Banks *really* want to save the world. Citigroup commits $100 billion to “climate change”. Media loves it.

The wall of money is enormous, and the media oblivious to the real flow from taxpayers to corporate welfare freeloaders.

Magnifying glass, Media.

The wall of money, part 23

Citigroup promised to spend, invest and loan $50 billion in 2007 and found it so easy, it managed to do it by 2013, three years ahead of schedule. This month it promised to send another $100 billion more towards “sustainability”.

How much of this is about being a green corporate citizen? Not much apparently. Citigroup are making the Citigroup buildings energy efficient, but what they didn’t say was whether they would stop investing in or taking money and profits from their fossil fuel customers. As it happens Citigroup might Big-Green, but they are also Big-Ungreen too, they were one of  “the top providers of funding for the most damaging practices of the U.S. coal industry last year. “  Not that any journalist mentioned that when they repeated the press release.

The banks can sniff out a good subsidy — it’s money for jam, and they are happy to feed the machine that feeds them.

Easy money for “sustainability” will also generate thousands of scary press releases from each and every sub-project as they start up and report. Not only do banks thus get a slice of the $70 odd billion in annual subsidies, but every new renewable project instantly becomes another “vested interest” in the climate scare, and another lobbyist for big-government subsidies. The cycle feeds on itself. The constant media promotion counts as free advertising for corporate welfare. In addition, Citibank will profit handsomely if a global trading scheme takes off. The brokers in those markets make money on every trade, no matter the price.

So Citigroup use this as a way to paint themselves as green corporate citizens while they are actually sweeping in the profits of taxpayer funded subsidies which forcibly shift resources from the middle class to the elites. Don’t expect these banks to ever take the side of the taxpayer and protest about uncompetitive corporate welfare. Don’t expect most news outlets to do that either.

The press release:

New York – Citi announced today a landmark commitment to lend, invest and facilitate a total of $100 billion within the next 10 years to finance activities that reduce the impacts of climate change and create environmental solutions that benefit people and communities. Citi’s previous $50 billion goal was announced in 2007 and was met three years early in 2013.

Newspapers as advertorials pretending to be news

Who would question the intentions of major finance houses promoting themselves as “green” community players? Not most journalists, who repeated the Citigroup press release without a single skeptical question.

The media is the problem. How many subscribers of these media-houses realize they are paying to be fed advertising disguised as “news”, and how many realize that the advertising is selling them pointless schemes that they have to pay for with taxes? If the media told subscribers how many hundreds or thousands of dollars a year they personally pay on fantasy programs to change the weather, the subsidy gig would be up in a few weeks.

Here’s more of the original press release green-spin.

With this $100 billion initiative, Citi will build on its leadership in renewable energy and energy efficiency financing to engage with clients to identify opportunities to finance greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and resource efficiency in other sectors, such as sustainable transportation. As part of a commitment to helping cities thrive during this period of unprecedented urban transformation, Citi will seek to finance and support activities that enable communities to adapt to climate change impacts and directly finance infrastructure improvements that increase access to clean water and manage waste, while also supporting green, affordable housing for clients, including in low- and moderate-income communities.

“Citi has demonstrated its deep commitment to not only taking environmental consequences into account, but also finding innovative ways to finance projects that lead to sustainable growth,” said Michael Corbat, Chief Executive Officer of Citi. “For more than 200 years, Citi’s mission has been to enable progress by facilitating economic growth and financing transformative projects. The core mission hasn’t changed, but the way we approach it has. Incorporating the principles of sustainability into everything we do improves our own operations, enhances our clients’ work, and contributes to a better world.”

h/t to Bulldust

9.6 out of 10 based on 71 ratings

63 comments to Banks *really* want to save the world. Citigroup commits $100 billion to “climate change”. Media loves it.

  • #
    Ron Cook

    Bugger, I bank with Citibank, Australia. May have change banks BUT then, are they all ‘tarred with the same brush’? And what about those who manage my superannuation. Where to turn to?

