Icebergs near Ilulissat, Greenland. Climate change is having a profound effect in Greenland with … [+] glaciers and the Greenland ice cap retreating. (Photo by Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Eroding U.S. leadership in the global fight against climate change is reflected rather depressingly in financial regulators’ inexplicable lag against international peers on attempting to get a handle on the matter.
This week though, there was progress. The Federal Reserve finally joined the Networkd for Greening the Financial System, a consortium of central banks focused on climate and the environment.
Fed Governor Lael Brainard on Friday laid out the case for why the issues fall well within the central bank’s policy mettle of financial oversight and risk assessment.
“We are already seeing elevated financial losses associated with an increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events,” Brainard told a Brookings Institution webinar.
“Average annual insured weather-related catastrophe losses have increased over the past decade,” she added. “With losses increasing, insurers are incorporating the impact of climate change into their underwriting assumptions, pricing, and investment decisions.”
SEC Commissioner Allison Herren Lee spoke in even stronger terms.
“We’re seeing a growing recognition of the systemic risk that climate change poses,” she said during a panel at the same Brookings conference.
“There’s evidence that climate risks are currently not well understood and are underpriced, particularly with respect to long dated assets—utilities, commercial mortgage backed securities, potentially municipal bonds, among many others,” she said.
“We all know that underpricing can lead to abrupt and disruptive repricing as markets discover the anomaly. We may see cascading events that could trigger significant disruptive repricing.”
Herren Lee also made one key point that Brainard’s speech, which never mentioned fossil fuels, neglected: “It’s important to focus on financial institutions and their financing of carbon-producing activites.”
A report from the Rainforest Action Network earlier this year showed 35 major global banks pouring some $2.7 trillion into fossil-fuel investments in the four years following the 2015 signing of the Paris Climate agreement.
TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain almost 100 points on Friday, while U.S. stock markets also climbed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 93.51 points at 23,568.65.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 297.01 points at 41,393.78. The S&P 500 index was up 30.26 points at 5,626.02, while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.30 points at 17,683.98.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.61 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down 32 cents at US$68.65 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.31 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$30.10 at US$2,610.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents US$4.24 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says wholesale sales, excluding petroleum, petroleum products, and other hydrocarbons and excluding oilseed and grain, rose 0.4 per cent to $82.7 billion in July.
The increase came as sales in the miscellaneous subsector gained three per cent to reach $10.5 billion in July, helped by strength in the agriculture supplies industry group, which rose 9.2 per cent.
The food, beverage and tobacco subsector added 1.7 per cent to total $15 billion in July.
The personal and household goods subsector fell 2.5 per cent to $12.1 billion.
In volume terms, overall wholesale sales rose 0.5 per cent in July.
Statistics Canada started including oilseed and grain as well as the petroleum and petroleum products subsector as part of wholesale trade last year, but is excluding the data from monthly analysis until there is enough historical data.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 150 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in the base metal and energy sectors, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 172.18 points at 23,383.35.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 34.99 points at 40,826.72. The S&P 500 index was up 10.56 points at 5,564.69, while the Nasdaq composite was up 74.84 points at 17,470.37.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.55 cents US compared with 73.59 cents US on Wednesday.
The October crude oil contract was up $2.00 at US$69.31 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up five cents at US$2.32 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$40.00 at US$2,582.40 an ounce and the December copper contract was up six cents at US$4.20 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
