Archive for June, 2009

High Court action tries to force RBS to invest bailout funds in socially responsible vehicles.

June 30, 2009 Change for Good, Finance

The World Development Movement, Platform and People and Planet have gone to court, hoping to force RBS (majority government owned) to invest taxpayers’ money in companies meeting minimum green and human rights standards. RBS once marketed itself as “the oil and gas bank,” and has long been one of the top lenders to the traditional energy business.

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Trust in business partly recovers, but opinion is building against status quo.

June 29, 2009 Change for Good

A mid-year survey by Edelman’s in the US, UK, France, Germany, China and India shows 52 % of respondents saying they trust business, up from 46% in the depths of the crisis of confidence at the time of the World Economic Summit, and only 2% behind the 2008 position. Only in Britain is there a downturn in trust in business. Richard Edelman, the group’s chief executive, says: “We used to believe there was an inverse correlation between trust in business and trust in government. Now we believe that trust in business relies on trust in government. It’s looking like the world is following more of a China and India model.”

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Campaigners for responsible investing report a boost as a result of the financial crisis.

June 22, 2009 Change for Good

Signatories to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment – six principles promoting a longer term perspective and pursuit of sustainable policies – have risen fast. When the initiative was launched in 2006, 34 asset owners (mostly pension funds) and 27 investment managers were signed up. Now there are 177 asset owners and 254 investment managers.

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US Geological Survey says US can no longer be considered the “Saudi Arabia of coal”.

June 8, 2009 Coal

The problem is that new data show very few of the vast reserves can be mined profitably, even at higher coal prices. Coal currently provides nearly one-quarter of the total energy consumed in America, and about half the electricity. An emerging “peak coal” group argues that current production levels may not be possible for much longer.

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  • My most recent commentaries

    • Comment on HMG’s decision to take their illegal FiT plan to the Supreme Court.

      21 Feb 2012

      Jeremy Leggett: “We have been expecting this but we hoped that Ed Davey would see sense and not take the appeal. If we are lucky this is just a cynical exercise to limit the market to 3rd March and they will withdraw in a few weeks. If not, and they really are serious about a Supreme Court appeal, then the implications for the renewables industry are deeply worrying. Two weeks ago, Ministers reassured the industry that they wanted to see 4 million solar homes in the UK by 2020. This appeal completely undermines that claim. They need to stop rewriting the scheme, end the constant stop-start and provide long-term stability and meaningful returns for investors and customers and give certainty to the 30,000+ employees of this successful industry – one of the few that is actively creating jobs in this country. If the appeal is successful it will allow Government to change feed-in tariffs whenever it chooses, even for projects that are already installed and supposedly guaranteed the feed-in tariff. At a stroke, this would undermine investment in all UK renewables, not just PV, and show investors that the UK government simply cannot be trusted. Fortunately their arguments are weak. They are the same ones unanimously rejected by the Court of Appeal so I wouldn’t give them much chance of success. Sadly, this appeal has the whiff of farce about it. First they try to woo private capital into infrastructure; then they mismanage it; now they go to the Supreme Court to argue for sovereign default to cover their tracks. I just hope the new Secretary of State actually understands what his lawyers are doing.”

    • Climate change should mean a 100% renewables by 2030 target.

      10 Feb 2012

      Interview at the Oxford Climate Forum, in Oxford university student magazine, Cherwell: “There are people who are worried about peak oil who aren’t worried about climate change. And vice versa. I’m worried about both. With both of them, at a minimum it’s about wrecking the global economy. A lot more in the case of climate change. These are high stakes issues. And both are high risk. In fact, climate change isn’t just high risk. It’s odds on certainty.” More.

    • UK government loses appeal on illegality of DECC’s solar feed-in tariff cuts.

      25 Jan 2012

      Three more judges rule, in the Appeal Court that the government’s proposal to cut tariffs from 12 December was illegal. Business Green: “Jeremy Leggett, chairman of Solarcentury, said the news was a positive outcome for the entire renewable energy industry: “Today we have reminded government that it will be held to account when it acts illegally and tries to push through unlawful policy changes. We would much prefer not to have taken this path but ministers gave us no choice. Our hope now is that we can work together again to restore the thriving jobs-rich solar sector that has been so badly undermined by government actions since October”.”