    O/T observations today:- a) Channel 7 news Melbourne are still referring to TC Marcia as a cat-5. and b) reorts of snow blanketing the middle east.

    R-COO- K+

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    • #
      James Bradley

      Ron,

      If they are putting your super into renewables it might be time for a change, as I believe the teaching staff at one of our prestigious unis who insisted on ‘green investments for their nest eggs’ are just finding out.

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    • #
      John McLean

      Even worse, imagine if you were a stockholder in Citigroup. Wouldn’t you demand that the board of Citigroup acted in the best interest of the stockholders, as is its legal duty?

      Now either Citigroup can see a profit to be made or it’s just p*ing $100 billion up against the wall rather than invest it in a way that benefits stockholders or use it as a dividend payment.

      60

      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        The Citygroup Board must be able to see a return on the investment, because they ain’t stupid, and for that much money, it will not be an intangible return.

        I am wondering if somehow this investment might be tied into the combination of a lame-duck President, the gabfest in Paris at the end of the year, and the need to get ratification of any commitments through the Senate?

        Even a thin slice of one hundred billion, would be a tidy sum to have in a war chest, in the run-up to an election. You can buy a lot of bunting for that sort of money.

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        • #
          James Bradley

          Like the Electrical Workers Union – protest against privatisation of poles and wires here in NSW yet invests its member’s money heavily in the privatised companies running poles and wires in Victoria.

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          • #
            Rereke Whakaaro

            Yeah, but Vic’ electrik is diff’rent, in’it, an’ they prob’ly use copper wires and ev’rythin’.

            30

  • #
    Ron Cook

    Ooooops b) reports of snow……

    70

  • #
    Dave

    Amazing

    USA blanketed with snow & ice
    Records freezing

    And this group of numbnuts want to invest in Windmills & Solar Panels????

    Do they understand what’s happening?

    Oh! That’s right SUBSIDIES from the Government

    Green Parasites

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    • #
      King Geo

      Yes Dave they are Green Parasites.

      The last “Great Plague” (bubonic plague) was in 1665/1666 in London.

      350 years later and we have the “Great Green Plague” – when will it end?

      The problem now is that the “Great Green Plague” is a global pandemic which unlike the “Great Bubonic Plague” can only be terminated by a “big freeze [LIA]” whereas the “Great Bubonic Plague” was terminated by heat (the “Great Fire of London”).

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Dave:

      How it happens:
      Group of ‘financiers’ announce an alternative energy project.
      Citibank rushes to lend them money (earning Brownie points with President, Greens, the Gullible – including reporters)
      Citibank takes out up-front fees.
      Financiers help themselves to large sums (and may even spend something on project to look good).
      Financiers make large donation to Obama election/re-election/educate the World on Climate change fund etc.
      President issues Government guarantee for loans.
      Financiers declare project bankrupt due to running out of money.

      Financiers retire with ill-gotten gains
      President has personal spending money
      Citibank gets loan amount back (and keeps up-front fees)
      Taxpayers get the bill.

      91

  • #
    John DeFayette

    Now there’s breaking news for you: Government sets up a legally binding scheme whereby billions of dollars will be transferred little by little from the unwashed masses to the owners of large capital projects. A bank will front the capital, and it will reap returns over the lifetime of the reverse Robin Hood projects.

    Sort of what banks do all the time, wouldn’t you say?

    Just call it green and look who become the new heroes of humanity! …There’s one born every minute….

    270

  • #

    My sustainability is greatly improved since I managed to give Citibank the flick.
    Like green ants. Agressive. Takes a while to get rid of them.

    160

  • #
    gnome

    Only $100 billion?

    That won’t get the tower of Babel built in Paris this year. Come on folx- dig deep for the cause.

    60

  • #
    bemused

    It truly has become a funny world where Leftist/Greens praise and sing the virtues of bankers.

    270

  • #
    pat

    my guess is most of the money has been/will be loans at interest. period.

