Description: Ten years ago a think-tank known as the Carbon Tracker Initiative concluded that the amount of fossil-fuel reserves held by corporations was about five times greater than the amount scientists had concluded the planet could reasonably absorb. The finding, in a sense, paved the path to the divestiture movement. In these last ten years, investors have dumped approximately $15 trillion in fossil-fuel investments. A recent report from the giant firm Blackrock indicates that dumping these investments has not hurt returns, indicating that the momentum for this divesting trend may well continue.

Date:  April 3, 2021

Source:  newyorker.com

 Link: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-powerful-new-financial-argument-for-fossil-fuel-divestment?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_040321&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd6743724c17c104800c5b3&cndid=33552549&hasha=760be779956395955cfbba5c497d22a3&hashb=af69b9c980e3f500b8bc4bf515a4150e6f9abf39&hashc=1c3c9c6937dd5b7cd72c3bdb6663aa0c6823d1897d0b506717f3610833325c8b&esrc=Auto_Subs&mbid=CRMNYR012019&utm_term=TNY_Daily

Discussion points:

1) Has your university divested of fossil fuels from its endowments and other investments?

2) Do you support the trend towards divestment? Have you participated in the movement on campus?

3) Chapter 9 of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making, deals with the issue of asset impairment (see 9-16). At what point do you think the resource producers will have to consider writing down their reserves of carbon-producing resources?