scholarly journals Climate change and fossil fuel: An examination of risks for the energy industry and producer states

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Krane
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Coal Industry ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Fuel Industry ◽  
Developed World

ABSTRACTThis article compiles and categorizes the various forms of climate risk facing the fossil fuel industry. The type and intensity of risk differs greatly among the three forms of fossil fuels, as well as between countries in the developing and developed world. The paper finds heightened risk for the coal industry and reduced risk for oil businesses, due to its lack of substitutes.Burning coal, oil, and natural gas is the source of two-thirds of the world’s emissions of greenhouse gases. Sales of these fuels also represent the economic underpinning of resource-rich countries and the world’s largest firms. As such, steps taken to abate emissions undermine commercial opportunities to monetize fossil fuel reserves. Risks to the industry correlate with progress on climate goals.This article analyzes recent literature on climate action strategy and finds that a new or intensified set of risks has arisen for the fossil fuel industry. These include government policies and legislation, financial restrictions among lenders and insurers, hostile legal and shareholder actions, changes in demand and geopolitics, as well as the onset of new competitive forces among states and technologies.The exposure of carbon-based businesses to these risks and the potential for loss is neither distributed uniformly across the sector, nor adheres to a uniform time scale. Shareholder-owned firms in the developed world will be incentivized to react sooner than large state-owned resource owners in developing countries. The fates of the three fossil fuels also appear likely to play out differently. Demand for oil appears insulated by its lack of viable substitutes, while coal businesses are already undergoing climate-related action, pushed by decreasing social acceptance and constraining financial regulation. At the other end of the spectrum, climate action has improved the medium-term viability of low-carbon natural gas. What appears clear is that, as effects of climate change grow more pronounced, the industry faces a future that is less accepting of current practices.

Divest–Invest: A Moral Case for Fossil Fuel Divestment

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Lenferna
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Moral Case ◽  
Moral Arguments ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Fuel Industry ◽  
Do So

This chapter begins by providing a brief overview of the divestment movement and the carbon bubble. It then argues that in order to avoid grave, substantial, and unnecessary harm, there is a collective moral responsibility to transition away from fossil fuels in line with the Paris Agreement’s targets of keeping global warming well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels with the aspiration of holding warming to 1.5°C. It uses that argument as the basis for the following three distinct but reinforcing moral arguments in favor of divesting from fossil fuels: (1) investing in fossil fuels contributes to grave, substantial, and unnecessary harm and injustice; (2) divesting from fossil fuels helps fulfill our moral responsibility to promote climate action; and (3) investing in fossil fuels morally tarnishes those who do so by making them complicit in the injustices of the fossil fuel industry. The chapter begins by providing a brief overview of the divestment movement and the carbon bubble.

scholarly journals Climate and wartalk: Metaphors, imagination, transformation

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rupinder Mangat ◽  
Simon Dalby
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
National Security ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Sustainable Society ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
War Metaphor ◽  
Fuel Industry ◽  
Change Problem

Fossil fuel divestment activists re-imagine how the war metaphor can be used in climate change action to transform thinking around what will lead to a sustainable society. Through the naming of a clear enemy and an end goal, the overused war metaphor is renewed. By casting the fossil fuel industry in the role of enemy, fossil fuel divestment activists move to a re-imagining of the climate change problem as one that is located in the here and now with known villains who must be challenged and defeated. In this scenario, climate activists move away from the climate and national security framing to a climate and human security way of thinking.