    24 Feb: Daily Mail: AFP: Climate panel chief in the spotlight again
    Rajendra Pachauri, industrial engineer-turned head of the UN’s climate science panel and one-off sex novel author, is no stranger to accolades — nor to controversy…
    He had to weather calls for his resignation after gross errors were found in a landmark IPCC report, and faced widespread ridicule for an attempt at erotic literature…
    ***Some critics have questioned where his loyalties lay, given his business dealings with carbon trading companies.
    According to a CV on the TERI website, Pachauri had during his IPCC tenure also served on the boards of India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and natural gas company GAIL…
    DAILY MAIL: Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-2966769/Climate-panel-chief-spotlight-again.html

    never mind about the birds, say the CAGW crowd:

    23 Feb: NatureWorldNews: Brian Stallard: How a Solar Farm Set Hundreds of Birds Ablaze
    It’s no secret that solar power is hot right now…
    Still, the last thing you’d likely expect is for a new experimental array to literally light nearly 130 birds in mid-flight on fire.
    And yet, that’s exactly what happened near Tonopah, Nevada last month during tests of the 110-megawatt Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project…
    Unfortunately, about two hours into the test, engineers and biologists on site started noticing “streamers” – trails of smoke and steam caused by birds flying directly into the field of solar radiation. What moisture was on them instantly vaporized, and some instantly burst into flames – at least, until they began to frantically flap away. An estimated 130 birds were injured or killed during the test…
    But worry not, green home owners. The solar energy we are talking about here is not like the solar panels that top your roofs. Solar panels don’t produce enough heat to cause such a scene…
    As a self-sustaining energy source that only needs water and sunlight, the new plant certainly sounds like a boon for the natural world…
    Unfortunately, the redirected sunlight causes such a wide sphere of superheated radiation that the plant sees one streamer every two minutes, according to investigator estimates.
    Officials behind the project have refuted that claim, saying that most of the streamers are floating trash or wayward insects, but federal wildlife officials have begun calling these ‘eco-friendly’ power towers “mega traps” for wildlife…
    Garry George, renewable-energy director for the California chapter of the Audubon Society, even told the AP that while the reports are “alarming… it’s hard to say whether that’s the location or the technology” that’s behind the deaths. It may simply be that more birds follow air paths that happen to cross the new solar fields…
    US Fish and Wildlife Service officials are now waiting for a death toll for a full year of operation at the Ivanpah plant. The subsequent report may impact plans for future solar power towers in the United States.
    http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/12918/20150223/solar-farm-set-hundreds-birds-ablaze.htm

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    • #
      Ron Cook

      Pat,

      That’ll be the interest I and many, many others have paid over the years. I’m about to reduce my Citibank credit card to zero (hurrah!) and then reap as many rewards benefits as I can whilst NOT paying any further interest, I hope.

      Also thanks Pat, I find your posts very informative.

      R-COO- K+

      90

  • #
    Ron Cook

    Freezing temps and ice across the great lakes in the US of A, snow covering many parts of the middle east. I actually predicted this among my disbelieving (now ex) friends several years ago. Sun Spot activity. Cycle 24. The next LIA cometh.

    As part of my Ham Radio hobby I study Sun Spot activity and the conditions are frighteningly similar to the time preceding the LIA Maunder and Dalton minimums.

    sarc on, Rug up, buy warm woolens (preferably Australian Merino LOL) Mmmmm am I being alarmist? sarc off.

    R-COO- K+

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  • #
    Peter Miller

    From Wikipedia, the source of all wisdom:

    Citigroup suffered huge losses during the global financial crisis of 2008 and was rescued in November 2008 in a massive stimulus package by the U.S. government.[10] On February 27, 2009, Citigroup announced that the US government would take a 36% equity stake in the company by converting US$25 billion in emergency aid into common stock with a US Treasury credit line of $45 billion to prevent the bankruptcy of the largest bank in the world at the time.[11] The government guaranteed losses on more than $300 billion troubled assets and injected $20 billion immediately into the company.

    That was an Obama government rescue, who are now CAGW fanatics.

    I wonder how many hidden strings were attached to the bail out?

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    • #
      Mark D.

