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UN climate report: It's 'now or never' to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees
April 4, 2022--A new flagship UN report on climate change out Monday indicating that harmful carbon emissions from 2010-2019 have never been higher in human history, is proof that the world is on a "fast track" to disaster, Antonio Guterres has warned, with scientists arguing that it's 'now or never' to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Reacting to the latest findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN Secretary-General insisted that unless governments everywhere reassess their energy policies, the world will be uninhabitable.
His comments reflected the IPCC's insistence that all countries must reduce their fossil fuel use substantially, extend access to electricity, improve energy efficiency and increase the use of alternative fuels, such as hydrogen.
Unless action is taken soon, some major cities will be under water, Mr. Guterres said in a video message, which also forecast "unprecedented heatwaves, terrifying storms, widespread water shortages and the extinction of a million species of plants and animals".
view the IPCC Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
An ESG Lens on Blockchain and Public Equities-Looking at ESG in Crypto, Blockchain, and Public Equities Thematic Research Report
April 1, 2022--Investors can face risks related to noncompliance with respect to tightening regulations targeting the crypto market. This market also faces challenges related to the energy intensity of crypto mining which can have a large carbon footprint, depending on the sources of energy used in mining.
On the other hand, the efficiency of crypto blockchains may have positive social impacts, such as reducing the costs of transactions for people sending remittances. Moreover, some cryptos function without relying on mining operations by using a proof-of-stake rather than proof-of-work consensus mechanism.
Beyond the volatile crypto market, blockchain has several features that lend well to commercial applications. Blockchain can help improve the transparency, speed and efficiency of data transfers and monetary transactions. Businesses in multiple industries are using blockchain tools to enhance payment platforms and secure supply chain management systems.
IMF Working paper-Policy Sequencing Towards Carbon Pricing -Empirical Evidence From G20 Economies and Other Major Emitters
April 1, 2022--Summary:
Carbon pricing is considered the most efficient policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but it has also been conjectured that other policies need to be implemented first to remove certain economic and political barriers to stringent climate policy.
Here, we examine empirical evidence on the the sequence of policy adoption and climate policy portfolios of G20 economies and other major emitters that eventually implemented a national carbon price. We find that all countries adopted carbon pricing late in their instrument sequence after the adoption of (almost) all other instrument types.
Furthermore, we find that countries that adopted carbon pricing in a given year had significantly larger climate policy portfolios than those that did not. In the last part of the paper, we examine heterogeneity among countries that eventually adopted a carbon price. We find large variation in the size of policy portfolios of adopters of carbon pricing, with more recent adopters appearing to have introduced carbon pricing with smaller portfolios. Furthermore, countries that adopted carbon pricing with larger policy portfolios tended to implement a higher carbon price. Overall, our results thus suggest that policy sequencing played an important role in climate policy, specifically the adoption of carbon pricing, over the last 20 years.
Disclosure, Dapps and DeFi
March 27, 2022--Abstract
Disclosure in decentralized finance is an area where founders' and regulators' interests can overlap in important ways. Market participants need to differentiate their dapps to compete and grow-just as regulators have long demanded transparency in order for people to know what they're buying. But adapting disclosure frameworks popularized in the 1930s to today's digital marketplace requires bridging decades of technological evolution and fundamentally alien assumptions about market infrastructure.
This white paper contributes to that work. It observes that DeFi presents novel policy questions for disclosure because much of the material information required to participate in an informed way is already available to technologically sophisticated actors on blockchains. This feature is relevant when contemplating how and for whom a disclosure system for DeFi should be modeled. Securities law, with its focus on institutional actors, calls for voluminous and often technical disclosures designed to be filed with authorities; by contrast, consumer protection frameworks rely on targeted, retail-friendly disclosures meant to be digested by everyday shoppers and end users.
Crypto Carbon: Can Blockchain Networks Fix Carbon Offsets?
March 27, 2022--A budding movement within the crypto industry says it can keep carbon out of the atmosphere by locking it on a blockchain. Can it succeed?
Cryptocurrency has become a boogeyman in conservation circles, but a growing corner of the industry is claiming to have a solution to the climate crisis: crypto carbon credits.
