Mastercard said the move to formulaically link executives’ annual incentives to its environmental, social and governance goals could raise or lower payouts by as much as 10 percentage points, depending on how the firm performed on those targets.
— GOLD and Mastercard —
Glint – https://glintpay.com/en_us/ (Other countries also available)
Glint is re-introducing gold as money and as a global currency so that it can be used in electronic payments in real-time.
Glint clients can buy any amount of gold and can save, exchange or spend their gold with the Glint Mastercard.
Innovative Payment Technology
Glint has developed and utilized a highly scalable and secure micro-services technology architecture to deliver landmark liquidity by enabling physical gold to be settled at the point of electronic transaction.
Glint’s gold does not need to be sold in advance. There is no pre-paid card loading, the Glint debit Mastercard is authorized by Glint based on the real-time balance in your Glint account.
Reliable & Independent
Physically allocated gold is the most reliable store of value – and now Glint allows you to spend it. Through our innovative app, Mastercard and banking integration, you can use gold as money in every sense of the word. We’re taking gold out of the vaults and empowering you to spend it whenever you want.
Our near-term vision, which is fully underway, is the creation of a gold banking service and payment business, both integrated with and independent of existing payment networks.
Transferring currencies can be complicated, as well as expensive. Many companies aren’t entirely transparent about the fees they charge, so switching money around across different borders can be as annoying as it is costly.
Glint lets you transfer funds instantly, opening possibilities wherever you go. It’s hassle-free, and ensures you only pay the real-exchange rate, so you won’t get stung by hidden fees.
As you can both store and spend gold alongside international currencies, you attain a unique choice as well as an additional level of control and protection over your money.
Glint gives you control by letting you independently store and manage your wealth outside the banking system. You will be able to transfer money to pay bills or send funds to friends without it ever going near a bank, and there’s no reliance on government currency.
Glint is the Program Manager and the Glint MasterCard is issued by Sutton Bank. Glint is also an affiliate partner to Mastercard International Inc.
RE: How to Calculate Your Individual ESG Score
April 23, 2022
Italy Creates New Social Credit App To Reward Citizens For Virtuous Behavior
https://www.corbettreport.com/the-greatest-trick-of-all/#comment-133516
~~WWW greatgameindia.com/italy-social-credit-app/
… Italy has created a new social credit app to reward citizens for virtuous behavior…
By rewarding some residents for their behavior through a point system, a new software recently developed in Italy bears remarkable resemblance to China’s social credit system.
The “Smart Citizen Wallet” was unveiled at a news conference on digital innovation in Bologna on March 29. Mayor Matteo Lepore and Massimo Bugani, director of the city’s “Digital Agenda,” spoke about the initiative.
The app is already operating in Rome, as per local newspaper Corriere di Bologna, which characterized the approach as “similar to a supermarket points collection.” It is now in its trial phases. This September, it will be introduced in Bologna.
Citizens who use the program will be rewarded for things like recycling, taking public transportation, managing their energy efficiently, and avoiding fines…
…“In the coming years many services will go digital in Italy; we have an ambitious project here that is built on solid foundations.”
According to Bugani, the new smart citizen wallet software will be accessible to Bologna residents after this summer….
EXPERIAN is one of the “Big Three” credit-reporting agencies, alongside TransUnion and Equifax.
Experain is being used to ID people for different government institutions.
QUOTE
“…In order to access their vaccination records via the portal, Illinois residents have to go through a one-time verification process through Experian.”
https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1656-new-world-next-week-with-james-evan-pilato/#comment-115670
CARBON tied to Personal Finances…
Interesting times by Irina Slav Substack – Aug 5, 2022
https://irinaslav.substack.com/p/interesting-times
EXCERPTS
…Canadian environmentalists, however, are weak beer, as we say down here [Bulgaria].
The pros are, expectedly, in Europe.
One such pro is Rabobank’s CEO, Barbara Baarsma, who suggested in a radio interview that households are given a sort of carbon wallet to track their emissions. Sounds like a fake? Nope. [LINK] I studied Dutch years ago for a while and remember enough to understand the headline. Not fake.
5 minute Youtube
“Barbara Baarsma: ‘Geef elk huishouden jaarlijkse CO2-uitstootrechten’ | Zakendoen”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA_-_ms5wUw
The Swiss are even bigger pros.
Some climate experts there have proposed [LINK] a carbon budget for everyone.
That’s right, everyone in Switzerland will have a carbon emission allowance and when they run out of this allowance they would have to buy additional “emission rights”, per the report I read.
How will the emission rights work? By putting a second price on products, in emissions. Ingenious, I thought. What an elegant way to steer people to consuming low-emission products….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Swiss climate experts propose personal CO2 budget Sept 5, 2021
https://web.archive.org/web/20220805185443/https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-climate-experts-propose-personal-co2-budget/46922694
Swiss climate experts propose the introduction of an individual CO2 budget so Switzerland can reach its goal of “net zero greenhouse gas emissions” by 2050…
…The central premise is that all goods would have two prices – one in Swiss francs and the other in CO2 emissions. This would factor the amount of CO2 released in everything from sausage making to short-haul flights.
Anyone who uses up their state-allocated credit too early would have to buy new emission rights…
…Switzerland this year again failed to meet its goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, prompting a rise in CO2 taxes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RaboBank Press Release – 15 Feb 2021
Barbara Baarsma appointed CEO of the Rabo Carbon Bank
The top economist will lead a bank where carbon is the currency
https://www.rabobank.com/en/press/search/2021/20210215-barbara-baarsma-appointed-ceo-of-the-rabo-carbon-bank.html
***** 5 STAR Article
August 11, 2022 – ThreadsIrish
Have You Any Idea How Your Carbon Footprint ? And Your Carbon Wallet Are Really Going To Work In This Dystopian World The WEF Have Planned ?
https://threadsirish.substack.com/p/have-you-any-idea-how-your-carbon
https://web.archive.org/web/20220815140557/https://threadsirish.substack.com/p/have-you-any-idea-how-your-carbon
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/how-your-carbon-footprint-and-your-carbon-wallet-are-really-going-work-dystopian-world
EXCERPTS won’t capture all the information presented in this article which contains short videos and images.
