In this paper we discuss the systemic risks created by continued use of fossil fuels, and opportunity for long-term prosperity offering by investing in renewable alternatives.
If you own fossil fuels you own global warming. You own the most likely cause of global economic and possibly even civilization-level failure, and moreover, you own a power source
that is having an increasingly tough time competing economically. And yet, the fossil fuels industry – big oil, big coal, natural gas, and its allied sectors, including some large financial
institutions – will not quietly or willingly retire into the history of ideas whose time has passed. That fossil fuels represent the single greatest systemic risk to our collective economic
well-being, however obvious to increasing numbers of fiduciaries, is not a consideration for the industry itself or to many investors. A divestiture campaign to get money out of fossil fuels
stocks has emerged, indicating an emerging popular awareness that we must and will transform our energy society into one that can coexist with and even thrive on a finite earth.
That a massive global transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energies, led by solar, also means that there are and will continue to be competitive investment returns
earned from carefully selected investment exposure to renewables.
