NIKKEI 225
26,644.71+107.40(+0.40%)HANG SENG
26,960.25+140.80(+0.52%)CRUDE OIL
44.95-0.76(-1.66%)
Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (BUD)
| Previous close | 68.89 |
| Open | 67.90 |
| Bid | 0.00 x 800 |
| Ask | 0.00 x 800 |
| Day's range | 67.55 - 68.22 |
| 52-week range | 32.58 - 83.54 |
| Volume | 866,043 |
| Avg. volume | 1,850,955 |
| Market cap | 133.602B |
| Beta (5Y monthly) | 1.13 |
| PE ratio (TTM) | N/A |
| EPS (TTM) | -0.37 |
| Earnings date | N/A |
| Forward dividend & yield | 1.45 (2.11%) |
| Ex-dividend date | 09 Jun 2020 |
| 1y target est | 66.74 |
- Bloomberg
China Defies Elon Musk’s Warnings and Pushes Ahead With Hydrogen
(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has spent years mocking the idea of using hydrogen fuel cells rather than electric batteries to power next-generation green vehicles. “Fuel cells = fool sells,” the boss of the world’s top electric-car maker tweeted in June.China, the world’s biggest market for electric vehicles, isn’t so quick to dismiss the alternative to batteries. Officials are promoting the development of hydrogen-powered cars, trucks and buses, with Beijing offering to reward cities that achieve adoption targets.In a 15-year plan for new-energy vehicles released on Nov. 2, China’s State Council said the country will focus on building the fuel-cell supply chain and developing hydrogen-powered trucks and buses. President Xi Jinping in September set a 2030 deadline for China to begin reducing carbon emissions.“Hydrogen is expected to play a much more important role to drastically decrease the country’s greenhouse gas emissions,” Kevin Jianjun Tu, a non-resident fellow at the French think tank Ifri, wrote in a report published in October.China is targeting to have 1 million fuel-cell vehicles in operation by 2030, according to an energy savings vehicle development plan drafted by authorities, despite only 2,700 such cars selling in the country last year.The nation’s renewed interest in hydrogen could put it further ahead of the U.S. in next-generation autos even as President-elect Joe Biden tries to promote clean-car development.Read more: How Hydrogen Is and Isn’t the Future of Energy: Andreas KluthIn theory, fuel cells are an ideal alternative to the internal combustion engine, since their chemical reactions of hydrogen and oxygen emit no carbon. Powering vehicles with hydrogen can be expensive, though, and most of China’s supply comes from burning fossil fuels. The difficulties of storing and transporting hydrogen add to the cost.Trucks, BusesAs the supply of hydrogen generated by solar and wind power grows, the economics may improve. One utility is spending more than $3 billion on a wind and solar farm in Inner Mongolia that would produce as much as 500,000 tons of hydrogen a year, with operations expected to begin in 2021.State-owned oil refiner Sinopec said Oct. 29 it’s investing in hydrogen production, transportation and fuel cells and is building hydrogen vehicle refueling stations.The new infrastructure will likely support hydrogen-powered trucks and buses, with lithium-ion batteries remaining dominant for cars. Hydrogen makes sense for commercial vehicles since a fuel-cell automobile can go for longer on a single tank of hydrogen versus a battery-powered one on a single charge of electricity, according to Wang Chaoyun, the chairman of Anhui Mingtian Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., a startup that develops fuel-cell stacks and other inner workings for hydrogen vehicles.Filling up the hydrogen tank also is much faster than recharging an EV battery.China’s annual sales of fuel-cell vehicles will rise 10-fold over the next five years to 50,000 units before hitting half a million by 2035, says Wang, who predicts China will become the No. 1 market within three years.Shanghai-based SAIC Motor Corp. said in September that it plans to launch 10 hydrogen vehicles by 2025.Beijing SinoHytec Co., which develops hydrogen-fuel-cell engines, raised about 1.4 billion yuan ($213 million) in an initial public offering in August and is one of five Chinese companies that in June teamed up with Toyota Motor Corp. to develop fuel-cell systems for commercial vehicles.Read more: ‘Hydrogen Wars’ Pit Europe v. China for $700 Billion BusinessThe Japanese automaker sees the market dominated by hydrogen-powered trucks and buses rather than cars, said Chisato Yoshifuji, a project manager at Toyota. “China is concentrating on commercial vehicles and that aligns with Toyota’s thinking,” she said. “It’s a huge trend supported by the government.”Beer DeliveryOther foreign-backed companies see opportunities in hydrogen trucks, too. Hyundai Motor Co. on Nov. 5 announced agreements with five Chinese partners to promote the development of hydrogen fuel-cell commercial vehicles.