Some KEYWORDS…
Barbara Baarsma
World Economic Forum
Doconomy “credit card”
Mastercard
United Nations
climate change
CO2 carbon dioxide footprints
carbon offsetting
climate impact
Patrica Espinosa
Big banks
Barclays
surveillance
CO2 (carbon dioxide) labelling beside every food item on the menu
plant-based food
farmers
“carbon calculator”
Agenda 2030
Digital IDs and Currency, Social Credit Scores and Carbon Footprints
Colorado “Local News” – August 2022
Thousands of Xcel customers locked out of thermostats during ‘energy emergency’
22,000 people lost control of temperatures in their homes for hours Tuesday
https://archive.ph/qZQVK
EXCERPTS
DENVER — During the dog days of summer, it’s important to keep your home cool. But when thousands of Xcel customers in Colorado tried adjusting their thermostats Tuesday, they learned they had no control over the temperatures in their own homes.
Temperatures climbed into the 90s Tuesday, which is why Tony Talarico tried to crank up the air conditioning in his partner’s Arvada home.
“I mean, it was 90 out, and it was right during the peak period,” Talarico said. “It was hot.”
That’s when he saw a message on the thermostat stating the temperature was locked due to an “energy emergency.”
“Normally, when we see a message like that, we’re able to override it,” Talarico said. “In this case, we weren’t. So, our thermostat was locked in at 78 or 79.”
Xcel confirmed to Contact Denver7 that 22,000 customers who had signed up for the Colorado AC Rewards program were locked out of their smart thermostats for hours on Tuesday.
“It’s a voluntary program. Let’s remember that this is something that customers choose to be a part of based on the incentives,” said Emmett Romine, vice president of customer solutions and innovation at Xcel.
Customers receive a $100 credit for enrolling in the program and $25 annually, but Romine said customers also agree to give up some control to save energy and money and make the system more reliable.
“So, it helps everybody for people to participate in these programs. It is a bit uncomfortable for a short period of time, but it’s very, very helpful,” said Romine….
RE: Interview 1717 – James Corbett on ESG and the Big Oil Conspiracy
Around the 27 minute mark, the discussion revolves around States which are pushing back against ESG.
In Texas, a new Texas law went into effect banning state agencies from investing in finance firms that have “boycotted energy companies” or adhere to policies aimed at pivoting away from oil and natural gas in favor of more climate-friendly initiatives.
The keyword is “state agencies” such as pension funds.
Thus:
BOSTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) – At the risk of being dropped from Texas pension funds, BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) has ramped up its message that the world’s largest asset manager is a friend of the oil and gas industries.
As a large and long-term investor in fossil fuel companies, “we want to see these companies succeed and prosper,” BlackRock executives wrote in a letter…
…“We will continue to invest in and support fossil fuel companies, including Texas fossil fuel companies,” states the memo, signed by Dalia Blass, BlackRock’s head of external affairs, and Mark McCombe, BlackRock’s chief client officer.
Although the message is consistent with its other statements, the emphasis is new after years in which BlackRock has stressed its efforts to take climate change and other environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues into account in its investment and proxy voting decisions.
https://www.corbettreport.com/solutionswatch-highlighter/#comment-131416
[It demonstrates how arbitrary ESG criteria can be.]
In the region of the 40 minute mark, the board of directors (appointed by shareholders) for these oil companies was discussed.
Here are a few related recent ESG type stories…
Occidental Petroleum is a huge oil company.
It plans to spend about 1 billion dollars to capture CO2 from the atmosphere, then sell the carbon credits.
This could prove to be more profitable than its oil chemical business.
In March, Warren Buffett bought over a billion dollars worth of Occidental stock, which brings Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway holdings of the company to about $6.9 Billion.
https://www.corbettreport.com/march-open-thread-2022/#comment-132196
Archer-Daniels-Midland Co is a food and ethanol producer.
They plan to build a 350-mile steel pipeline, capable of transporting 12 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, then pump it underground.
…Another company, Summit Carbon Solutions has faced opposition from farmers over plans to build a 2,000-mile, $4.5 billion carbon pipeline in the Midwest due to concerns about land usage and potential crop damage…
Wolf Carbon Solutions of Alberta is a private company backed by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board which is spending about 4 billion on CO2 capture.
https://www.corbettreport.com/holidayopenthread/#comment-127525
At this link, see the reply comment part about Archer-Daniels-Midland producing a lot of ethanol (alcohol).
During the distillation process of alcohol production CO2 is given off.
This can be fed into a greenhouse to accelerate the growth of plants and to also kill off the bugs.
(Note: Greenhouses sometimes will purchase a CO2 machine for this purpose. Works well for organic foods.)
The mash left over from the alcohol production can be fed to fish, which in turn can be sold commercially.
The fish poop can be used to fertilize the greenhouse plants.
The mash is also used for livestock feed.
More on CARBON CAPTURE and the strain of mental math in its viablity…
Watch one minute of this QUEUED video.
Carbon Capture Technology Explained
https://youtu.be/XxjNhLZCae0?t=92
Video was taken from this article:
These machines scrub greenhouse gases from the air – an inventor of direct air capture technology shows how it works
Klaus Lackner, Professor of Engineering and Director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions, Arizona State University
https://www.yahoo.com/news/machines-scrub-greenhouse-gases-air-133952023.html
RE: Interview 1717 – James Corbett on ESG and the Big Oil Conspiracy
April 8th – Zero Hedge via OilPrice.com
America’s Green Regulation Wave Will Have A Global Impact
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Americas-Green-Regulation-Wave-Will-Have-A-Global-Impact.html
EXCERPTS
~~ The SEC has just proposed a new set of climate rules.
~~ The proposed regulation will force public companies to calculate their total greenhouse gas footprint, including their supply chains.
~~ The fallout from these new regulations could be disastrous for the global economy, as it could force many companies to revamp their supply chains from the ground up.
Making a box of Cocoa Puffs is a complicated global affair. It could start with cocoa farms in Africa, cornfields in the U.S., or sugar plantations in Latin America. Then thousands of processors, transporters, packagers, distributors, office workers, and retailers join the supply chain before a kid in Minnesota, where General Mills is based, pours the cereal into a bowl.
Now imagine the challenge that General Mills faces in counting the greenhouse gas emissions from all of these people, machines, vehicles, buildings, and other products involved in this Cocoa Puff supply chain – then multiply that by the 100-plus brands belonging to the food giant.
Thousands of public companies may soon have such a daunting task to comply with a new set of climate rules proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Hailed by prominent environmental groups as a long-sought victory, the sweeping plan released in late March would force companies to grapple with the unpredictable impact of climate change by disclosing reams of new information to investors. What are your company’s climate risks, such as severe weather, and the possible financial impacts? How have the threats affected your business strategies and what’s the plan to avoid the dangers? The most consequential and controversial piece of the SEC’s proposed regulations would require corporations to calculate their total greenhouse gas footprint, including from the supply chain.
