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Investment

Is Your City Or State Investing In Israeli Bonds Or Fossil Fuels?

Divestment doesn’t necessarily have a big, direct economic impact on the target of a divestment campaign, but history has shown divestment can be a powerful tool for galvanizing broader support around causes that might seem distant or foreign. Nobody likes to get caught with their hands in the cookie jar. But until someone digs into the numbers, all of our hands are in more cookie jars than we realize. In Palm Beach County, Florida, the local government outright told county residents about one of the jars they were reaching into together: government bonds issued by the state of Israel. Back in March, Palm Beach County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller Joseph Abruzzo held a press conference announcing that the county government was the world’s largest investor in “Israel Bonds,” which made up $700 million of the Florida county’s $4.67 billion investment portfolio.

Leaders From 185 Countries Launch Biodiversity Protection Fund

In a meeting of the Global Environment Facility (GEF)’s Seventh Assembly in Vancouver, Canada on Thursday, representatives from 185 countries agreed to launch a new global conservation fund, with Canada pledging 200 million Canadian dollars and the United Kingdom contributing 10 million pounds. The United Nations is seeking contributions for the protection of 30 percent of terrestrial and coastal areas by 2030. “The new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) has been designed to mobilize and accelerate investment in the conservation and sustainability of wild species and ecosystems, whose health is under threat from wildfires, flooding, extreme weather, and human activity including urban sprawl,” a press release from the Global Environment Facility said.

Philadelphia Nonprofit Gives Latino Entrepreneurs The Boost They Need

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - When Juan Placencia opened a ghost kitchen in Philadelphia at the end of 2020, the experience wasn’t what he expected. Even with his impressive credentials — he is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of Arts and has experience in Michelin-starred restaurants and working with James Beard award-winner Christina Martinez — he struggled to make his take-out restaurant successful. “The investment in partaking in this type of system was much higher than a brick and mortar, but it wasn’t advertised that way,” he says. “Since then I began looking for a restaurant space.”

Four People Arrested At Invesco’s Shareholders’ Meeting In Atlanta

Yesterday afternoon people interrupted and disrupted Invesco‘s annual shareholders’ meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. Invesco responded by dragging them out of the meeting. A crowd rallied outside of the shareholders’ meeting calling for Invesco to end their investments in the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, Rhode Island. The protest ended with four people being arrested. The Wyatt has faced controversy and ongoing protests after signing a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2019, allowing the Wyatt to detain people on behalf of the agency. After this contract was signed, widespread community opposition led the board overseeing the Wyatt to cancel the agreement with ICE.

Warren Buffett’s Company Backs Out Of Quebec Energy Project Due To Anti-Pipeline Blockades

Berkshire Hathaway has pulled out of a proposed large investment in the liquid natural gas pipeline near Quebec’s Saguenay port. Warren Buffetts’s investment company had been planning to invest $4 billion in the project. The $9.5 billion LNG project is meant to be built about 230 kilometers northeast of Quebec City, according to CBC News.

US Hit Record $55.5B Renewables Investments In 2019

A last-minute push from U.S. investors on wind in response to the Production Tax Credit winding down, as well as bullish investments from Europe and China on offshore wind, led to a surge in investments at the end of 2019, momentum that's anticipated to carry through 2020, according to BloombergNEF. "What was looking like quite a quiet year really kind of changed in the last few months with all these offshore wind deals coming through," Chief Editor at BloombergNEF Angus McCrone told Utility Dive.

Poor Neighborhoods Need More Than ‘Investment’

Where some of us see distressed neighborhoods — where families endure poverty and homes fall into disrepair — others see dollar signs. In fact, the Trump administration now brands them “opportunity zones,” offering tax breaks to investors who invest capital there. What remains unclear is this: Opportunity for whom? Big investors may stand to cash in, but many communities are saying they’re not getting the benefits they were promised.

World’s Largest Bank Ends Fossil Fuel Financing

The bank's decision to end all financing of oil, gas, and coal projects after 2021 will make it the first multilateral lender to rule out financing for projects that contribute to the climate crisis. Environmentalists have a reason to celebrate this week. The European Investment Bank (EIB) announced on Thursday that it will phase out its financing completely for fossil fuels within the next two years. The bank’s decision to end all financing of oil, gas, and coal projects after 2021 will make it the first multilateral lender to rule out financing for projects that contribute to the climate crisis.