      There you go Peter! Follow the money AND follow the politics. Of the banks that were ruined, which party and candidate did the directors favor?

      80

    • #
      Ross

      Peter

      I think your post is what is called “hitting the nail on the head” except in this case you used a massive sledgehammer.

      80

      • #
        Ross

        Peter

        My sledgehammer comment was meant as a huge compliment. ( on rereading I can see it might have been interpreted in another way)

        60

  • #

    Time to ‘divest’ from these banks and stocks, just as the left blackmail banks into ‘other’ divestments.
    I have already ‘divested’ those media wh*res from my reading matter.

    120

  • #
    Rod Stuart

    Now, I realise that the “National Enquirer” is only marginally more credible than the Age or the Canberra Times, but this has the potential to be a DOOSY.
    Is it the politics, the religion, or the money that makes these old codgers think they are studs?
    Has the Gorical discovered “Road to Amora”? Has Patchy finally convinced him that sexual assault is cool? Is this what they mean by “global warming”?
    One of the questions warmists always ask is “what is the motivation for this conspiracy”? I always answer “It’s not a conspiracy. It’s just a yearning for faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, and MORE MONEY”. Money, sex power and fame drive the swindle. It has ever been thus.

    160

    • #
      ianl8888

      “what is the motivation for this conspiracy”?

      That’s a straw man,of course, designed to mark out someone who disagrees as a nutter

      The truthful answer is: “There is no conspiracy. Noble cause corruption is a mindset, not a conspiracy, and as such appeals to those with high levels of moral vanity”

      200

      • #
        Mark D.

        I’ve never understood the fear of the word conspiracy. Of course there is conspiracy! Any time two people (or more) work together to take advantage of some situation you have what fits the definition of conspiracy.

        Grand organized conspiracy from some dark sinister figurehead? Probably not. Just the same, you know damn well that these bankers are conspiring to take advantage of the situation.

        I agree that it is a defining term for many Warmists and Leftists though. It speaks to the rules for radicals technique of attacking the person not the evidence.

        100

        • #
          Yonniestone

          Mention conspiracy and it’s automatically added to “theory” such is the conventional thinking of todays sheeple, to actually look at the word Conspire in the Thesaurus the meaning covers an entire range of purposes from achieving a goal to criminal intent, this information is sadly lost on most of the populous as social engineering has successfully instilled a “react first think later” mindset with the punishment of social ridicule for the crime of independent thought.

          100

    • #
      gai

      The scandals just keep coming:

      State Department’s top counterterrorism official arrested in child sex sting
      Daniel Rosen, 44, was charged with one count of ‘use of a communications device to solicit a juvenile’
      ‘He will be put on administrative leave while this proceeds to its end through any judicial process,’ spokeswoman Jen Psaki said
      I’ts unclear whether Rosen is alleged to have used personal or State Department-issued devices
      State Department’s top counterterrorism official arrested in child sex sting
      Daniel Rosen, 44, was charged with one count of ‘use of a communications device to solicit a juvenile’
      ‘He will be put on administrative leave while this proceeds to its end through any judicial process,’ spokeswoman Jen Psaki said
      I’ts unclear whether Rosen is alleged to have used personal or State Department-issued devices

      This scandal is making the rounds again with Hillary Clinton’s name added to Obama’s
      2013:
      The Egyptian newspaper El Watan has reported a group of Egyptian lawyers has submitted a complaint to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, charging Obama with backing the group that incited widespread violence in Egypt both before and after what is known in Egypt as the “June 30 Revolution.”

