Opinion | In climate fight, Wall Street picks polluters over renewables - The Capital Times

Opinion | In climate fight, Wall Street picks polluters over renewables | Plain Talk by Dave Zweifel | captimes.com

For those who believe that nothing means more to Wall Street than the almighty dollar, there's yet more evidence that they're right.

In his weekly business strategies column, Jeff Sommer of the New York Times reported on the phenomenon that as the world warms, oil stocks are booming while clean energy stocks are sagging.

Although the International Energy Agency, the world's leading energy authority, has declared that the climate is warming at an alarming rate, the stock market is rewarding the fossil fuel corporations while souring on wind, solar and other alternative energy companies.

If the planet is to avoid even more severe consequences from global warming, the agency says, consumption of oil, coal and natural gas needs to be reduced much more rapidly, and clean energy sources like wind and solar power need to expand at a far faster pace.

"But the stock market doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo," Sommer writes.

"It’s a perplexing state of affairs. The evidence that carbon emissions are warming the planet is persuasive. Yet the stock market, which is supposed to be forward-looking, is treating alternative energy companies with disdain and big oil companies with respect," he adds.

This despite the push to build more solar and wind equipment and a huge increase in the number of jobs related to clean energy.

Earlier this week the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the European agency that tracks such things, reported that October 2023 was the fifth straight month that was the warmest on record. Another scientific study concluded that in just five years the world will exceed the 2.7 Fahrenheit threshold set by the Paris climate agreement.

A warmer planet means more extreme and intense weather like drought, hurricanes, wildfires and other catastrophic events that require billions of dollars to mitigate.

Sommer pointed out that if the stock market heeded scientists' calls for action, "you might expect that the alternative energy shares would be booming and that big oil companies would be pouring most of their money into renewable resources.

"But in its collective wisdom, the stock market seems to be embracing a different and contrary vision."

Some clean energy stocks are down by as much as 50% during the past few months, even though the corporations are investing massive resources into alternative energy projects.

Meanwhile, while big fossil fuel giants like Exxon and Chevron are making record profits thanks to rising oil prices, Wall Street investors are pumping more money into them.

It's clear that as far as Wall Street is concerned, the short-term profits are much more important than the long-term need to combat the climate crisis.

Once the use of fossil fuels starts to wane, the market will undoubtedly move toward clean energy stocks. Unfortunately, by the time that happens, it may be too late.