The regulations also carry political weight…
…SEC head Gary Gensler says shareholders are demanding climate risk disclosures to make smarter investment decisions and hold companies accountable for “greenwashing” their operations. The regulations will also provide investors in the Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) movement more leverage in their ongoing campaigns to pressure companies to reduce their carbon footprints…
…Two decades ago, the international environmental group CDP pioneered the strategy of organizing institutional investors to pressure companies around the world to reveal at least a piece of their carbon footprint….
RE: Interview 1717 – James Corbett on ESG and the Big Oil Conspiracy
Irina Slav (energy journalist) challenges the narrative on her Substack with facts.
In the article below, she points out the silliness of EU thinking when it comes to boycotting Russian natural gas.
Praise the EU gas replacement plan: Part 3
https://irinaslav.substack.com/p/praise-the-eu-gas-replacement-plan?s=r
They sure are spending alot on this. Run time in media, all the talking heads.
If you cant see the product = you are it.
I just thought its all opposite.
ala The Ministry of Truth is all about War.
ESG
E= anti environment: removal of environmental protections etc.
S= anti social: panopticon surveillance, anti diversity(ie total conformity), worse working conditions, removal of safety protections for workers. etc
G= unbelievable levels of corruption, no diversity on boards, no tax paid(death of western style democratic government)
Inclusive Capitalism
Inclusive= Totally excluding
Capitalism= Communism/Feudalism
Now that Europe is totally disarmed from sending the last of its meagre weapons to Ukraine lets see who invades.
Diabolical. The effort.
REFERENCE
Blackrock and ESG
July 4, 2022 – by Alex Kimani of Oilprice.com
Big Oil’s Boardroom Battles Subside As Climate Activism Loses Steam
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Big-Oils-Boardroom-Battles-Subside-As-Climate-Activism-Loses-Steam.html
EXCERPT
…Ironically, it’s none other than the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock Inc., that set the tone earlier this year when it warned that it would be voting against shareholder resolutions on climate that it considered to be too extreme or prescriptive.
Over the past few years, BlackRock has been at the forefront of encouraging oil and gas divestments, with CEO Larry Fink calling for corporate climate disclosures while also proclaiming that companies must have a purpose beyond profit. Back in 2019, BlackRock declared its intention to increase its ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investments more than tenfold from $90 billion to a trillion dollars in the space of a decade.
With $9.6 trillion of investments under its watch, BlackRock can certainly throw its weight around. Indeed, in 2020, the firm voted against 69 companies and 64 company directors for climate-related reasons while placing another 191 companies on watch.
Other money managers are following suit:….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the above EXCERPT, Alex Kimani gives three referenced source LINKS…
https://web.archive.org/web/20220205201419/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/14/business/dealbook/larry-fink-blackrock-climate-change.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20220301172718/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/15/business/dealbook/blackrock-laurence-fink-letter.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20220517072234/https://www.top1000funds.com/2020/01/behind-blackrocks-climate-pledge/
Tidbit…
Brian Deese
Brian Deese is the current director of the National Economic Council (NEC) under President Joe Biden.
Deese is responsible for the coordination of policymaking on both domestic and international economic issues. The NEC provides economic policy advice to the president, ensuring that policy decisions and programs are in line with the president’s economic goals.
Prior to his current position, Deese was global head of sustainable investing at BlackRock Inc. (BLK), a position he’d held since 2017.
As head of BlackRock’s sustainable investing division, Deese advised clients on how to achieve investment returns that meet environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria.[LINK]
Deese temporarily abandoned his Yale law studies to work for the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2008.
He served as a White House senior advisor to President Barack Obama from 2015 to 2017. Between 2009 and 2015, he held several positions at the White House, including special assistant for economic policy to President Obama following the 2008 financial crisis, deputy director of the NEC, and deputy director as well as acting director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Deese played crucial roles in developing the bailout of the U.S. auto industry following the financial crisis as well as in negotiating the Paris Climate Agreement during the Obama administration.
https://www.investopedia.com/who-is-brian-deese-5095167
This EXCERPT caught my eye…
Consider one last fact:
that as Larry and Mike (and Brian Moynihan of Bank of America and David Solomon of Goldman Sachs and the rest of the Davos crowd) “force” American corporations to sign on to political-schedule decarbonization because they’re so personally passionate about it, they’ve also engineered an exemption from the European Union’s new “green” fuel tax for – do you even have to guess? – private jets. [LINK to The Irish Times embedded.]
By Scott Shepard – July 27, 2022
All the Trips to Davos Have Gone to Larry Fink’s Head
https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2022/07/27/all_the_trips_to_davos_have_gone_to_larry_finks_head_844431.html
EXCERPTS
Larry Fink really has let all of those trips to Davos go to his head.
In what is, so far as I know, the BlackRock CEO’s most recent act of public grandiloquence, he and BlackRock have urged the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) to modify its proposed greenhouse-gas emissions disclosure rule.
That standard Fink megalomania comes not from the request itself, but from its grounds. He does not ask that it be withdrawn because it is illegally beyond the SEC’s statutory remit, though it surely is, especially in light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. He doesn’t seek its withdrawal because it will create massive expense for no possible benefit, though that’s true too. He doesn’t even oppose the rule because it will harm small farmers, small businesses and small investors while aggregating wealth and opportunity to his own private-equity class. (Well, no: of course not that.)
Rather, Fink’s objection to the rule is that it deviated from the disclosure demands that have issued from him – from him and from Mike Bloomberg and from the self-appointed New Ruling Class – embodied this time as the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). These new malefactors of great self-regard, you see, don’t care for it when representatives of elected government dare to contradict the commandments of the World Economic Forum (WEF) set.
Mind you, the SEC’s proposed rule does violate its statutory authority; it does violate the Commission’s basic responsibility of assisting Main Street shareholders and smaller corporations in the capital markets; it is vastly costly, entirely pointless and wholly biased. The TCFD proposals are also immensely costly and entirely pointless and biased (in favor of politicized decarbonization, against basic technological and economic reality) though, and they come without any statutory or moral authority at all….
Saturday August 6, 2022
Zero Hedge has a pretty good article that explores the backstory evolution and current ramifications of ESG (with source links)…
What Is ESG? It’s A Leveraging Tool For The Woke Communist Takeover
https://web.archive.org/web/20220807020700/https://www.zerohedge.com/political/what-esg-its-leveraging-tool-woke-communist-takeover
EXCERPTS
… It was more likely the dramatic shift among conservatives away from the controlled Neo-con paradigm and into a more liberty oriented standing. Ron Paul’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns had a lot to do with this change among Republican voters. Conservatives and liberty minded independents were returning to their foundations of small government, constitutionalism, independent thought, meritocracy and decentralization. This is when the corporate world decided (or was perhaps guided) to go full bore leftist.