Climate Justice: Holding Governments and Business Accountable for the Climate Crisis

2019 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 197-201
Author(s):  
Kristin Casper
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
The World ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Fuel Industry ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

People around the world are already experiencing the impacts of climate change, and their human rights are under threat. Greenpeace's Climate Justice and Liability Campaign is collaborating with a growing number of communities to reclaim their rights through strategic climate litigation. Three themes run throughout these efforts. First, the climate breakdown is a human rights crisis. Second, political and business leaders must take immediate action or risk being sued. Third, there is mounting evidence that the fossil fuel industry is significantly responsible for the climate crisis and will ultimately be held accountable. Before exploring these themes, it is useful to understand the origins of Greenpeace International's climate justice efforts.

scholarly journals PARA ALÉM DA INÉRCIA DE AFLUÊNCIA

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Nevin
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Delay Discounting ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
Greenhouse Gasses ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Indefinite Future ◽  
Fuel Industry

Global warming poses unprecedented dangers to humankind, and it is a product of human activities: Production and consumption of fossil fuels, accompanied by steadily increasing levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.  Some of the predicted consequences of warming are already upon us; yet more catastrophic effects will be experienced in the future.  Two behavioral processes operate to maintain fossil fuel use: 1) Delay discounting studies suggest that relatively lesser-valued outcomes (e.g., driving private cars) that are available now are likely to be preferred to the value of a sustainable planet for all humankind, to be achieved in the indefinite future; and 2) ongoing fossil-fueled activities are likely to be highly persistent because of the long and rich history of reinforcement for individuals (e.g., comfort and convenience) and for the fossil-fuel industry as a whole (e.g., jobs and profits). One way to counter that persistence is to tax greenhouse gas emissions, which can shift current incentives away from fossil-fuel based energy toward renewables, even though the ultimate slowing of climate change may be remote.  Carbon-tax contingencies are similar to those employed to treat problem behavior; a successful example of this approach is described.Key words:  Global warming, fossil fuel consumption, carbon tax, delay discounting, behavioral momentum

A Climate Change Solution Does Exist

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
William John Montague ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Viable Solution ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Simple Technology ◽  
Fuel Industry

If anyone cares to stop the fossil fuel industry producing countries from destroying the ability of the Earth to support human life, now is the time to demand an alternative. Inaction on eliminating carbon emissions and plastic pollution have all but sealed the fate of our planet. These efforts should have been well underway more than twenty years ago. It is not too late if we act now. I have found a simple technology which can provide a viable solution. This means it is within the means of every nation on Earth to have and implement a simple ‘public domain’ technology.

Planetary Challenges

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Wright ◽  
Daniel Nyberg
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Environmental Cost ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Low Carbon Economy ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Fuel Industry ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Carbon Economy

The extraction and consumption of fossil-fuel-based energy has underpinned the growth of global capitalism over the past two centuries, resulting in an industry dominated by some of the largest and most powerful companies in the world. However, the centrality of fossil energy to economic growth has also come at a huge environmental cost as escalating carbon emissions have generated a climate crisis that now threatens the future of organised human civilisation. This article explores the origins of the global fossil-fuel industry and its political response to the growing recognition of climate change and moves towards the decarbonization of economies. It highlights how the industry has engaged in various forms of political activity to defend itself from critique and delay the transition to a low-carbon economy. While this has been a successful strategy for over forty years, the article notes how the growing urgency of the climate crisis and the current global pandemic now pose fundamental threats to the continuation of fossil fuel expansion.

scholarly journals Make Fossil Fuels Great Again? The Paris Agreement, Trump, and the US Fossil Fuel Industry

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 45-62
Author(s):  
Lukas Hermwille ◽  
Lisa Sanderink
Keyword(s):  
Energy Policy ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Coal Industry ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
International Governance ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Fuel Industry ◽  
Climate And Energy Policy

Theoretical advances suggest that international governance in general and the Paris Agreement in particular provide a strong signal guiding sociotechnical systems toward decarbonization. We assess this signal and its effects empirically, by examining the struggle of competing narratives as present in the communications of leading US fossil fuel industry associations and companies. The results are then discussed in the context of the national and international climate and energy policy debates in a study period from late 2014 until the announcement of withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in June 2017. We find that the Paris Agreement has institutionalized a narrative paradigm that is surprisingly resilient. While the election of Donald Trump and his climate and energy policy led to a narrative shift in the coal industry, the oil and gas industry remained conspicuously silent in its immediate response and maintained its narrative strategies despite its alignment with the Paris Agreement.