“Hyundai believes China has a massive potential for hydrogen powered commercial vehicles,” said In Cheol Lee, Hyundai’s executive vice president and head of commercial vehicle division. Hyundai and its regional partners aim to supply some 4,000 fuel cell electric commercial vehicles in China by 2025.The Asian subsidiary of beverage giant Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, meanwhile, added four hydrogen fuel-cell trucks to its fleet, the company announced Sept. 28. It plans to deliver beer using the trucks, making China the first nation where the company has deployed such vehicles for beer shipments.“Pure electric vehicles and fuel cell-powered automobiles are equally important in our new energy vehicle development strategy and will coexist in the long run,” Wan Gang, who is a vice chairman of China’s national advisory body for policy making and often called the father of the country’s electric-car movement, said in January.Many skeptics do share Musk’s misgivings. Fuel cells are less efficient than batteries and the cost of building supporting infrastructure like refueling stations is much higher, according to a report published this month by IDTechEx, a research firm from Cambridge, England. Fuel-cell vehicles will “continue to be a commercial failure for the next two decades,” it said.And for now, Chinese leaders may be keeping their options open as they wait to see how the technology develops.“The limited details in this plan suggest, at the national level, policy makers are still deliberating over the role of hydrogen in China’s energy economy and the country’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2060,” BloombergNEF analysts Siyi Mi and Jinghong Lyu wrote in a report published Nov. 13, with reference to China’s 15-year plan for new-energy vehicles.ReFire, a Shanghai startup that manufactures fuel-cell engines, is one company that’s nonetheless preparing for a surge in demand. It makes about 1,000 engines a year for Chinese producers of trucks and buses and expects annual capacity to soar to 20,000 as early as 2024. The competitiveness gap with EVs will shrink as hydrogen gains acceptance, Chief Executive Officer Robin Lin said.“There’s a great chance for a dramatic drop in hydrogen prices,” he said. “As long as hydrogen power is cheap enough, it’ll be a natural choice.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
BlackRock’s Fink Calls on Investors to Embrace ESG: NEF Update
(Bloomberg) -- BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said a growing number of investors are focusing on climate change and that companies embracing stakeholder capitalism are outperforming peers. Speaking at a Bloomberg New Economy Forum event broadcast Thursday, he said Joe Biden’s decision to return the U.S. to the Paris climate agreement will be “monumental” and would support the work of investors that have focused on climate change.On the third day of the four-day forum, Fink joined other world leaders and industry chiefs in discussing how they would deal with the challenges posed by climate change. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Europe wants to invest over a third of its 750-billion-euro ($890 billion) economic stimulus in projects compatible with the bloc’s climate neutrality goal. Other panelists agreed that the march toward a greener economy is headed into a more difficult second phase that will aim to replace carbon as an energy source.Bill Gates and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, will headline the final day of the conference, which will focus on global health. Pharmaceutical industry executives such as Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel and senior epidemiologists including China’s Wu Zunyou are also set to speak.The event is organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. More information can be found online at www.neweconomyforum.com and on the Bloomberg Terminal.Sinopec to Include Green Energy in Core Businesses: Chairman (10:43 a.m. HKT)China’s biggest oil refiner, Sinopec Group, is expanding its core business to include green energy and various materials, said company chairman Zhang Yuzhuo on Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum on Thursday.The company, which will use natural gas as its main source of energy, plans to develop geothermal, offshore wind, and solar power, he said. It is also building hydrogen refilling stations as part of cities’ plans to promote hydrogen-powered cars. -- Kathy Chen, Dan MurtaughCoal Will No Longer Be Cheapest Option for Malaysia by ‘24: Yeo (10:06 a.m. HKT)When Malaysia policymakers shape the country’s next power plan in 2024, coal will no longer be the cheapest generation option, Yeo Bee Yin, a member of the nation’s parliament and the former energy minister said at the New Economy Forum.Only markets and technology will be able to drive change that is quick enough for Asian nations to meet the Paris Agreement goals, she said, adding that China making its climate goal pledge helps other countries make the same kind of commitment. - Stephen StapczynskiCovid Stimulus Must Also Address Climate, Inequality: Figueres (10 a.m. HKT)Post-pandemic stimulus must also address climate