| Graph from Bloomberg via the BBCAmid plummeting fossil fuel prices, people will still look for advantage, legally or not. Ricardo Soares de Oliveira reminds us of the importance of tackling cross-border networks of corruption in the oil sector, a Venezuelan gold-for-gasoline scheme stretches across networks of shell companies.
Andrew Bauer of the IMF offers three proposals for mineral dependent countries to navigate the crisis while Hervé Lado digs into the Guinea context arguing for steps to prevent backsliding on mining governance commitments and Alex Malden reminds us why maintaining revenue payment transparency is still important in the current context.
At least mining companies can envisage a rebound in demand (as iron ore producers are already seeing). It is a bleaker picture for oil companies. Carbon Tracker detail how falling fossil fuel demand contributes to increased risk of stranded assets.
Interestingly, even amid the pandemic and plummeting stock values, shareholders of public companies continue to ramp up pressure on oil firms to take action on climate change, and some countries are using this as an opportunity to combat the climate crisis.
In what could be a related game changer, a committee of the US Securities and Exchange Commission is urging mandatory environmental, social and governance disclosures for firms, which could lead to some consolidation of competing standards, which for now have heightened fears of greenwashing.
Are these signs of a broader shift in attitudes? If so, interesting to try and parse out how environmental media efforts have played a role. The Media Impact Alliance detail how funding for environmental media grantmaking has gone up in the past decade and suggest it may be starting to have a cumulative impact. |
