As You Sow is lucky enough to be based in Oakland, California. When Gov. Jerry Brown announced that our neighbor San Francisco would host a Global Climate Action Summit, our ears perked up. The fact that the summit coincided with the UN PRI-In Person meeting further called our attention.
When a company has too much cash its executives and directors puzzle the question: What should we do with the money? Should we update our facilities? Should we invest in new research? Should we build a new plant? Should we increase benefits or wages?
Rapid cost declines have made clean renewable energy the United States’ cheapest available source of new electricity. And that’s reason to be skeptical of putting your savings in coal-related stocks. Coal-fired power companies could be at risk of “stranded assets”.
Methane, which has approximately 86 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, is the main component of natural gas. Emissions of this potent climate forcer occur throughout the oil and gas supply chain. A recent EDF study demonstrated this problem could be 60% worse than previously thought, chipping away at gas’ climate benefit over coal.