      Translated from Arabic:

      Progress Dr. Nabil Medhat Salem, Professor of Law, filed a complaint to the International Criminal Court, for himself and as a member of the Egyptian Bar Association, against US President Barack Obama and all of Muhammad Badi general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Beltagy and Essam el-Erian and Safwat Hijazi and Asim Abdul Majid, for the Obama accidentally agreement and incitement and assistance of the armed elements of the Muslim Brotherhood in the commission of crimes against humanity in the period from 03/07/2013 until 08/18/2013 Arab Republic of Egypt….
      The text of the communication submitted by Dr. Nabil Medhat Salem lawyer cassation that “Article 7.1 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court as a” means any of the following acts “crime against humanity” when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: (a) murder. (B) genocide. (C) slavery. (D) Deportation or forcible transfer of population. (E) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law. (F) Torture. (G) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity. (C) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, or gender-related as reasons defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the court. (I) Enforced disappearance of persons. (J) The crime of apartheid. (K) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health….
      http://www.elwatannews.com/news/details/273605

      50

  • #
    mmxx

    Climate catastrophism believes it has found a money trail funded by taxpayers. Big banks sniff the wind and back green – that is, greenbacks.

    Weather variability is now bankable as the scary new abnormal!

    We must all commit money to stop climate variation.

    Amen.

    80

  • #
    pat

    Ron Cook – thanx.

    as expected…

    24 Feb: Business Spectator: Citi’s $100bn climate deal target; EU interconnection boost
    by Bloomberg New Energy Finance
    Citigroup stole the show last week when it announced its plans to lend, invest and facilitate deals worth $100bn by 2025, to support projects that will fight climate change and protect the environment.
    “Simply put, it is a $100bn investment in sustainable growth. These efforts do not constitute philanthropy, nor do they represent costs. In fact, they reduce costs,” chief executive officer Michael Corbat said in a speech in New York…
    The new target puts Citigroup well ahead of other financial companies, including Bank of America, which said in 2012 it would support $50bn in deals for low-carbon initiatives, and Goldman Sachs Group, which announced a $40bn plan the same year…
    Across the Atlantic, a transmission link between France and Spain went live last week, doubling interconnection capacity between the two countries to 2.8GW. The EU contributed €255m ($290m) towards the project’s total cost of €700m. Inelfe, jointly owned by French electricity-grid operator RTE and Spanish counterpart Red Electrica, was formed in 2008 to build the link…
    The EU wants its 28 member nations to be able to transmit at least 10% of the power they produce across borders by 2020…
    Africa got an investment commitment of $1.9bn last week through a venture of Mainstream Renewable Power and Actis, dubbed Lekela Power. It intends to provide 700-900MW of wind and solar power by 2018, with the initial focus being on South Africa, Ghana and Egypt..
    Lastly, in the offshore wind space, the UK’s 2.4GW Dogger Bank project – backed by SSE, RWE, Statoil and Statkraft – was approved by the government.
    https://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2015/2/25/renewable-energy/citis-100bn-climate-deal-target-eu-interconnection-boost

    50

  • #
    pat

    remember this success(?)story:

    Oct 2013: NYT: Andres Cala: Spain’s Desalination Ambitions Unravel
    In the arid Spanish Mediterranean city of Torrevieja, Europe’s biggest desalination plant stands idle six years after construction began. The plant is finished; it just needs a power hookup to operate at full capacity. But it has few buyers for its water and would cost too much to run…
    The Torrevieja plant cost about €300 million, or $408 million, to build and has a capacity of 220 million cubic meters, or 7.7 billion cubic feet, a day. It was part of an ambitious government plan conceived in 2004 to more than double the availability of desalinated seawater by adding 2 million cubic meters of water per day of capacity. The plan anticipated a surge in water demand along Spain’s Mediterranean coast to supply sprawling apartment complexes, golf courses and a tourism-driven economic boom.
    Instead, Spain’s construction bubble burst in 2007, dragging the country into an economic downturn from which it has still to recover…
    Now, after nearly a decade, the result is a graveyard of part-built or idled plants, while completed plants are operating below capacity. Actual water output is less than 20 percent of the volumes originally envisioned.
    “The desalination plants were a big mistake from the get-go,” said Enrique Cabrera, director of the water technology institute at Valencia Polytechnic University. “They were not needed.”…
    Consumer prices for electricity have almost doubled in Spain since 2004 — more than in most comparable European countries, according to Eurostat…
    An industrial achievement for some, desalination is now mostly an embarrassing reminder of how policy makers have bungled national water plans, frustrating all, including the European Commission, which contributed funding to cover about a third of the €2.5 billion estimated as the final cost of the desalination plan. Of that amount, at least €1.8 billion has already been spent, meaning that about €711 million is needed for completion…
    The annual cost to the government resulting from the gap between what consumers pay and the total cost of supply is not clear. Mr. Ramos said it could reach €700 million a year, including the costs of the idled desalination plants.
    Underutilization has already denied Spain the use of previously allocated E.U. funds. Contributions were reduced in the current budget cycle, according to the European Commission. E.U. frustration, though, is mainly over Spain’s foot-dragging on policy overhauls.
    “The idea to use desalinated water has not been successful because of the lack of political will to impose higher prices to farmers,” said Joe Hennan, an E.U. environment spokesman…
    He added that if progress were not made rapidly, the enforcement of these judgments could lead to ***financial penalties.
    But few are optimistic. “Citizens have to accept that the costs of having water security have to be paid even when they are not used,” said Mr. Cabrera, of Valencia Polytechnic…
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/business/energy-environment/spains-desalination-ambitions-unravel.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

