• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
  FEATURED
‘Huge Loss’ for Local Green Economy as Vancouver Shutters Its Economic Commission September 28, 2023
Leading Climate Models Underestimate Clean Energy Progress, Overstate Cost, Study Finds September 28, 2023
Green Space Groups Gear for Bigger Fights After Ontario Reverses Greenbelt Land Grab September 28, 2023
Put Lower-Income Households First in Line for Low-Carbon Technologies: Samson September 28, 2023
Fossil Fuels Fall 25% by 2030, Renewables ‘Keep the Path Open’ in IEA Net-Zero Update September 26, 2023
Next
Prev

Capital Markets ‘Shift Decisively’ Out of Oil and Gas as Investors Place Their Bets on Renewables

February 10, 2021
Reading time: 2 minutes

/NYU Stern

/NYU Stern

12
SHARES
 

Investors are increasingly placing their bets with renewable energy and abandoning oil and gas, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis reports, in an analysis that shows capital markets “shifting decisively towards cleaner investments”.

While the American Petroleum Institute maps out a possible future in which fossils revive their own fortunes by embracing a “new energy boom,” IEEFA oil and gas industry analyst Trey Cowan says the financial community may already be past that point. “Most signs suggest a long-term capital flight away from fossil fuel firms and toward companies that have fully embraced the energy transition,” he writes.

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
Subscribe

Cowan illustrates the point with a comparison of two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States—iShares Global Clean Energy (stock code: ICLN), a bucket of 30 renewable energy stocks whose combined value has nearly quadrupled in the last four years, and iShares Global Energy ETF (IXC), an oil and gas-focused fund whose 59 companies fell 17% over the same time span.

“The companies in ICLN are mostly small, averaging just US$206 million in market capitalization, while the IXC constituents average $17.3 billion in market cap,” Cowan writes. “Smaller companies also tend to be riskier and more volatile. But even though its constituents are small, ICLN enjoyed $3.5 billion in capital inflows over the past year, dwarfing the relatively paltry $435 million that trickled into IXC.”

That contrast “may illustrate just how dramatically clean energy captures the imaginations of investors looking at long-term trends,” he adds, as does the relative performance of the “energy sector”—which is curiously defined to exclude renewables—within the wider stock market. In 2010, “energy” was the third-largest of the 11 sectors in the S&P 500, accounting for 12.27% of the index. At the end of last year, it placed dead last, at just 2.28%.

“As the capital exodus from fossil fuels has accelerated, socially responsible investment strategies have blossomed,” Cowan says. “Funds with environmental, social, and governance criteria now comprise one-third of the $51.4 trillion of assets under management in the U.S., according to the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment.”

And while U.S. fossils are taking “tentative steps” toward cleaner operations, he cites a Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas survey that tracked a difference between larger and smaller companies: while 83% of larger producers are laying plans to cut emissions, reduce natural gas flaring, or recycle water, only 46% of companies with output below 10,000 barrels per day are taking similar steps.

Cowan says a trend toward industry consolidation, with larger companies buying out smaller ones, may slow the momentum toward somewhat less environmentally destructive practices. But even among the world’s biggest fossils, there’s still a great deal of room for improvement, Canada’s Pembina Institute noted late last year.



in Climate & Society, Community Climate Finance, Ending Emissions, Fossil Fuels, Jurisdictions, Oil & Gas, Shale & Fracking, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Iota 9/Wikimedia Commons
Cities & Communities

‘Huge Loss’ for Local Green Economy as Vancouver Shutters Its Economic Commission

September 28, 2023
1
Solarimo/pixabay
Ending Emissions

Leading Climate Models Underestimate Clean Energy Progress, Overstate Cost, Study Finds

September 28, 2023
2
Duffins Agriculture Preserve/North Country House Media via Greenbelt Foundation
Ontario

Green Space Groups Gear for Bigger Fights After Ontario Reverses Greenbelt Land Grab

September 28, 2023
151

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Cullen328/wikimedia commons

Manufactured Housing Could Dent the Affordable Housing Crunch with Energy-Efficient Designs

September 20, 2023
622
Mark Dixon/wikimedia commons

Hundreds of Thousands March in Global Climate Strike

September 19, 2023
211
Jon Sullivan/flickr

Thorold Gas Peaker Plant Won’t Be Built After Unanimous City Council Vote

September 21, 2023
749
Jason Blackeye/Unsplash

Fossil Fuels Fall 25% by 2030, Renewables ‘Keep the Path Open’ in IEA Net-Zero Update

September 28, 2023
403
/Piqusels

‘Beginning of the End’ for Oil and Gas as IEA Predicts Pre-2030 Peak

September 19, 2023
845
Duffins Agriculture Preserve/North Country House Media via Greenbelt Foundation

Green Space Groups Gear for Bigger Fights After Ontario Reverses Greenbelt Land Grab

September 28, 2023
151

Recent Posts

Iota 9/Wikimedia Commons

‘Huge Loss’ for Local Green Economy as Vancouver Shutters Its Economic Commission

September 28, 2023
1
Solarimo/pixabay

Leading Climate Models Underestimate Clean Energy Progress, Overstate Cost, Study Finds

September 28, 2023
2
DiscoverEganville/wikimedia commons

EV Rentals to Improve Transportation Access for Ontario Townships

September 28, 2023
1
shopblocks/flickr

E-Bikes, Scooters Overwhelm Toronto Bike Lanes

September 28, 2023
2
kelly8843496 / Pixabay

Put Lower-Income Households First in Line for Low-Carbon Technologies: Samson

September 28, 2023
2
Power lines, Mississauga, Canada

Two First Nations Groups Vie to Build Northern Ontario Power Line

September 28, 2023
111
Next Post
Nicole Rycroft

In Conversation: New Fibre Sources Are Key to Protecting Forest Ecosystems, Drawing Down Carbon, Rycroft Says

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
The Energy Mix - Energy Central
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}