change and inequality in order to be successful, Christiana Figueres, who helped steer the landmark Paris climate agreement in 2015, said in a New Economy Forum panel.Governments are planning to inject $12 trillion over the next 18 months to help economies create jobs and recover from the coronavirus, she said. That scale of stimulus won’t be repeatable in the next decade, so it must also address all of the crises that are converging on the world in 2020 -- including climate change and inequality -- in order to bring the most value to the future generations that will pay it off.The world is moving in the right direction to fight climate change, but it’s not moving fast enough, said Figueres, the former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.“My concern is no longer about the direction,” she said. “My concern is speed and scale, and we are far from the speed and scale we need.”-- Karoline Kan, Aaron Clark, Dan MurtaughHoneywell CEO Sees Carbon-Based Replacements as Tougher Task (9 a.m. HKT)Honeywell CEO Darius Adamczyk said companies now can adopt technologies to conserve energy to reduce carbon emissions. The replacement of carbon-based energy is a harder problem, and will require more breakthroughs, he said.“The short-term technologies are here and frankly more of those should be used,” Adamczyk said. “But we also have to address the longer term and how we displace the use of carbon with other forms of energy.” -- Thomas BlackEskom CEO Calls Renewables a “No-Brainer” (8:51 a.m. HKT)Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., South Africa’s power utility and the nation’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gas, sees itself as a model for how to transition toward cleaner energy sources, Chief Executive Officer Andre de Ruyter said during the New Economy Forum. The utility is strapped with several older, inefficient coal-fired power plants and plans to shut roughly 10-12 gigawatts worth of capacity over the next decade, he said.While the utility will complete two coal-fired power projects conceived and planned about a decade ago, de Ruyter said that it would be impossible to get the financing for the facilities today. The shift toward cleaner technologies are enabled by the “incredible reduction in cost of renewable energy, which makes renewables a no-brainer,” he added. -- Stephen StapczynskiU.S.-China Climate Cooperation Continued Without Trump: Xie (8:47 a.m. HKT)Xie Zhenhua, China’s former top climate diplomat, said U.S.-China climate cooperation continued despite President Trump’s efforts.Even after the U.S. federal government signaled it would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, China and the U.S. maintained cooperation at local levels and through think tanks and the private sector, said Xie, who was China’s top international climate negotiator for more than a decade starting in 2007.U.S.-China cooperation is important for the multinational climate change process, he said at the New Economy Forum. Xie recently oversaw a yearlong effort by climate scientists at Tsinghua University to model different pathways for China to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2060, a goal announced by Xi Jinping in September. -- Anna Kitanaka, Karoline KanLarry Fink Says Biden Will Be ‘Voice of Reason’ Markets Need (8:34 a.m. HKT)Joe Biden’s victory in the U.S. presidential election should encourage investors, who want stability and an easing of geopolitical tensions, Larry Fink said at a Bloomberg New Economy Forum event broadcast Thursday in Hong Kong.As Biden selects key advisers and sets priorities, Fink said the president-elect should consider spending on infrastructure and broadband for all U.S. homes. Fink, who is sometimes floated as a potential candidate to be U.S. Treasury secretary for Democratic administrations, said he’s “very happy at BlackRock” and that he’s “staying in New York for the time being.”“They’re looking for a voice that moderates, not a voice that incites,” Fink said at a Bloomberg New Economy Forum event broadcast Thursday in Hong Kong.. “President-elect Biden can be that voice of reason.”On the debate for additional fiscal stimulus in the U.S., Fink said concerns over a ballooning deficit can be put to one side, for now, given inflation is low.Fink also said how companies approach environmental, social and governance issues has become a defining factor for investors. Many firms have evolved from a primary focus on maximizing shareholder profits to one where they also prioritize their impact on clients, employees and the communities in which they operate. The companies that best embrace “stakeholder capitalism” are outperforming their peers and will continue to do so, he said.