That is to say, the leftist cult couldn’t stifle the rise of conservative liberty advocates without consolidating their control in the open, and corporations are a big part of that strategy.
Wall Street, Entertainment Media and Big Tech companies donated FAR more to Democrat candidates in recent years compared to Republican candidates. In the 2020 presidential election, they spent 250% more on Joe Biden’s campaign…
…The term “ESG” was originally coined by the United Nations Environment Program Initiative in 2005,…
…ESG is about money; loans given out by top banks and foundations to companies that meet the guidelines of “stakeholder capitalism.” Companies must show that they are actively pursuing a business environment that prioritizes woke virtues and climate change restrictions. These loans are not an all prevailing income source, but ESG loans are highly targeted, they are growing in size (for now) and they are very easy to get as long as a company is willing to preach the social justice gospel as loudly as possible…
…These loans become a form of leverage over the business world – Once they get a taste of that easy money they keep coming back. Many of the loan targets attached to ESG are rarely enforced and penalties are few and far between. Primarily, an ESG funded company must propagandize, that is all. They must propagandize their employees and they must propagandize their customers. As long as they do this, that sweet loan capital keeps flowing….
100 Best ESG Companies: Top Stocks For Environmental, Social And Governance Values
(Via link in article above)
https://web.archive.org/web/20220807131411/https://www.investors.com/news/esg-companies-list-best-esg-stocks-environmental-social-governance-values/
Lending and Money Flows
From May 2021…
Tanzania, Uganda Finalize Oil Pipeline Deal
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Tanzania-Uganda-Finalize-Oil-Pipeline-Deal.html
EXCERPT
In March, a group of 260 organizations wrote an open letter [LINK] to 25 banks calling on them to not take part in the $2.5-billion loan financing for the East-African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project, which, according to them, was “manifestly irresponsible”.
pdf LETTER addressed to many banks
https://www.banktrack.org/download/open_letter_from_over_260_civil_society_organisations_to_banks_on_eacop/210301_eacop_open_letter_to_banks_2.pdf
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BANKTRACK
About BankTrack
(lINKS are within script below)
https://www.banktrack.org/page/about_banktrack
Our mission is to challenge commercial banks globally to act urgently and decisively on the accelerating climate crisis, the ongoing destruction of nature, the risk of ever more pandemics, and the widespread violation of human rights.
Our core strategies for achieving this mission are:
~~ To track the involvement of banks in financing business sectors and specific activities with a negative impact on people and planet (Dodgy Deals), and expose this to the public.
~~ To track and benchmark policy commitments of banks and constructively engage with banks on strengthening such commitments.
~~ To campaign together with our partners to exert public pressure on banks to strengthen their policy commitments and abstain from financing Dodgy Deals.
~~ To support fellow campaigners and community organisations that focus on or encounter banks in their own work, and help build movements that are able to effectively challenge banks to address these global emergencies.
[The Board Members are listed at the website, along with their preferred pronouns.]
BankTrack – Funding and Finances
https://www.banktrack.org/page/funding_and_finances
BankTrack operates strictly independent from the financial sector and does not take any support from any financial institution. We finance ourselves through grants from private foundations and the occasional donation from individuals. As per June 2022, our funding sources are, (in alfabethical order):
~~ The Customer Union for Ethical Banking provides a grant to support work focused on the Cooperative Bank (EUR 3,000 per year);
~~ The Ecology Trust supports our Banks and Nature campaign with a project grant (EUR 33,000)
~~ The European Climate Foundation supports our Banks and Climate campaign (USD 110,000 per year);
~~ The KR Foundation supports our Banks and Climate campaign (EUR 141,000 per year);
~~ We receive support for our Banks and Nature campaign through a grant administered by Profundo (EUR 15,000 per year).
~~ The Rockefeller Brothers Fund supports our work with a general purpose grant (USD 50,000 per year);
~~ The Tilia Fund supports our work with a general purpose grant (EUR 160,000 per year);
~~ The 11th hour project of the Schmidt Foundation supports our Banks and Human rights campaign work with a project grant (USD 100,000 per year);
Saturday August 20, 2022 – Yahoo Finance
ESG investing brings political fights to the investing world: Morning Brief
https://archive.ph/y4A1N
(Article also includes an interview: Andy Serwer with Dylan Croll)
EXCERPTS (Some good reference links also are in article.)
…”Many banks that used to participate in syndicates are no longer doing any new energy lending. What commercial lending that is available comes with tighter underwriting standards. Part of this is ESG, but another is investors’ — both banks and equity holders — very recent memories of deep losses in the industry sector.”…
…With BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, and the big Wall Street banks falling out of favor with red state politicians, Vivek Ramaswamy, a former biotech CEO and author of “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam” saw an opportunity, creating Strive Asset Management, funded with $20 million from the likes of Peter Thiel, Bill Ackman, and J.D. Vance.
Ramaswamy says the real problem [with ESG] is “the fiduciary breach at the heart of this, using someone else’s money to advance social and political perspectives through voting power and shareholder advocacy that the owners of capital actually disagree with.”
Strive — tiny compared to the Wall Street giants — will “mandate companies not to focus on environmental issues, not focus on social issues, not to focus on political or cultural issues, but to exclusively focus on products, products and services, and thereby serve their shareholders period.”….
August 19, 2022
Bank Australia sets date to cease petrol and diesel car loans
https://thedriven.io/2022/08/19/bank-australia-sets-date-to-cease-petrol-and-diesel-car-loans/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
EXCERPT
Bank Australia will stop loaning money to drivers to buy new cars fuelled by petrol or diesel from 2025, it said on Friday.
The decision to stop funding the sale of fossil-fuelled cars is part of the bank’s strategy to achieve net zero by 2035, and comes as the federal government readies to release its National Electric Vehicle Strategy which is expected to put the discussion about legislating fuel emissions squarely on the table.
Chief impact officer Sasha Courville says Bank Australia’s move sends “a signal to the Australian market about the rapid acceleration in the transition from internal combustion to electric vehicles we expect to see in the next few years.”