In the coming years, companies from Procter & Gamble (PG) to Nestlé (NSRGY) are vowing to go "carbon neutral," a feel-good moniker signaling they will prevent as much carbon from entering the atmosphere elsewhere as they emit.
One of the ways these companies aim to achieve their emission goals is by purchasing carbon credits - certificates representing carbon dioxide that's been kept out of the atmosphere by some act of conservation or removal.
IOSCO explains how Decentralised Finance is cloning Financial Markets
March 24, 2022--IOSCO has today published a detailed report setting out how decentralised finance ("DeFi") is quickly evolving to mirror conventional financial markets.
Ashley Alder, IOSCO Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong, said: "DeFi is a novel and fast-growing area of financial services, and thisreport outlines key areas of concern for IOSCO." The IOSCO report offers a comprehensive review of the fast-evolving DeFi market, its new products, services and principal participants. It identifies some products and services which are novel to DeFi. But most of the new services which are emerging replicate more traditional financial services and activities, but with weaker regulation and increased risks for investors.
ETFGI reports ETFs focused on ESG strategies listed globally gathered net inflows of US$7.55 billion during February 2022
March 17, 2021--ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm covering trends in the global ETFs/ETPs ecosystem, reported today that Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ETFs and ETPs listed globally gathered net inflows of US$7.55 billion during February, bringing year to date net inflows to US$17.35 Bn which is much lower than the US$40.51 Bn gathered at this point last year.
Total assets invested in ESG ETFs and ETPs decreased by 0.05% from US$379.3 billion at the end of January 2022 to US$379.1 billion, according to ETFGI's February 2022 ETF and ETP ESG industry landscape insights report, the monthly report which is part of an annual paid-for research subscription service. (All dollar values in USD unless otherwise noted.)
Highlights
ETFs focused on ESG strategies listed globally gathered net inflows of $7.55 billion during February
YTD net inflows of $17.35 Bn are the second highest on record, after YTD net inflows in 2021 of $40.51 Bn.
$138 Bn in net inflows gathered in the past 12 months.
38th month of consecutive net inflows.
Assets of $379 Bn invested in ESG ETFs and ETPs industry at the end of February 2022.
ESG Equity ETFs and ETPs gathered $5.12 Bn in net inflows in February.
How War in Ukraine Is Reverberating Across World's Regions
March 15, 2022--The conflict is a major blow to the global economy that will hurt growth and raise prices.
Beyond the suffering and humanitarian crisis from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the entire global economy will feel the effects of slower growth and faster inflation.
Impacts will flow through three main channels.
One, higher prices for commodities like food and energy will push up inflation further, in turn eroding the value of incomes and weighing on demand. Two, neighboring economies in particular will grapple with disrupted trade, supply chains, and remittances as well as an historic surge in refugee flows. And three, reduced business confidence and higher investor uncertainty will weigh on asset prices, tightening financial conditions and potentially spurring capital outflows from emerging markets.
Housing market risks in the wake of the pandemic
March 10, 2022--Key takeaways
House prices rose strongly in advanced economies during the pandemic, breaking with typical post-recession patterns. These developments support domestic demand in the short term but carry risks to the outlook if they reverse.
Rapid economic recovery, fiscal support and high saving rates amid negative real interest rates explain part of the strong housing demand. Pandemic-induced demand for space, structural supply constraints and increased demand from investors provide additional support for house prices.
The monetary policy response to inflationary pressures will be a relevant factor when assessing housing market risks. Moderate increases in interest rates could help forestall speculative demand.
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Source: BIS
How does the war in Ukraine affect oil prices?
March 4, 2022--On 24 February 2022 Russia launched a military invasion on Ukraine.
Already inflated oil prices have since skyrocketed to over $110 per barrel.
An expert discusses the impact on energy prices and the energy transition.
Two weeks ago when oil prices were approaching $100, Maciej Kolaczkowski, Manager Oil and Gas Industry from the World Economic Forum's Energy, Materials, Infrastructure Platform, explained the impacts on inflation and the key factors determining oil prices, how prices affect the global economy and the implications for the energy transition. He said that "no one had a crystal ball" and indeed one week later Russia started a war in Ukraine.