“We are seeing this reallocation of capital,” Fink said in an interview with Carlyle Group Inc.’s David Rubenstein. “Those companies who are more and more focused on ESG strategies and stakeholder capitalism, they’re trying to get a higher P/E than some of the companies that are in denial.”Biden’s decision to return the U.S. to the Paris climate agreement will be “monumental” and would support the work of the growing number of investors that have focused on climate change, said Fink. -- -- Annie Massa, Enda Curran, Alastair MarshA “Green” Recovery Can Help Accelerate Global Growth: Grauer (8:08 a.m. HKT)An economic recovery based on clean energy “accelerates growth while reducing carbon emissions,” Bloomberg LP Chairman Peter Grauer said in a speech to the New Economy Forum.“There is no contradiction between GDP growth and sustainable development.”Bloomberg is working on ways to benchmark green investments, Grauer said, based on the belief that transparent financial markets will be the instruments of change. -- James ThornhillHSBC’s Quinn Calls for Bank Action on Climate Change (11:05 a.m. NYT)Big banks cannot shirk their responsibility to help fund the world’s move towards a low-carbon economy, HSBC Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Noel Quinn said.“We have got to finance this transition,” said Quinn, who called on other institutions to get behind efforts to provide more funding for green technology. “The whole financial system needs to play its part in that.”HSBC expects to help finance between $750 billion and $1 trillion over the next 10 years as part of its commitment to fight climate change.Quinn said it was important that banks agreed to set of common standards on sustainable financing to aid efforts to expand green finance, with peer pressure also motivating change. -- Harry WilsonGuggenheim’s Minerd Wants Climate Change Standards for Companies (10:50 a.m. NYT)Guggenheim Investments Chief Investment Officer Scott Minerd said there needs to be standards put in place for corporations to act together in support of global climate change.“There’s no uniform definition of what net zero is” and “little time is being spent on trying to set economic incentives,” Minerd said. The approach to climate change needs to focus on the “substance of the matter,” rather than the individual act of individual corporations, he said.Corporations will continue to act in their own best interest without standard policies in place, according to Minerd. There are incentives that can be set “that basically don’t cost anything” for the governments in order for change and progress in climate change to be made, he said.“In a free market society, we are driven by everyone’s self interest,” said Minerd. Today, there is no economic incentive for investors to change their standards, which will continue until there is broader change and support, he said. -- Katherine DohertyMoniz Calls for Increase in Gas Capacity as ‘Backup System’ (10:25 a.m. NYT)Gas capacity will be needed even as renewable power soars globally, said Ernest Moniz, former U.S. Secretary of Energy and chief executive officer at Energy Futures Initiative. Gas will remain relevant even as new technologies such as hydrogen are developed.“It’s in effect a backup system,” Moniz said. As an example, “electrifying heating is great, but when you get that polar vortex in New England, we’ll probably need to bring in the cavalry,” he said. -- Laura Millan LombranaIberdrola CEO Says Clean Energy Investments Need to Triple (10:12 a.m. NYT)Investment in clean energies needs to triple to deliver on greenhouse gas emissions cuts and efficiency measures committed up until now, said Iberdrola SA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ignacio Sanchez Galan.“The investment necessary to make for electrifying the economy is so huge that there is room for everybody,” Sanchez Galan said. “Those oil cos moving in this direction are welcome. I used to say they were our enemies --now I’m very pleased that they are our competitors, that’s great.” -- Laura Millan LombranaAfrica Faces Enormous Energy Transition Challenges, Wapakabulo Says (10:05 a.m. NYT)Africa is facing huge challenges in implementing the energy transition, said Josephine Wapakabulo, founder and managing director of TIG Africa. About 600 million people today still don’t have access to electricity and getting it would require an investment of $120 billion just in Sub-Saharan Africa.The issue is “how we can make the majority of that” renewable energy,” she said. “The beauty of the ops we have in Africa is that because some of the remote areas don’t have access today, there’s a lot of leapfrogging happening in terms of decentralizing grids and solar.”Africa’s path toward the energy transition will be dual, with oil and gas powering a lot of the demand over the short to medium term, and gas and renewable power taking over in the longer term. -- Laura Millan LombranaCarney Says Covid-19 Shock Provides Ecomomic Opportunity (9:50 a.m. NYT)The recovery from the economic shock of Covid-19 will provide an opportunity to direct economies towards sustainable growth models, a shift that would require huge investment and would be “capital intensive and job heavy,” said former Bank of England governor and United Nations special envoy for climate action Mark Carney.Governments can do a lot to set the general direction of travel, said Carney, who’s also finance adviser to the U.K. prime minister for the upcoming United Nations climate summit.U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and move to 100% clean energy serve as clear markers, while the development of hydrogen power, zero emission vehicles and clean power generation send signals to investors and “get money moving,” he said.