“We’ve chosen 2025 because the change to electric vehicles needs to happen quickly, and we believe it can with the right supporting policies in place to bring a greater range of more affordable electric vehicles to Australia,” she said….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This REPORT by the Australian Electric Vehicle Council shows that Australians are not too eager to buy an EV, with total EV sales making up just 0.78% of all new car sales in 2020, compared with 10.7% in the UK and 74% in Norway.
https://electricvehiclecouncil.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/EVC_annual_report_-V3-Aug-13th-1.pdf
State of Florida Press Release – July 27, 2022
Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Initiatives to Protect Floridians from ESG Financial Fraud
https://flgov.com/2022/07/27/governor-ron-desantis-announces-initiatives-to-protect-floridians-from-esg-financial-fraud/
EXCERPTS
TAMPA, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced legislative proposals and administrative actions to protect Floridians from the environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) movement which threatens the vitality of the American economy and Americans’ economic freedom by targeting disfavored individuals and industries to advance a woke ideological agenda. To view a one-pager with more information about ESG and today’s announcements, click here.
“The leveraging of corporate power to impose an ideological agenda on society represents an alarming trend,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “From Wall Street banks to massive asset managers and big tech companies, we have seen the corporate elite use their economic power to impose policies on the country that they could not achieve at the ballot box. Through the actions I announced today, we are protecting Floridians from woke capital and asserting the authority of our constitutional system over ideological corporate power.”…
…Governor DeSantis’ proposed legislation for the 2023 Legislative Session will:
Prohibit big banks, credit card companies and money transmitters from discriminating against customers for their religious, political, or social beliefs.
Prohibit State Board of Administration (SBA) fund managers from considering ESG factors when investing the state’s money.
Require SBA fund managers to only consider maximizing the return on investment on behalf of Florida’s retirees.
The proposed legislation will amend Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices statute to prohibit discriminatory practices by large financial institutions based on ESG social credit score metrics.
This “ESG score” is a framework created to force companies to meet ESG standards and arbitrarily includes metrics based on political affiliation, religious beliefs, certain industry engagement, and ESG benchmarks.
Violations will be considered deceptive, and unfair trade practices will be punished according to the law.
Wed August 24, 2022 – Zero Hedge
Go Woke, Get The Hell Out: Texas Bans Wall Street Giants Blackrock, Credit Suisse And Others Over Energy Boycott
(Links and image of entities banned in article)
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/texas-issues-list-energy-boycotting-firms-banned-working-state
EXCERPTS
BlackRock, BNP Paribas, and Credit Suisse are among the list of firms that Texas has just issued that will now be banned from working with the state due to their hostility to the energy industry.
After almost a year of suspense that cost banks business as Texas municipal-bond issuers avoided firms whose status was unclear amid the probe, Bloomberg reports that Glenn Hegar, the Republican state comptroller, on Wednesday named the firms he will prohibit from entering into most contracts with the state and its local entities after his office found they “boycott” the fossil fuel sector.
More than 150 firms were sent detailed inquiries, requesting information on whether they were shunning the oil and gas industry in favor of sustainable investing and financing goals.
As a reminder, the survey was triggered by a GOP-backed state law that took effect on Sept. 1, 2021, and which limits Texas governments from entering into certain contracts with firms that have curbed ties with carbon-emitting energy companies.
Many firms argued that they were simply reacting to customer demand on ESG strategies, but it appears the nation’s to producer of crude and natural gas saw straight through the ESG scam.
BUMP this…
Story #1: Finance Groups Risk Being Kicked Out of Mark Carney-Led Climate Coalition
~~ Mark Carney to Chair New $750B Real Assets Giant
~~ ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) Funds Are Quietly Buying Oil and Gas Stocks to Chase Return
~~ “Exxon is rated top ten best in world for environment, social & governance (ESG) by S&P 500, while Tesla didn’t make the list! ESG is a scam. It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors.”
~~ Nigel Topping: High-Level Climate Action Champion
FROM…
8/26/2022
Interview 1743 – New World Next Week with James Evan Pilato –
Saskatchewan Threatens to Arrest Inspector Trudeau’s Nitrogen Agents – #NewWorldNextWeek
https://www.corbettreport.com/nwnw20220825/
Clipped from above…
…More than 450 finance companies accounting for $130tn of assets have joined the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero.
The initiative, which was announced with great fanfare at last year’s COP summit, is spearheaded by former Bank of England governor and Brookfield Asset Management executive Carney,
alongside ex-New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and
former Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Schapiro…
…the Race to Zero recently updated its rules to make them more onerous.
It introduced tougher criteria in June, including a bar on support for new coal projects.
Existing corporate members will be required to comply with the latest criteria from June next year.
Several people with knowledge of the campaign’s plans said it was in the process of setting up an independent accountability body where civil society groups, including non-governmental organisations, could report financial institutions for not following Race to Zero’s criteria.
Under the plans the body would have the authority to expel financial institutions from Gfanz from the start of 2023. The plan is still contingent on securing the necessary funding, according to one person with direct knowledge of the situation.
“Race to Zero is setting up an inspector general office to police the alliances and other individual commitments,” said one person closely involved in Gfanz. “Carney is all carrot and Race to Zero is creating a stick.”…
JAMES CORBETT ARTICLE – October 16, 2022
(ESG is mentioned repeatedly)
What Is Programmable Money?
https://www.corbettreport.com/what-is-programmable-money/
EXCERPT
…The big deal, of course, is that CBDCs are not like cash or bank deposits or the other forms of payment that we use in our everyday transactions. Instead, they are programmable.
Just like a piece of software running on your computer or an app on your stupidphone, CBDCs can be programmed to act in certain ways.
Conditions can be set on their use.
They can be created or deleted, frozen, devalued or inflated with the click of a button.
And, like any piece of software, they can be updated—with or without your knowledge—to provide new functionality at any time.
So here is the next question we must tackle in this exploration: What can CBDCs be programmed to do?….
Directly Related…
March 12, 2022
Episode 415 – The Global Digital ID Prison
https://www.corbettreport.com/digitalid/
Do you get the feeling digital id is being hyped by every government, corporation, financial institution and globalist-connected NGO as “the way of the future”? Well, you’re right! But why is this being pushed so hard right now. Don’t miss this important edition of The Corbett Report podcast where James lays out the digital ID agenda and how it serves as the linchpin of the entire global enslavement grid.
Friday October 21, 2022 – Activist Post (Paul Joseph Watson)
Australian Bank Begins Linking Customer Transactions to Carbon Footprint
https://www.activistpost.com/2022/10/australian-bank-begins-linking-customer-transactions-to-carbon-footprint.html
EXCERPTS
In another foretaste of potential future ‘carbon allowance’ limits, a major bank in Australia has introduced a new feature that links purchases to a customer’s carbon footprint and warns them when they are going over the average.
