This week we were very excited here at Smarter Shift when The Energy Collective published a blog post by our own Mitchell Beer, dealing with the future of fossil fuel investment in a world that takes climate change seriously.

Here’s an excerpt.

The idea that a large proportion of the world’s proven fossil fuel resources would be unburnable in any reasonable climate change control scenario has fed a growing body of analysis over the last year, all of it suggesting that carbon could become the next housing bubble.

If the outcome doesn’t go that way, it will mean national governments are propping up a multi-trillion-dollar global industry, almost literally by not lifting a finger. The argument for unburnable carbon rests on the assumption that nations will have to do something substantial, sooner rather than later, to minimize the risk of runaway climate change. But the carbon won’t be unburnable if climate policy remains at a standstill.

On the other hand, if the prospect of serious limits on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions translates into real policies, the European Union’s plan to impose an import fee on Canada’s “dirty oil” may be just the opening act. If that’s the way the story unfolds, more and more fund managers will have to take notice. And that’s when the investment community could gain prominence as a new front in the campaign for low-carbon energy futures.

To read the entire article, please go to Carbon Bubble Turning Point Climate Action.

(Photo by Public Domain Photos)