Climate change hits radar
St. Paul Pioneer Press | 10/09/2005 | Climate change hits radar
One of the deadliest U.S. hurricane seasons in more than a century has some Wall Street investors sounding like members of the Sierra Club.
Firms including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are telling U.S. clients for the first time that climate change poses financial risks. With damage estimates for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as high as $200 billion, an increasing number of investors are joining public pension funds in urging action on global warming, which scientists say may be making storms more powerful.
Even before Katrina flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, Goldman's chief investment strategist, Abby Joseph Cohen, was signaling a shift on Wall Street.
"Environmental issues, in particular climate change, are receiving increased focus from the investment community," Cohen said in an Aug. 26 report to clients.
"Katrina is going to be a big stimulus for Washington to act," said Morton Cohen, a hedge fund manager at Cleveland-based Clarion Group, which manages $200 million in assets, almost half of which are energy-related. "It's pretty obvious we have to do something about building refineries in this country and diminishing our amount of coal-burning toxins."
The concerns on Wall Street may step up pressure on President Bush to drop or soften his opposition to mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas emissions.
"The Bush administration has gotten itself in a box," said Marc Levinson, a JPMorgan Chase economist in New York. "It continues to say global warming may not really be a problem, even though by now almost everyone who has seriously looked at the issue says this is a problem."
Utilities including Exelon Corp. and lawmakers including Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, support national limits on greenhouse emissions.
— Bloomberg News
China pushing for free trade
China has a new calling card: champion of free trade.
Since March, Beijing has opened free-trade talks with South Korea, Pakistan, Australia and Iceland. In November, it signed deals with Thailand, Malaysia and eight other Southeast Asian countries. Even though China's government still controls large swaths of the country's economy, it has sealed or is seeking free-trade pacts with 25 countries — up from zero two years ago.
All this is raising alarms within the Bush administration, whose own trade agenda has lost momentum amid rising protectionism in Congress. In particular, Washington is fretting over China's courting of countries on the outs with the U.S., including Venezuela, Cuba, Sudan and Uzbekistan.
Chinese officials say they aren't trying to rival the U.S. or stir trouble. Beijing's trade and investment agenda, they say, is designed to support an economy dependent on exports that also has a thirst for energy and raw materials. In addition, for decades, U.S. presidents have urged China to join the international economy and to take its rightful place on the diplomatic stage.
"Ironically, now our teachers are getting worried because we, the students, followed your advice so faithfully and became so successful," said Long Yongtu, a former deputy trade minister who led China into the World Trade Organization, in a May speech to the Institute for International Economics in Washington. "As the students, we believe that our teachers should not be worried about that."
— Wall Street Journal
One of the deadliest U.S. hurricane seasons in more than a century has some Wall Street investors sounding like members of the Sierra Club.
Firms including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are telling U.S. clients for the first time that climate change poses financial risks. With damage estimates for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as high as $200 billion, an increasing number of investors are joining public pension funds in urging action on global warming, which scientists say may be making storms more powerful.
Even before Katrina flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, Goldman's chief investment strategist, Abby Joseph Cohen, was signaling a shift on Wall Street.
"Environmental issues, in particular climate change, are receiving increased focus from the investment community," Cohen said in an Aug. 26 report to clients.
"Katrina is going to be a big stimulus for Washington to act," said Morton Cohen, a hedge fund manager at Cleveland-based Clarion Group, which manages $200 million in assets, almost half of which are energy-related. "It's pretty obvious we have to do something about building refineries in this country and diminishing our amount of coal-burning toxins."
The concerns on Wall Street may step up pressure on President Bush to drop or soften his opposition to mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas emissions.
"The Bush administration has gotten itself in a box," said Marc Levinson, a JPMorgan Chase economist in New York. "It continues to say global warming may not really be a problem, even though by now almost everyone who has seriously looked at the issue says this is a problem."
Utilities including Exelon Corp. and lawmakers including Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, support national limits on greenhouse emissions.
— Bloomberg News
China pushing for free trade
China has a new calling card: champion of free trade.
Since March, Beijing has opened free-trade talks with South Korea, Pakistan, Australia and Iceland. In November, it signed deals with Thailand, Malaysia and eight other Southeast Asian countries. Even though China's government still controls large swaths of the country's economy, it has sealed or is seeking free-trade pacts with 25 countries — up from zero two years ago.
All this is raising alarms within the Bush administration, whose own trade agenda has lost momentum amid rising protectionism in Congress. In particular, Washington is fretting over China's courting of countries on the outs with the U.S., including Venezuela, Cuba, Sudan and Uzbekistan.
Chinese officials say they aren't trying to rival the U.S. or stir trouble. Beijing's trade and investment agenda, they say, is designed to support an economy dependent on exports that also has a thirst for energy and raw materials. In addition, for decades, U.S. presidents have urged China to join the international economy and to take its rightful place on the diplomatic stage.
"Ironically, now our teachers are getting worried because we, the students, followed your advice so faithfully and became so successful," said Long Yongtu, a former deputy trade minister who led China into the World Trade Organization, in a May speech to the Institute for International Economics in Washington. "As the students, we believe that our teachers should not be worried about that."
— Wall Street Journal
posted by Marcel at 7:02 AM
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