“The six trillion dollar bet is that this calculation remains entirely theoretical, and that fossil-fuel companies will be allowed to keep pumping up the carbon bubble by investing more cash to turn resources into reserves, and continue booking them at full value, assuming zero risk of devaluation.”
His is a rather megalomaniacal view of what investment managers should think. It’s also kind of a twist on what the insurance company’s do raising rates on the expectation of AGW related flooding along coastal areas.
Neither is credible, and no regulator should take them seriously.
A manager who adopts his point of view won’t be an investment manager for very long. Indeed, they would likely be sued for losses from such a divestment policy.
McKibben is very good at using buzzwords but his logic is lousy. So is his understanding of economics and science. I’m always amazed at how such people find an audience.
I think pension fund managers are going to look at the potential market for energy and put more money into it rather than less. Any investment may go sour; any area of the economy may go sour. Energy looks as good as any and better than most and most of that is carbon-based.
Nit-picky and off-topic: water vapor is a greenhouse element but not a greenhouse gas. Vapor and gas mean different things. The difference is not trivial in a lab and it may be more important in the atmosphere than many writers realize.