“Government has to start with the objective, fill in the framing and then, candidly get out of the way so the private sector figures out where to go,” Carney said. -- Alastair MarshAllbirds CEO Says Consumers Want to Buy Sustainable Products (9:25 a.m. NYT)Shoppers care about sustainability and want to buy sustainable products, but they’re confused about what it all means, said Joey Zwillinger, CEO of sustainable shoemaker Allbirds Inc. That’s a consistent theme he’s seen across markets in Asia, Europe and North America.“I really do sense that people want to do the right thing,” Zwillinger said. “Once we clear up some of the confusion on what does carbon footprint even mean, I think we’ll start to see even more progress.”It wasn’t like that back when Allbirds was founded in 2015, he said. When it came to actually shelling out dollars for a product at the cash register, consumers would prioritize the product over all else. That’s been shifting in recent years, as people care more about how things are made and how it affects the climate.It took the company almost three years to develop a shoe sole that was sustainable, made from sugar-cane byproducts rather than the typical petrochemicals. -- Kim BhasinUnilever’s Jope Says Biden Win Is Benefit for Climate (9:07 a.m. NYT)Joe Biden’s victory in the U.S. presidential election is positive for companies committed to fighting the climate crisis, Unilever Chief Executive Officer Alan Jope said.“The capital markets and investors need to invest in properly run sustainable and green businesses,” Jope said. “In that regard, an administration in the biggest economy in the world that reenters the climate-change debate and a green recovery of course is going to be good for the system.”Jope also reiterated earlier comments that the “most important” measure governments should take in the near-term is pricing carbon, either through a cap-and-trade mechanism or a carbon tax. Unilever is working with Microsoft Corp. to build a digital model of the planet that will enable the company to label the carbon footprint of each of the products sold under its more than 400 brands, which include Dove soap, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Domestos bleach.Information relating to issues such as deforestation and social impact will either feature directly on the label or will be accessible online via a QR code, Jope said. -- Thomas BuckleyIndia Takes Steps Toward Carbon Neutral, Tata’s Chandrasekaran Says (8:55 a.m. NYT)Becoming carbon neutral by 2050 isn’t as straightforward for a country like India as it is for other countries and regions, said Tata Sons Ltd. Executive Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran. Energy consumption will raise over the next few years as the country becomes the world’s third-largest economy, and so will its carbon footprint.The country is on track to fulfilling its 2015 Paris Agreement commitments by increasing the presence of renewable power in its grid, setting up micro grids and investing in electric vehicles.“While the commitment might not be by 2050, the point is that India is taking very aggressive steps,” Chandrasekaran said. -- Laura Millan LombranaIMF’s Gopinath Pushes for Carbon Tax to Drive Green Recovery (8:46 a.m. NYT)Harnessing energy sources that are cheaper than fossil fuels “isn’t enough” to drive a green recovery, IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath said.More important is a carbon tax, which should be “set up small but then increase over time to change consumer behavior” and incentivize the private sector to invest in renewables, she said.In addition, carbon pricing is one of the most efficient ways to transition toward a low-carbon economy, but countries setting up carbon markets on their own won’t be enough, Gopinath said.“There has to be cooperative solution here,” she said. “Agreeing on a minimum carbon price globally would be very helpful in bringing about that transition.” -- Laura Millan Lombrana and Thomas BuckleyAnheuser-Bush Makes Big Push Into Renewable Energy (8:39 a.m. NYT)The pandemic hasn’t changed beverage manufacturer Anheuser-Busch InBev’s plans to source 100% of the energy in its operations from renewable energy in 2025, Chief Executive Officer Carlos Brito said.About 60% of the company’s volume now is made using renewable power; it was zero two years ago.The current situation has taught the company that it needs to take care of its supply chain, which includes farmers and retailers, Brito said.