    ***the financial penalties cometh:

    14 Feb: TheLeaderSpain: Mark Nolan: TORREVIEJA DESALINATION PLANT LOSES MILLIONS IN FUNDING
    It has been revealed this week that the much hyped desalination plant in Torrevieja, the largest in Europe, has lost out in 55 million euro of funding, on account of operational deadlines not having been met.
    Despite the plant being theoretically ready to operate, after years of battles, court cases and wasted expense, the water is still not being sent to the potential users…
    Acuamed has also said that other beneficiaries and management bodies are also awaiting the decision from Brussels regarding the recovery of the 55 million euro in aid destined for Torrevieja has already been spent by the Spanish central government on other projects, such as improving the supply of water in the Segura basin. Notice has already been served on central government that the European Union could claim back the subsidies for the desalination plant…
    Facing higher demands and lower reserves for all water users, and with farmers alone across the area facing increasingly difficult times, with many of them destroying crops as their destruction is sometimes more cost effective than distributing to the supermarkets and retail chains demanding lower prices, the need for their reduced production costs are clear, but sources suggest that the Confederation has not yet given concessions to farmers so they can buy the water, partly due to the insecurity of the operation, and partly due to claims that the plant couldn´t satisfy the demand at any coast, as the site does not yet have sufficient electrical power***.
    http://www.theleader.info/article/46371/spain/costa-blanca/torrevieja-desalination-plant-loses-millions-in-funding/

    ***doubt that electricity from France will help.

    80

  • #
    pat

    apology for pasting Business Spectator/BNEF jo, i didn’t see it included in your post.

    the piece by Siri Srinivas at The Guardian’s Finance Hub which is funded by Ernst Young (see bottom of the article). 4 comments.

    SMH’s piece is by Bloomberg’s Ehren Goossens (attributed at end of article) & is basicallly an ad for solar, with solar ads surrounding the piece. no comments.

    18 Feb: Yahoo Finance: Kevin Chupka: How Citigroup plans to profit from a $100B investment in climate change
    “I’ve gone numb to companies saying ‘oh we’re going to earn some good will by doing green this and green that,’” says Yahoo Finance Columnist Rick Newman. “However this is not $100 million, it’s $100 billion. That’s a lot of money and what that says to me is that Citibank thinks there’s actually money to be made here.”
    It seems other financial institutions agree. Goldman Sachs (GS) pledged $40 billion to the climate cause in 2012 and Bank of America (BAC) has followed suit with $50 billion.
    “This is now becoming a big part of the economy,” Newman adds, pointing to investment in green energy projects like wind and solar power, as well as electric cars…
    Yahoo Finance’s Jeff Macke is unimpressed. “Charity is great. It begins at home and giving $100 billion for climate change, that’s not in [Citi’s] core competency.”
    He cites the fact that Citi has yet to recover from the financial crisis the way the other banks have. Despite what Macke calls the “tricky little reverse split thing,” shares are still “down more than 80% from the highs.”…
    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/citigroup-pledges–100b-to-combat-climate-change-175002605.html

    64 comments and all scathing, with perhaps a single exception.

