Weekly clippings #22 - the Sun's role, RCP8.5, KYC to KYP, costly renewables, ESG bonuses and ratings, Alps disaster

 Another week has sped by already. This project is growing on me and I plan to convert it to a blog where my comments and associated links can be accessed in full at any time. (Done!)
 
Yesterday I attended the Advocis Update, an annual 6-hour deep dive into four topics to provide continuing education for advisors. The last segment was about ESG and featured a representative from BMO. As usual for this subject, many errors in her presentation, but I’ll direct those comments to Advocis for their consideration. The audience was asked how many of us were being asked about ESG and only one advisor in about 50 had any engagement with it, and came to speak with me after my comments, seeking references for what I had said. Again, a lack of real due diligence creating business and reputational risk.
 
This week in the Science category I bring you a study (one among many) showing how the influence of the Sun is greatly understated in climate models (perhaps this is why they are so inaccurate?) and one scientist’s digging into a major error of the IPCC that remains uncorrected.

In the Investment/Economics category, several articles but I draw your attention to the first one because it prompted me to write a rebuttal. Also, articles that detail why “renewables” make electricity more expensive, how the myth of green energy is over, how ESG bonuses distort executive decisions, and how ESG ratings are replete with conflicts of interest.
 
In Absurdities, we have countries refusing to release data about offshore wind killing whales, Switzerland considering banning EVs sometimes in the winter, and decades of devastation ahead as the Alps melt – but that was claimed 20 years ago and what devastation has happened? Zilch.

Empirical assessment of the role of the Sun in climate change using balanced multi-proxy solar records The IPCC assumes the Sun has little impact on climate change while empirical measurements suggest otherwise. This study highlights important solar-climate mechanisms that need to be considered before climate models can be considered reliable.

How Climate Change Became Apocalyptic - Digging deeper into the IPCC's most consequential error When the RCPs were characterized in the AR5 reports in 2013 and 2014, RCP6.0 and RCP4.5 had been transformed from baseline scenarios to policy scenarios, and RCP8.5 remained as the only baseline scenario. However, in 2023 the continued support of RCP8.5 in the face of overwhelming and undeniable evidence that it is out-of-date, certainly does have a political element.

From KYC to KYP: how one advisor weaves responsible investing into his practice  and my rebuttal comments.

EIA projects global energy consumption will outpace efficiency gains in most cases  Global energy-related CO2 emissions will increase by 2050 in a number of IEO2023 cases as global population growth and higher living standards push growth in energy consumption beyond advances in energy efficiency.

 The Six Ways Renewables Increase Electricity Bills Only the displacement effect could theoretically reduce costs to consumers, but in practice this is likely to be zero, because of the urgent need to keep gas-fired power stations on the grid. In summary, it seems implausible that windfarms will ever reduce costs.

1. The inefficiency effect

2. The capacity market effect

3. The levy effect

4. Constraints payments

5. Artificial inertia

6. The transmission effect

The myth of affordable green energy is over The market has started to look, if not like a ponzi scheme, then like a house of cards built on the shakiest of foundations.

ESG bonuses are on the rise: Are they improving sustainability or just increasing executive wealth?  Some executives seem to use their power to obtain higher bonuses from ESG incentives. This seems to happen particularly in environmentally sensitive industries (mining or oil and gas, for example) or in firms that have other corporate governance mechanisms in place, like sustainability committees.

ESG ratings: whose interests do they serve?  The European Commission said in June that potential conflicts of interest plague ESG data giants in three areas: the sale of ratings, data and indices to the same investor clients; the sale of consultancy services to help companies improve their ratings; and the practice of charging companies to display their own rating on financial products. 

It's Not Just U.S.: UK Government Refuses to Share Data on Offshore Wind-Related Whale Strandings  The 2018 tally of 1000+ cetaceans stranded on UK beaches, compares with an annual reported average of around 200 or less over a period of 106 years, since records began. That’s more than a five-fold increase. What changed? Could it be the rapid increase in offshore wind farms?

Switzerland to Ban EV's From the Roads During Winter Weather Events  The government’s answer to a dearth of generation capacity its policies have created is not to permit the installation of new capacity, but to place increasing hardships and deprivations on the little people.

Decades of devastation ahead as global warming melts the Alps  Oh wait. That one was in 2003. And it thundered “scientists now believe global warming is melting the Alps, threatening widespread devastation over the next two decades.” So we’ve been living through that “widespread devastation” for 20 years without noticing.