“Farmers need to be competitive in this world where water is going to be more scarce and productivity will be top of mind for everybody,” he said. -- Laura Millan LombranaIMF’s Gopinath Sees Opportunity for Green Recovery in 2021 (8:25 a.m. NYT)Most coronavirus stimulus spending this year has been focused on saving lives, but there’s an opportunity to have a green recovery in 2021, said Gita Gopinath, chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.So far, a total of $161 billion of support measures have been made to cut emissions since the pandemic started, according to BloombergNEF research. By comparison, $878 billion will go into stimulus for carbon-intensive industries without green conditions.“I am hopeful more will be done --2021 is the year when this should happen,” Gopinath said. “We know green investment is more job intensive and it can help in that dimension.” -- Laura Millan LombranaVon der Leyen Says EU Wants to Lead Green Recovery (8:11 a.m. NYT)Europe wants to spearhead a sustainable global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic by investing more than a third of its 750-billion-euro ($890 billion) economic stimulus in projects compatible with the bloc’s climate neutrality goal, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.The world can’t afford to make the same mistake that it did in the last financial crisis when it rebuilt a “broken system” based on fossil fuels, Von der Leyen said. The 27-nations European Union has designed its latest strategy to combat the recession around the Green Deal, a sweeping overhaul that will accelerate pollution cuts, promote emissions-free cars and spur low-carbon energy technologies such as hydrogen.“We need to use our recovery stimulus to invest in the clean and digital technologies of the future to make our economies more resilient and our societies and job markets fairer,” Von der Leyen said. “We can do it if we do it together. You can count on Europe to lead the way.”The Green Deal, which calls for Europe to zero-out greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century, will affect every corner of the economy, from agriculture and energy production to how cities are designed. To help kick-start the clean shift, 37% of the EU’s 750-billion-euro recovery fund will be spent on projects linked to the Green Deal. -- Ewa KrukowskaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
BlackRock’s Fink and Eskom’s De Ruyter Set to Speak: NEF Update
(Bloomberg) -- The third day of the four-day Bloomberg New Economy Forum is focusing on the many challenges posed by climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and an unstable global economy.In the next set of sessions that begin at 7 p.m. New York time, BlackRock Inc. CEO Larry Fink, Eskom Holdings Ltd. CEO Andre de Ruyter and Xie Zhenhua, who led China’s climate policies and represented the country in international climate negotiations for more than 10 years, are among those scheduled to speak. Darius Adamczyk, Chairman and CEO of Honeywell, will discuss pathways to a low-carbon energy future on a panel with Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman and CEO of Schneider Electric, and Christiana Figueres, a founding partner of Global Optimism.The event is being organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. More information can be found online at www.neweconomyforum.com and on the Bloomberg Terminal.HSBC’s Quinn Calls for Bank Action on Climate Change (11:05 a.m. NYT)Big banks cannot shirk their responsibility to help fund the world’s move towards a low-carbon economy, HSBC Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Noel Quinn said.“We have got to finance this transition,” said Quinn, who called on other institutions to get behind efforts to provide more funding for green technology. “The whole financial system needs to play its part in that.”HSBC expects to help finance between $750 billion and $1 trillion over the next 10 years as part of its commitment to fight climate change.Quinn said it was important that banks agreed to set of common standards on sustainable financing to aid efforts to expand green finance, with peer pressure also motivating change. -- Harry WilsonGuggenheim’s Minerd Wants Climate Change Standards for Companies (10:50 a.m. NYT)Guggenheim Investments Chief Investment Officer Scott Minerd said there needs to be standards put in place for corporations to act together in support of global climate change.“There’s no uniform definition of what net zero is” and “little time is being spent on trying to set economic incentives,” Minerd said. The approach to climate change needs to focus on the “substance of the matter,” rather than the individual act of individual corporations, he said.Corporations will continue to act in their own best interest without standard policies in place, according to Minerd. There are incentives that can be set “that basically don’t cost anything” for the governments in order for change and progress in climate change to be made, he said.