    • “The carbon bubble will burst – we must be prepared this time”.

      23 Jan 2012

      Business Green: “This is really important. No matter where you stand in the green debate, the threat posed by the systemic over valuation of carbon intensive firms and assets is a critical issue that should concern you – really, really concern you.” …. That is the warning currently being sounded by the recently launched Carbon Tracker Initiative, which last week released its second report on the scale of the so-called “carbon bubble” and wrote to Bank of England Governor Mervyn King urging him to take action. The two reports from the group – which is backed by some high profile green thinkers and investors, including the WWF, Solarcentury chairman Jeremy Leggett, former chief scientist Sir David King, and Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith – should be required reading for political leaders, business leaders, and economists everywhere. If there was any sense of proportion, it would be at the top of the agenda at this week’s annual billionaire schmooze-fest at the World Economic Forum in Davos.”

    • Investors ask BoE to probe risk that fossil-fuel reserves pose “sub-prime” risk.

      19 Jan 2012

      Fossil fuel reserves listed in the City of London are “sub-prime” assets posing a systemic risk to economic stability. So warns a high-profile coalition of investors, politicians and scientists , writing an open letter to Sir Mervyn King asking him to launch an investigation. Signatories include Aviva Investors, Climate Change Capital, Conservative politician Zac Goldsmith and Solarcentury chairman Jeremy Leggett. Abatement policies could mean billions of pounds of fossil fuel reserves will rapidly lose value and cause a “major problem” for institutional investors and pension funds. Guardian: “CarbonTracker’s latest report reveals that coal reserves held by 16 London-listed companies will release 45bn tonnes of CO2 when burned, equivalent to 86 years of annual UK emissions, which are the tenth highest in the world. Most of the coal is in other countries such as Australia and South Africa.”

    • Richard Branson: “the absolute necessity” of investing in renewables.

      5 Jan 2012

      Richard Branson, in posting my latest blog on his website: “Struck by this email from my friend Dr Jeremy Leggett over Christmas highlighting the growing divide between those that believe in the absolute necessity of investing in renewable fuels and those who ignore the obvious need – preferring to focus on short term goals and profits. I believe we must keep investing in alternative fuels to help reduce our Global carbon problem. Those fearing that economic growth will be stifled by investment in renewables are wrong.” etc.

    • High Court rules UK government has acted illegally of solar feed-in tariff target date.

      21 Dec 2011

      My message to BBC Radio’s The World Tonight: let us turn this humiliation for HMG into something positive and get back to where we were: creating jobs the nation needs in these hard times. And to Business Green: “We encourage the Secretary of State to accept the judge’s very clear ruling, to not plunge the industry into a further period of uncertainty by considering going to appeal, and to conduct the remainder of the current consultation process properly with constructive conversations with the industry.”

    • Big 6 pressure on UK government led to UK solar feed-in tariff ambush.

      10 Dec 2011

      My view in the Huffington Post: “There are only two possibilities, given the absence of a credible savings narrative and the seemingly lethal intent of the six week warning and the market-shrivelling energy-efficiency pre-qualification. One is breathtaking collective incompetence. The other is conspiracy.
      The answer is conspiracy. So I have been told in recent weeks by insiders in Whitehall, Westminster, and in the relevant parts of the energy, PR, and financial industries.”

    • Countercurrents: the triple crunch we face and the barriers to renaissance.

      5 Dec 2011

      In an extended interview in India, I talk about the similarities between the credit crunch and the peak oil issue, and the power of renewables and why clean-energy industries are being held back.

    • “A focus on renewables would allow the Government to deliver on some of its cornerstone mantras”.

      30 Nov 2011

      My latest column in Sublime magazine: “The current government in Britain appears to be playing fast and loose with some fantastic renewable energy opportunities – and ones that could provide much-needed jobs. what is that about? If the British Prime Minister were being authentic, he could be leading on an impressive story right now. Those of his core mantras that involve energy, taken together in strategic harness, make for an inspiring vision. Picture the scene. His Big Society concept sees communities taking power for themselves, providing for themselves. In short, Britain could be less centralised, more community-centric, more resilient to economic shocks.”

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