This article was originally published on Bloomberg Tax here. Reproduced with permission. Published January 13, 2023. Copyright 2023 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (800-372-1033)
The discussion of this topic within the Boston Area Sustainability Group started with reflections on the effectiveness of incentives to accelerate adoption of sustainability-minded solutions (e.g., residential/community solar, electric cars) and the creation of green jobs. That path quickly led organizers to the topic of subsidies and the environment more generally – big and small, well- and poorly-designed, local and broad.
Ron Steenblik and Doug Koplow join the Cosmopolicast (part of the Cosmopolitan Globalist) and hosts Claire Berlinski and Vivek Y. Kelkar for an hour of discussion about energy subsidies and environmentally-harmful subsidies. How did we end up working on this issue? How big are they? How can people better understand the opaque, perverse, and often counterproductive nature of energy subsidies?
Harvard Management Company is responsible for investing the Harvard endowment. The annual Climate Report is the primary way that HMC communicates with the general public on its actions to move the portfolio to net zero by 2050. Though this is the second year the Climate Report has been produced, reporting remains sparse and overly general. The result is a document that is largely unhelpful in properly evaluating HMC's progress, interim milestones, and key challenges. Earth Track has provided detailed commentary on the second Climate Report in the attached document.
Industry-specific reviews of government subsidies have been much more common than analyses examining several natural resource sectors at once. Yet there is a great deal of overlap across sectors. Indeed, it is the combination of support provided by multiple levels of government and government programs, across numerous natural resource areas, that can accelerate resource depletion, pollution, or habitat loss in particular regions.
The United States has supported the development of its oil and gas industry since the early twentieth century. Despite repeated pledges to phase out 'inefficient' fossil fuel subsidies, US oil and gas production continues to be subsidized by billions of dollars each year. In this study, we quantify how 16 subsidies and regulatory exemptions individually and altogether affect the economics of US oil and gas production in 2020–2030 under different price and financial risk outlooks.
Harvard has the largest university endowment in the world. Its investments are run by the affiliated Harvard Management Company (HMC), which operates under the Treasurer of the University and the Harvard Corporation. The University has committed that the endowment will be net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The stature of both the University and its endowment mean that real innovations in investment tracking, measurement, and selection would have enormous ripple effects across many other large investors. At present, however, there have been no interim mileston
Harvard Management Company (HMC), which manages Harvard University’s nearly $42 billion endowment, released its first Climate Report in February 2021. As the largest university endowment in the world, decisions Harvard makes to tangibly and materially reduce the climate impact of its investments will garner significant attention around the world and provide space for many other institutions to make similar moves. Further, the school has the scale and the stature to coordinate with other institutional investors and accelerate the pace of financial innovation across asset
When it comes to tackling the climate crisis, ending $400 billion of annual subsidies to the fossil-fuel industry worldwide seems like a no-brainer. For the past decade, world leaders have been resolving and reaffirming the need to phase them out.