Benefits Of Investing In Climate Adaptation Far Outweigh Costs, Commission Says

Images of devastating storm damage and droughts around the world this year have been drawing attention to the risks of global warming, particularly to the world's poorest people. Cutting emissions is critical to minimizing those risks, but a new report argues that the world needs to devote an equally urgent effort to adapting to the changes that are sure to come. The report, released Tuesday by the Global Commission on Adaptation, argues that a drastic increase in investing in adaptation measures, such as early warning systems and resilient infrastructure...

Solar Investment Down Nearly 20% From The First Half Of 2017

Despite the drop, overall investment remains stable, with wind and other clean energy technologies picking up the slack. New data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance shows a 19 percent reduction in solar financing in the first half of 2018, compared to the same period last year. Continued declines in project costs, along with a policy shakeup in China, drove the drop. BNEF expects the ramifications from both to build in the second half of the year.  But where investment in solar faltered, other clean energy technologies made up the difference. Wind saw a particularly sharp 33 percent increase in investment over the first half of 2017, rising to a total of $57.2 billion. While lower relative to previous years, solar investments still outperformed wind so far this year at $71.6 billion. Overall, clean energy investment dropped just 1 percent and totaled $138.2 billion in the first half of 2018.

Wind Farms Boost Tax Base For Local U.S. Governments

NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) - Wind farms have boosted local tax bases and generated new revenue as they expand across the United States, especially for rural areas, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report on Monday. “What we’re seeing is wind farms generate new operating revenues, lower the tax burden for local residents,” Moody’s analyst Frank Mamo told Reuters. “In many cases, local governments are using this new money to address what was a growing backlog of deferred capital expenditures.” In Adair County, Iowa, construction of 10 new wind farms has grown the tax base nearly 30 percent over the last decade, giving it money to fix bridges and streets. Wind farm taxes are also paying over 40 percent of debt service for Webb Consolidated Independent School District in Texas, Moody’s noted.

Theresa May’s Husband’s Investment Firm Made A Financial Killing From The Bombing Of Syria

It is common knowledge that Theresa May’s husband Philip essentially acts as the unofficial advisor to the Prime Minister – a fact proven by the former Conservative MP for Chichester, Andrew Tyrie, who said during a Newsnight profile of the PM’s husband that “Philip is clearly acting as, informally, an advisor to Theresa. Probably much like Denis did to Margaret Thatcher.”  Whilst it is pretty obvious that almost all married couples act as informal advisors to each other in come capacity, Tyrie’s admission that the Prime Minister’s husband has such a great influence over his wife’s decisions is made all the more worrying by the fact that Mr May – who is a Senior Executive at a £1.4Tn investment firm – stands to benefit financially from the decisions his wife, the Prime Minister, makes.

FANG Collective Declares Victory In The Shame On Citizens Campaign

On Thursday activists and organizers with The FANG Collective, the Shame On Citizens campaign and other groups celebrated after learning that Citizens Bank had ended their financing of Energy Transfer Partners (ETP). Citizens Bank faced waves of demonstrations last year over their dealings with ETP and their sister company Sunoco Logistics. This included a lock-down action at the Citizens Bank headquarter building in Providence on March 2, 2017 carried out by the FANG Collective. Three people were arrested as part of the action. ETP is one of the most reckless corporations on the planet. Across the continent they have desecrated waterways and used violence and intimidation to try and silence opposition. ETP must be held accountable for their actions. We need more financial institutions to do what Citizens Bank has done and cut their ties with ETP.

Oil Investors Call For Human Rights Risk Report After Standing Rock

The clash between the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and backers of the Dakota Access pipeline unfolded in news clips of violence, intolerance and humiliation. Demonstrators against the pipeline were met with snarling guard dogs, armed security officers and fire hoses that drenched them during freezing weather. For a block of shareholders in Marathon Petroleum Corp., an Ohio-based company that bought a minority interest in the Dakota Access pipeline just as tensions hit a flashpoint in 2016, it was an unsettling scene that played out on social media and network news. What happened in full view of the world on the remote plains of North Dakota has prompted a shareholder resolution calling on Marathon to explain how it identifies and addresses environmental and social risks—including potential violations of the rights of indigenous peoples...

China Is Financing Petrochemical Hub In Appalachia

Over the past year, oil and gas industry plans to build a petrochemical refining and storage hub along the Ohio River have steadily gained traction. Proponents hope this potential hub, which would straddle Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky, could someday rival the industrial corridor found along the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana. Those plans center around creating what is known as the Appalachian Storage Hub, which received a major boost on November 9 during a trade mission to China attended by President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. At that trade mission, also attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the China Energy Investment Corp. announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to invest $83.7 billion into the planned storage hub over 20 years.
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