Australia’s Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has partnered with Cogo, a “carbon management solutions” company, to launch the new feature, which is part of CBA’s online banking platform.
The bank gives the customer the option to “pay a fee” to offset their carbon footprint, with the average listed as 1,280 kilograms, a long way from the ‘sustainable’ figure of 200 kilograms.
[SEE IMAGES]
A person’s carbon footprint is calculated and then an ‘equivalent’ metric is show to make the customer feel guilty about it, such as “8 trees being cut”.
“By combining our rich customer data and CoGo’s industry-leading capability in measuring carbon outputs, we will be able to provide greater transparency for customers so that they can take actionable steps to reduce their environmental footprint,” CommBank Group executive Angus Sullivan said in a statement.
The bank has promised to refine the calculation down to showing how much CO2 individual purchases are responsible for…
…a proposal was presented in the science journal Nature by four environmental “experts” as a means of reducing global carbon emissions.
Everyone would be issued with a ‘carbon allowance card’ “that would entail all adults receiving an equal tradable carbon allowance that reduces over time in line with national [carbon] targets.”
Friday October 21, 2022 – Bloomberg
Deutsche Bank Pledges to Cut Emissions From Loans to Oil and Gas
https://archive.ph/ip4l6
EXCERPTS
(Bloomberg) — Deutsche Bank AG has given its clearest indication yet of how it plans to deliver on the commitment it made last year to reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050.
Germany’s biggest bank said in a statement Friday that it will “significantly” reduce its so-called Scope 3 emissions, which are also known as financed emissions, by 2030 and announced a set of emissions reductions targets for its 250 billion-euro ($244 billion) corporate loan book.
The bank said it “aims to support a progressive and orderly phasing out of fossil-fuel usage, while incentivizing the financing of lower carbon-intensity technologies and clients with credible transition plans.”
In the oil and gas sector, Deutsche Bank said it plans a 23% reduction in financed emissions by 2030 and a 90% decrease by 2050.
The bank said in March, oil and gas loans are the biggest single component of its financed emissions, accounting for 32% of the total, or 9.7 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year.
Banks that have made high-level commitments to phase out emissions are under growing pressure to provide evidence of how they plan to reach their targets…
…The bank said it aims to achieve these targets by advising clients in carbon-intensive industries and financing their transition strategies and efforts on the path to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
“This is a big step forward in managing the carbon footprint of our loan portfolio actively”, Chief Sustainability Officer Jörg Eigendorf said in the statement.
“We are focusing on supporting our clients on their net zero journey. This is a crucial element of our sustainability strategy.” …
Sunday October 23, 2022 – ARTICLE by James Corbett
How Palantir Conquered the World
https://www.corbettreport.com/how-palantir-conquered-the-world/
Imagine a company that knows everything about everyone.
A company that is equally at ease helping banks identify fraud as it is helping intelligence agencies track down enemies of the state.
A company that can combine pictures of you with your cell phone location data, emails you’ve written, your health records and credit card purchases and thousands of other pieces of electronic data to paint an intimate portrait of your life—a portrait that any would-be investigator can pull up with a few keystrokes.
A company that can target you anywhere in the world at any time.
Now stop imagining that company, because it already exists. It’s called Palantir Technologies.
Founded by billionaire PayPal co-founder and Facebook early investor Peter Thiel, this plucky little Silicon Valley startup has long been the darling of the US military and the intelligence community, and it’s increasingly the darling of the corporate world.
And—given Palantir’s ability to surveil, track and, ultimately, control every aspect of your daily life—it isn’t hard to see why….
Sunday Oct 23, 2022
19 States To Investigate Banks For ESG-Style Commitment To UN Alliance
https://web.archive.org/web/20221023203737/https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/19-states-investigate-banks-esg-style-commitment-un-alliance
EXCERPTS
The war between states and banks over environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing and similar practices has reached the doorstep of the U.N. A total of 19 state attorneys general have launched investigations of major financial institutions’ commitment to the U.N.-convened Net-Zero Banking Alliance.
The alliance’s website states that its members control roughly 40 percent of the world’s banking assets and are “committed to aligning their lending and investment portfolios with net-zero emissions by 2050.”
“The Net-Zero Banking Alliance is a massive worldwide agreement by major banking institutions, overseen by the U.N., to starve companies engaged in fossil fuel-related activities of credit on national and international markets,” Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said in a statement regarding the investigations.
A May statement from the alliance states that it “does not support the financing of fossil fuel expansion” but notes that it “believes that immediate divestment from existing fossil fuel positions will not necessarily bring about the required real economy decarbonization that the world needs.”
“We are leading a coalition investigating banks for ceding authority to the U.N., which will only result in the killing of American companies that don’t subscribe to the woke climate agenda. These banks are accountable to American laws–we don’t let international bodies set the standards for our businesses,” Schmitt said.
Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia are among the states now investigating the banks through a powerful tool known as a civil investigative demand.
One demand encompasses the following requests: “Describe Your involvement in each Global Climate Initiative in which You participate, including the date You first began participating; any promises, pledges, or other commitments You made to the Global Climate Initiative;
or any actions You made or took pursuant to, or consistent with, such commitments, or Your initial or on-going participation, and the employee(s) responsible for managing Your relationship with each Global Climate Initiative.”…
Tuesday October 11th, 2022
Republicans Withdraw $1 Billion From BlackRock Due To Its ESG Policies
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Republicans-Withdraw-1-Billion-From-BlackRock-Due-To-Its-ESG-Policies.html
…In recent weeks, Louisiana, South Carolina, Utah, and Arkansas have announced they would divest funds from BlackRock totaling more than $1 billion….
REFINERIES
[Gasoline and Diesel prices have often been elevated relative to oil prices.]
EXCERPT QUOTE:
“Building a refinery is a multi-billion dollar investment. It may take a decade. We haven’t had a refinery built in the United States since the 1970s. My personal view is that there will never be another refinery built in the United States.”
Oil and gas companies would have to weigh the benefits of committing capital ten years out that will need decades to offer a return to shareholders “in a policy environment where governments around the world are saying ‘we don’t want these products to be used in the future,’” – Chevron CEO Mike Wirth
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Energy-Execs-Tell-Granholm-Shuttered-US-Oil-Refineries-Wont-Restart.html
October 10, 2022 – https://www.activistpost.com/2022/10/federal-reserve-announcement-6-large-banks-will-participate-in-pilot-climate-scenario-or-social-credit-system.html
Federal Reserve Announcement: 6 Large Banks Will Participate In Pilot Climate Scenario Or Social Credit System
By Mac Slavo
The Federal Reserve Board has announced that six of the nation’s largest banks will participate in a pilot climate scenario analysis exercise. This is designed to enhance the ability of supervisors and firms to measure and manage “climate-related financial risks.”
