12 September | Online

In the ex-HSBC AM global head of responsible investing, Stuart Kirk’s, now infamous “nut job” speech he talked about the battle of the “shrill”, whereby rival commentators make more and more outlandish claims/counterclaims in order to grab the headlines.

Part of any financial stakeholder’s responsibility is to cut through the “shrill” to find the facts. Carbon Tracker prides itself in our role in assisting you do this and the 4th edition of our Absolute Impact report, which assesses and ranks the climate goals of the largest publicly traded oil and gas companies, is a prime example of this commitment.

Here are those facts. Irrespective of the Paris agreement, claims/counterclaims about energy security or wondrous new future technologies, there is well-established, massive energy system, that is expanding at great speed and accelerating the decline in demand for oil and gas. Therefore, when you look at climate goals, you are not only assessing the reaction to the climate issue, but you are effectively looking at the attitudes of those companies towards this demand threat.

Emissions are waste and a management not committed to reducing scope 1 & 2 is not focused on efficiency/profitability. A management that does not target scope 3 is not recognising a key metric for structural changes in future demand. A company not setting interim targets is betting that this threat is a long way off. And a company that is using unrealistic offsetting targets is disrespecting our intelligence.

This report does the following:

1. Shows you which management is preparing itself for a different future and which is not.
2. Is part of a series of reports, each designed to be used in conjunction with other investor bespoke screening methods to monitor existing investments or pick out future ones.
3. Will provide investment and engagement teams questions to ask your current or target management teams.
4. Should help compliance and c-suites navigate the threat of falling foul of AUM busting “greenwashing” claims against the marketing of your sustainable products.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or would like to find out more, please do not hesitate to contact Said at sashrafkhanov@carbontracker.org