“In a free market society, we are driven by everyone’s self interest,” said Minerd. Today, there is no economic incentive for investors to change their standards, which will continue until there is broader change and support, he said. -- Katherine DohertyMoniz Calls for Increase in Gas Capacity as ‘Backup System’ (10:25 a.m. NYT)Gas capacity will be needed even as renewable power soars globally, said Ernest Moniz, former U.S. Secretary of Energy and chief executive officer at Energy Futures Initiative. Gas will remain relevant even as new technologies such as hydrogen are developed.“It’s in effect a backup system,” Moniz said. As an example, “electrifying heating is great, but when you get that polar vortex in New England, we’ll probably need to bring in the cavalry,” he said. -- Laura Millan LombranaIberdrola CEO Says Clean Energy Investments Need to Triple (10:12 a.m. NYT)Investment in clean energies needs to triple to deliver on greenhouse gas emissions cuts and efficiency measures committed up until now, said Iberdrola SA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ignacio Sanchez Galan.“The investment necessary to make for electrifying the economy is so huge that there is room for everybody,” Sanchez Galan said. “Those oil cos moving in this direction are welcome. I used to say they were our enemies --now I’m very pleased that they are our competitors, that’s great.” -- Laura Millan LombranaAfrica Faces Enormous Energy Transition Challenges, Wapakabulo Says (10:05 a.m. NYT)Africa is facing huge challenges in implementing the energy transition, said Josephine Wapakabulo, founder and managing director of TIG Africa. About 600 million people today still don’t have access to electricity and getting it would require an investment of $120 billion just in Sub-Saharan Africa.The issue is “how we can make the majority of that” renewable energy,” she said. “The beauty of the ops we have in Africa is that because some of the remote areas don’t have access today, there’s a lot of leapfrogging happening in terms of decentralizing grids and solar.”Africa’s path toward the energy transition will be dual, with oil and gas powering a lot of the demand over the short to medium term, and gas and renewable power taking over in the longer term. -- Laura Millan LombranaCarney Says Covid-19 Shock Provides Ecomomic Opportunity (9:50 a.m. NYT)The recovery from the economic shock of Covid-19 will provide an opportunity to direct economies towards sustainable growth models, a shift that would require huge investment and would be “capital intensive and job heavy,” said former Bank of England governor and United Nations special envoy for climate action Mark Carney.Governments can do a lot to set the general direction of travel, said Carney, who’s also finance adviser to the U.K. prime minister for the upcoming United Nations climate summit.U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and move to 100% clean energy serve as clear markers, while the development of hydrogen power, zero emission vehicles and clean power generation send signals to investors and “get money moving,” he said.“Government has to start with the objective, fill in the framing and then, candidly get out of the way so the private sector figures out where to go,” Carney said. -- Alastair MarshAllbirds CEO Says Consumers Want to Buy Sustainable Products (9:25 a.m. NYT)Shoppers care about sustainability and want to buy sustainable products, but they’re confused about what it all means, said Joey Zwillinger, CEO of sustainable shoemaker Allbirds Inc. That’s a consistent theme he’s seen across markets in Asia, Europe and North America.“I really do sense that people want to do the right thing,” Zwillinger said. “Once we clear up some of the confusion on what does carbon footprint even mean, I think we’ll start to see even more progress.”It wasn’t like that back when Allbirds was founded in 2015, he said. When it came to actually shelling out dollars for a product at the cash register, consumers would prioritize the product over all else. That’s been shifting in recent years, as people care more about how things are made and how it affects the climate.It took the company almost three years to develop a shoe sole that was sustainable, made from sugar-cane byproducts rather than the typical petrochemicals. -- Kim BhasinUnilever’s Jope Says Biden Win Is Benefit for Climate (9:07 a.m. NYT)Joe Biden’s victory in the U.S. presidential election is positive for companies committed to fighting the climate crisis, Unilever Chief Executive Officer Alan Jope said.