The pilot exercise will be launched in early 2023 and is expected to conclude around the end of the year. At the beginning of the exercise, the Board will publish details of the climate, economic, and financial variables that make up the climate scenario narratives.
The banks in the pilot exercise are Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. In the coming months, the Board will provide additional details on how the exercise will be conducted and the scenarios that will be used in the pilot, according to The Federal Reserve’s official government website.
According to the Dossier on Substack, this pilot program is big for the Fed and is really about a social credit system disguised as climate economics. The Federal Reserve has taken a major step in the direction of facilitating an ESG-compliant monetary network that effectively acts as a parallel system to that of the Chinese Communist Party’s infamous social credit scoring system.
In other words, The Fed is working with the big banks to monitor their ability to comply with the ruling class’s preferred enviro-statist technocratic tyranny. The unaccountable people behind the American money printer claim that this exercise is “exploratory in nature and does not have capital consequences.” What this means, is that the Fed is clearly leaning into the climate hoax narrative or the pseudoscientific idea that humans are catastrophically impacting the climate, but not because they somehow care about the environment. The climate narrative is the chief rhetorical facilitator for the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) movement….
January 26, 2021 – Moneywise via Yahoo
Credit scores may soon be based on your web history — is that a good thing?
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/credit-score-based-history-183000645.html
https://archive.ph/JwGBr
– Referenced IMF Study –
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2020/08/07/Financial-Intermediation-and-Technology-Whats-Old-Whats-New-49624
EXCERPTS
Experts predict that in the not-too-distant future, your internet habits could affect your credit score and help lenders determine what they offer you.
We will let you in on what we know so far about how your online activity could be used to determine how much credit you can get and at what interest rate…
…The credit scores of tomorrow
Lenders could soon be using data from your browsing, search and purchase history — your “digital footprint” — to create a more accurate credit score, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) researchers.
The working paper shows that combining your credit score and your digital footprint “further improves loan default predictions.”
And how exactly would this data be collected and used as part of your credit report? Survey says: Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
The IMF isn’t the only group to ponder such futuristic notions.
A 2018 study from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management also looked at lenders using your personal online data in tandem with traditional data from credit bureaus. So, what does your online behavior really say about you?
Their findings showed “the digital footprint allows some unscorable customers to gain access to credit while customers with a low-to-medium credit score can either gain or lose access to credit depending on their digital footprint.”
In theory, a lender would be able to see a credit report that uses an algorithm to show a mix of your online shopping and browsing habits as well as the traditional financial data like your income and payment history…
…The IMF research acknowledges there would be an “efficiency-privacy trade-off.”…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hat tip to Corbett Member ticop.
https://www.corbettreport.com/dyi-musk/#comment-141853
Nov 11, 2022
Interview 1763 – Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink – #NewWorldNextWeek
https://www.corbettreport.com/nwnw501/
Story #1: UN Demands $2 Trillion A Year From Rich Countries For ‘Climate Justice’
~~ Figueres: First Time the World Economy Is Transformed Intentionally
~~ Whitney Webb Exposes How Green Finance is Monopolizing the Planet
~~ Welcome to the New Economy
Story #2: UK “Nudge Unit” Recommends Banks Track Carbon Footprint of Transactions, Reward “Sustainable Behaviors”
~~ Should Banks Encourage Green Behaviours?
Wed Nov 16, 2022
Vancouver Credit Union to Offer Carbon Footprint Tracker for its Visa Credit Cards
https://truthunmuted.org/vancouver-credit-union-to-offer-carbon-footprint-tracker-for-its-visa-credit-cards/
EXCERPTS
(by Jesse Smith | Truth Unmuted) – Vancity, a Vancouver-based credit union is launching a program that will allow its Visa credit card holders to track the estimated carbon emissions of their purchases. The data offered will also track how their spending-linked emissions compare nationally and which purchases have the highest environmental cost.
[Image of VanCity.com phone app]
The company further announced that,
The Carbon Counter will help Vancity card holders understand the carbon footprint of their purchases as well as provide advice on what they can do to reduce their emissions footprint.
The carbon calculator is being offered in partnership with ecolytiq, a climate-focused, German fintech company focused on “sustainable banking”.
Vancity announced it will be the first to offer a Visa-based carbon footprint calculator in Canada when the program becomes available next year.
Under the guise of reducing emissions and helping to save the planet, carbon footprint trackers are the latest ruse to get people to buy into the the idea that normal human behaviors are destroying the planet. For now, they are being introduced voluntarily, however this may not last for long as the ultimate goal is to utilize them to restrict what you can eat, where you can go, and what you can do.
The following is a prime example of how the U.S. government doesn’t give a crap about the individual welfare of people.
Prelude: The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 is a U.S. federal tax and labor law that establishes minimum standards for pension plans (like a 401k) in private industry. Before this latest move by the Biden admin, the fiduciary duty meant the focus was the financial performance of the fund (and thus focused on the investment strategy and the fees charged).
During the busy Thanksgiving week, the Biden administration snuck through an ESG regulation.
Like the Wall Street Journal (“Biden Puts Your 401(k) to ESG Work”) excerpt says:
“The main point of the Biden rule is to give legal protection to retirement plan fiduciaries that invest based on ESG.
A secondary goal is to steer more retirement savings into ESG funds that often charge higher fees by allowing retirement sponsors to offer them as default options in 401(k) plans. Workers automatically enrolled in default funds can opt out, but they usually don’t.”
ZeroHedge – Friday Nov 25
For Thanksgiving, Biden Stuffs America’s 401(k)s With ESG
https://web.archive.org/web/20221127054914/https://www.zerohedge.com/political/thanksgiving-biden-stuffs-americas-401ks-esg
EXCERPTS
On Tuesday, the Department of Labor finalized a rule that provides regulatory cover for retirement plan sponsors who want to emphasize environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in plan management…
…With Biden’s Thanksgiving week move, that’s all out the window, setting up tens of millions of Americans to have their retirement potential clipped as woke corporations corral their money into ESG-tainted investments…
…In choosing Tuesday of Thanksgiving week to post the rule, the White House was clearly aiming to minimize reporting and public awareness…
…An ESG-managed 401k plan, for example, would have likely prevented employees from benefiting from the 79% year-to-date gain in Exxon Mobil…
…“ESG funds typically charge fees 40 percent higher than traditional funds…”….