scholarly journals Low-Carbon Futures for Bioethylene in the United States

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1958
Author(s):  
Gillian Foster
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Regional Energy ◽  
Development Pathway ◽  
Ecological Changes ◽  
Corn Grain

The manufacture of the chemical ethylene, a key ingredient in plastics, currently depends on fossil-fuel-derived carbon and generates significant greenhouse gas emissions. Substituting ethylene’s fossil fuel feedstock with alternatives is important for addressing the challenge of global climate change. This paper compares four scenarios for meeting future ethylene supply under differing societal approaches to climate change based on the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. The four scenarios use four perspectives: (1) a sustainability-focused pathway that demands a swift transition to a bioeconomy within 30 years; (2) a regional energy-focused pathway that supports broad biomass use; (3) a fossil-fuel development pathway limited to corn grain; and (4) a fossil-fuel development pathway limited to corn grain and corn stover. Each scenario is developed using the latest scientifically informed future feedstock analyses from the 2016 Billion-Ton report interpreted with perspectives on the future of biomass from recent literature. The intent of this research is to examine how social, economic, and ecological changes determining ethylene supply fit within biophysical boundaries. This new approach to the ethylene feedstocks conundrum finds that phasing out fossil fuels as the main source of U.S. ethylene is possible if current cellulosic ethanol production expands.

scholarly journals Visualizing the Paris Climate Talks on Twitter: Media and Climate Stakeholder Visual Social Media During COP21

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630511878268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill E. Hopke ◽  
Luis E. Hestres
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
News Media ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Trade Association ◽  
Visual Framing ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Movement Organizations ◽  
Fuel Industry ◽  
Domestic Support

In 2015, meeting in Paris for the Conference of the Parties (COP21), representatives of 195 nations set an ambitious goal to reach net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by mid-century. This research uses the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which took place in Paris during 30 November to 11 December 2015, as a case study of Twitter coverage of the talks by mainstream and alternative media outlets and other climate stakeholders, including activists and fossil fuel industry groups. It compares the British Guardian with other media and climate stakeholders’ visual framing of climate change on Twitter during COP21, because the publication had launched an advocacy campaign in March 2015 promoting fossil fuel divestment in the lead-up to COP21. Findings show that individual activists and movement organizations functioned similarly in climate change visual framing in Twitter posts, as did individual and organizational multinational representatives and scientific experts. The news media categories varied by type of news organization. The major outliers were the fossil fuel industry and trade association accounts. Industry stakeholders largely focused on former US President Barack Obama’s climate policy, promoting the perception of a lack of domestic support for his climate policies in their visual Twitter postings.

scholarly journals The Environment, A Bipartisan Issue?: Partisanship Polarization and Climate Change Policies in the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-506
Author(s):  
Valentina Dotto ◽  
Anne Richardson Oakes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Climate Change Policies ◽  
Party Members ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Fuel Industry

Abstract Responding to climate change presents significant challenges on both international and domestic fronts. The current U.S. federal government disclaims a connection between climate change, and human activity, and embraces an environmental program that includes withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Agreement at international level and retrenchment from regulation domestically. This Article comments on the rollback of Obama-era environmental regulations now taking place at federal level and locates these policies in the context of the domestic polarization and partisanship that now characterizes U.S. politics. It notes that environmental regulation divides the Republican and Democratic Parties but that the response of individual party members may be more nuanced, particularly amongst younger voters. The Article comments on state level initiatives to counteract the effects of climate change that have gathered bipartisan support but are now subject to partisan actions by the federal government designed to limit their effectiveness. The Article concludes with the observation that as the combination of an aging demographic and alignment with a declining fossil fuel industry shrinks the GOP traditional constituency, it is to be hoped that far-sighted politicians from both parties will embrace credibility on this issue as a key component of enhancing their own as well as the planet’s survival.

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