“The capital markets and investors need to invest in properly run sustainable and green businesses,” Jope said. “In that regard, an administration in the biggest economy in the world that reenters the climate-change debate and a green recovery of course is going to be good for the system.”Jope also reiterated earlier comments that the “most important” measure governments should take in the near-term is pricing carbon, either through a cap-and-trade mechanism or a carbon tax. Unilever is working with Microsoft Corp. to build a digital model of the planet that will enable the company to label the carbon footprint of each of the products sold under its more than 400 brands, which include Dove soap, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Domestos bleach.Information relating to issues such as deforestation and social impact will either feature directly on the label or will be accessible online via a QR code, Jope said. -- Thomas BuckleyIndia Takes Steps Toward Carbon Neutral, Tata’s Chandrasekaran Says (8:55 a.m. NYT)Becoming carbon neutral by 2050 isn’t as straightforward for a country like India as it is for other countries and regions, said Tata Sons Ltd. Executive Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran. Energy consumption will raise over the next few years as the country becomes the world’s third-largest economy, and so will its carbon footprint.The country is on track to fulfilling its 2015 Paris Agreement commitments by increasing the presence of renewable power in its grid, setting up micro grids and investing in electric vehicles.“While the commitment might not be by 2050, the point is that India is taking very aggressive steps,” Chandrasekaran said. -- Laura Millan LombranaIMF’s Gopinath Pushes for Carbon Tax to Drive Green Recovery (8:46 a.m. NYT)Harnessing energy sources that are cheaper than fossil fuels “isn’t enough” to drive a green recovery, IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath said.More important is a carbon tax, which should be “set up small but then increase over time to change consumer behavior” and incentivize the private sector to invest in renewables, she said.In addition, carbon pricing is one of the most efficient ways to transition toward a low-carbon economy, but countries setting up carbon markets on their own won’t be enough, Gopinath said.“There has to be cooperative solution here,” she said. “Agreeing on a minimum carbon price globally would be very helpful in bringing about that transition.” -- Laura Millan Lombrana and Thomas BuckleyAnheuser-Bush Makes Big Push Into Renewable Energy (8:39 a.m. NYT)The pandemic hasn’t changed beverage manufacturer Anheuser-Busch InBev’s plans to source 100% of the energy in its operations from renewable energy in 2025, Chief Executive Officer Carlos Brito said.About 60% of the company’s volume now is made using renewable power; it was zero two years ago.The current situation has taught the company that it needs to take care of its supply chain, which includes farmers and retailers, Brito said.“Farmers need to be competitive in this world where water is going to be more scarce and productivity will be top of mind for everybody,” he said. -- Laura Millan LombranaIMF’s Gopinath Sees Opportunity for Green Recovery in 2021 (8:25 a.m. NYT)Most coronavirus stimulus spending this year has been focused on saving lives, but there’s an opportunity to have a green recovery in 2021, said Gita Gopinath, chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.So far, a total of $161 billion of support measures have been made to cut emissions since the pandemic started, according to BloombergNEF research. By comparison, $878 billion will go into stimulus for carbon-intensive industries without green conditions.“I am hopeful more will be done --2021 is the year when this should happen,” Gopinath said. “We know green investment is more job intensive and it can help in that dimension.” -- Laura Millan LombranaVon der Leyen Says EU Wants to Lead Green Recovery (8:11 a.m. NYT)Europe wants to spearhead a sustainable global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic by investing more than a third of its 750-billion-euro ($890 billion) economic stimulus in projects compatible with the bloc’s climate neutrality goal, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.The world can’t afford to make the same mistake that it did in the last financial crisis when it rebuilt a “broken system” based on fossil fuels, Von der Leyen said. The 27-nations European Union has designed its latest strategy to combat the recession around the Green Deal, a sweeping overhaul that will accelerate pollution cuts, promote emissions-free cars and spur low-carbon energy technologies such as hydrogen.“We need to use our recovery stimulus to invest in the clean and digital technologies of the future to make our economies more resilient and our societies and job markets fairer,” Von der Leyen said. “We can do it if we do it together. You can count on Europe to lead the way.”The Green Deal, which calls for Europe to zero-out greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century, will affect every corner of the economy, from agriculture and energy production to how cities are designed. To help kick-start the clean shift, 37% of the EU’s 750-billion-euro recovery fund will be spent on projects linked to the Green Deal. -- Ewa Krukowska(Updates with details of evening sessions)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