For folks who do not know, ESG Funds are a terrible asset class and many do not produce viable long-term financial gains. Most sane people want some financial gains in their retirement investments, not financial losses.
Oh!…by the way…
FTX had stellar ESG ratings right before implosion
EXCERPT
ESG ratings agencies such as S&P Global, MSCI, Sustainalytics, and Truvalue Labs calculate scores for individual companies and compile ESG indices based on a variety of factors such as the degree of diversity among board directors, exposure to greenhouse gas emissions, firearms, and human rights violations.
According to an ESG score from Truvalue Labs, FTX scored higher on “leadership and governance” than ExxonMobil….
https://www.atr.org/ftx-bankruptcy-exposes-esgs-flaws/
…More on Biden’s sneak-thru of ESG on retirement plans…
Here is the Dept of Labor …
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa/about-ebsa/our-activities/resource-center/fact-sheets/final-rule-on-prudence-and-loyalty-in-selecting-plan-investments-and-exercising-shareholder-rights
https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ebsa/temporary-postings/prudence-and-loyalty-in-selecting-plan-investments-and-exercising-shareholder-rights-final-rule.pdf
November 23, 2022 [Good article with links]
DOL Final Rule Rolls Back Restrictions on Retirement Plans’ Use of ESG Factors
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/dol-final-rule-rolls-back-restrictions-on-retirement-plans-use-of-esg-factors.aspx
EXCERPT
— ESG Fund Concerns —
Some have raised concerns about the cost and performance of ESG investment funds.
In response to a related Securities and Exchange Commission request for public input on climate change disclosures by public companies, Jean-Pierre Aubry, assistant director of research at the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College, wrote in a 2021 comment letter about his concern over regulations that “would give credence to the army of asset managers currently promoting ESG investing to retail and institutional investors….”
ESG research by the CRR, he added, found “the major state and local government pension plans that have incorporated ESG factors into their investment policies underperformed those that did not.
The study also finds that most retail ESG funds have higher fees and worse performance than similar index funds.”
CORBETT REPORT
How BlackRock Conquered the World (3 part series of articles)
11/13/2022 In Part 1 of this series, A Brief History of Blackrock, I described how BlackRock came to be the economic and political juggernaut it is today.
11/20/2022 In Part 2 of this series, I examined how BlackRock’s Going Direct reset paved the way for the massive economic and monetary transition that we have just lived through under the cover of the scamdemic.
11/28/2022 Part 3: Aladdin’s Genie and the Future of the World
All three articles linked here – https://www.corbettreport.com/how-blackrock-conquered-the-world-part-3/
EXCERPTS from “Conclusion” in Part 3…
…Once again, we arrive at the bottom line:
the only thing that truly matters is public awareness of the issues involved in the rise of a financial (and political and technological) giant like BlackRock, and it is only general public opinion that can move the needle when it comes to removing the wealth (and thus the power) from a behemoth like the one that Fink has created…
…Now, I realize this is a lot of information to take in at once.
Go ahead and re-read this series once or twice. Follow some of the many links contained herein to better familiarize yourself with the material. Share these reports (or the info contained herein) with others.
But if, after reading all of this you find yourself looking back over these “Top Institutional Holders” lists and saying: “Hey wait! Who’s The Vanguard Group?” . . .
. . . Well then, I’d say you’re starting to get it! Good job! And don’t worry, friends, that is a question we will be exploring in these pages in the not-too-distant future. Stay tuned . . .
IMPORTANT…
In Part 2: GOING DIRECT of the “How BlackRock Conquered the World” Series,
James Corbett goes into detail about the two circuit Federal Reserve monetary system.
In 2020, something happened with that system that has never happened before.
As Corbett writes:
“So, what happened? BlackRock happened, that’s what.”
WATCH THIS to better understand the two circuit system…
CORBETT REPORT – 11/22/2022 (one hour)
Episode 433 – CBDCs: Beyond the Basics
https://www.corbettreport.com/cbdc/
We all know that central bank digital currencies are bad news.
But do you know the difference between retail and wholesale CBDCs?
And do you know why the American Bankers Association is against the implementation of retail or intermediated CBDCs?
Today James takes you beyond the basics and begins introducing you to the split circuit monetary system as we dive deeper down the programmable money rabbit hole.
Thursday December 1, 2022 – Robert Rapier at OilPrice.com
How Much Has Harvard’s Fossil Fuel Divestment Cost It?
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/How-Much-Has-Harvards-Fossil-Fuel-Divestment-Cost-It.html
EXCERPTS
~~ Harvard University made news last year when it announced that it had divested from the fossil fuel industry.
~~ The energy sector has been the top-performing sector for the past 2.5 years.
~~ Estimates put Harvard’s missed earnings because of its fossil fuel divestment at around $1 billion.
Over the past decade, climate and environmental activists have pushed organizations to divest fossil fuel investments. According to Gofossilfree.org — an organization that describes itself as “A global movement to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all” — to date 1,552 institutions have divested.
The total value of the institutions divesting is estimated to be $40.5 trillion.
The purpose of the divestment movement is to starve fossil fuel companies of the investments they need to develop new resources.
Activists are attempting to address fossil fuel consumption by curbing supplies…
…When you curb supply without a commensurate decrease in demand, you cause the price of oil and gas to rise.
That, in turn, causes the value of the companies that produce the oil and gas to rise…
…Year-to-date (YTD), the total return of the energy holdings in the S&P 500 Index — as measured by the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) — is +70.8%….
Thursday December 1, 2022 – Bloomberg
Florida Will Pull $2 Billion of Assets From BlackRock Over ESG
https://archive.ph/Xmjuo
EXCERPTS
The state treasury will immediately have Florida’s custody bank freeze about $1.43 billion worth of long-term securities and remove BlackRock as the manager of approximately $600 million worth of short-term overnight investments, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said in a statement on Thursday.
The pullback is the latest step in a broader fight led by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis against corporations that embrace environmental, social and corporate governance values.
“I need partners within the financial services industry who are as committed to the bottom line as we are – and I don’t trust BlackRock’s ability to deliver,” Patronis said in the statement.
“Using our cash, however, to fund BlackRock’s social-engineering project isn’t something Florida ever signed up for,” he said.
“It’s got nothing to do with maximizing returns and is the opposite of what an asset manager is paid to do. Florida’s Treasury Division is divesting from BlackRock because they have openly stated they’ve got other goals than producing returns.”
Reuters reported Florida’s planned divestiture earlier. The Florida Department of Financial Services manages approximately $60 billion in taxpayer money….