THE CARBON WAR

If only he had the money 47
surprised at just how extreme it is, and how it just keeps on growing, despite
everything we know – or ought to know – about how it threatens social cohesion.
From Zurich I take the train up into the snow clad mountains. Swiss
tourism propaganda panoramas unfold around me under a blue sky. Helicopters
throb by as we near Davos. I wonder how many other participants have
travelled here, like me, via EasyJet and rail.
I arrive, check in through the intense security cordon, make my way
through the immaculately dressed crowds at the Hotel Belvedere to my first
event. So many very fine suits. So few skirts. Here is evidence of another form
of inequality. Only 15% of the attendees are female. Until the evening parties,
that is.
The event I am attending is about the problem of short-termism. McKinsey
and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board have collaborated on a study
of how investors might look beyond their ingrained practice of focussing on
the next two quarters. Forty business leaders gather over a very fine dinner to
hear their conclusions, and discuss them.
Someone has a sense of humour among the organisers. I find myself
seated next to the CEO of Suncor, Steve Williams. Suncor, a long-standing
operator in the Canadian tar sands, is the world’s largest producer of bitumen.
Its operations are one of the biggest single corporate point sources of greenhouse-gas
emissions on the planet.
We hear that an opinion survey of hundreds of CEOs shows that most
of them blame boards more than investors as the primary drivers of short
termism. Boards are increasingly populated by white men averaging 57 years
of age, we hear.
What about compensation of asset managers, someone asks. Doesn’t that
skew market behaviour towards short termism?
Yes, says the man from McKinsey. That too is short term. Compensation
metrics for asset managers span six months on average.
There’s your core problem then, I mutter.
Steve Williams hears me.
Yep, he murmurs.
Lord Nick Stern addresses the gathering on the economic threats of
climate change. A former chief economist at the World Bank, Stern is one of the
strongest advocates of climate action among the stars in the field of economics.
Williams quietly snorts disagreement this time. I stay quiet.
Later, in the discussion, Williams has a point to make. He has just got a
fifty-year investment project away in the tar sands, he says. It was extremely