    60

  • #
    RoHa

    You see! All this Global Warming stuff is crypto-Marxist plot to establish revolutionary socialism throughout the world!

    101

  • #

    Say, wildly off topic I know, so sorry for that.

    I’ll have lots (and lots and lots) more to say, for a later time, as I’m hard at it at the moment, after the scariest, and the spookiest time of my life.

    Power is back after 112 hours off, five days and five long nights, stinking hot, humid, and absolutely still. You just manage, and improvise, and old things were what made life so much easier.

    All I have for now is.

    Been there, done that ….. looked up. (and how cool was that)

    Tony.

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    • #
      Popeye26

      Tony,

      Have SOME idea of what you’re going through.

      Went through cyclone Justin in Edmonton (Cairns) in late March 1997. It crossed the coast as a category 2 (peaked at cat 4 out to sea earlier) but had hung around for about three weeks. I was in Darwin working but flew home the day before it hit landfall so I could be with my family. The eye passed directly over Cairns and many trees/power lines down and LOTS of LEAVES stripped from trees.

      After looking at the photos from Marcia I am puzzled to think how a cat 5 could cross the coast and head inland and not STRIP EVERY leaf from EVERY TREE in the entire area?

      Wonder if BOM could shed some light on this quandary?

      Hope you survived OK – long time without power though – you obviously don’t have any solar panels or wind turbines out the back – JOKING!!! 🙂

      Cheers,

      101

    • #
      toorightmate

      Glad you’re back on line Tony.
      Unfortunately for many Rocky folk, it may be as late as next Monday before power is restored.

      60

  • #
    richard

    If the carbon credits etc make a big come back the banks will make billions handling the transactions, Citybank are just helping prime the pump.

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  • #
    pat

    welcome back TonyfromOz –

    good to know u r safe and sound, tho obviously somewhat shaken.

    i posted an abc life matters interview with anti-coal Bob Massie near bottom of comments on jo’s “weekend unthreaded” thread for u to hear and critique. hope u get to hear it now the power has been restored. it’s a shocker. it includes praise for Goldman Sachs & JP Morgan, if my memory is correct, which brings me back on topic!

    saw mentions in CNBC comments that this might be a Citi PR move to impress the Fed, as Citi’s CCAR Bank Stress Test results are imminent. might be something in that, as there’s a lot of $$$ & the boss’s position at stake:

    (subscription required, but managed to get some excerpts)
    18 Feb: CrainsNewYork: Stress test’ puts pressure on Citi
    The stakes couldn’t be higher because investor patience with Citi is just about gone. The bank’s stock has fallen by 75% over the past decade, nearly double the decline of the next-worst performer, Bank of America…
    Yet if Citi manages to pass the test, it’s future could be brighter than that of almost any other giant bank.
    That’s because it would put Citi in a position to spend much of the cash that regulators have forced it to hoard in recent years. Mr. Mayo estimates Citi could buy back as much as 10% if its 3 billion outstanding shares and spend $40 billion in the next four years on buybacks or dividends…(WHICH WOULD APPARENTLY HELP TO DOUBLE CITI’S SHARE PRICE)

    last year:

    March 2014: Forbes: Stress Tests Round 2: Citi Fails Fed’s Most Important Exam
    Michael Corbat, Citi’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “Needless to say, we are deeply disappointed by the Fed’s decision regarding the additional capital actions we requested…
    “We will continue to work closely with the Fed to better understand their concerns so that we can bring our capital planning process in line with their expectations and meet their standards on a qualitative basis as well…

    23 Feb: BidnessEtc: Martin Blanc: Will Citigroup Inc. Pass The Fed’s Stress Test
    All eyes are on Citigroup Inc. as the Federal Reserve is set to release its bank stress test…
    According to the Federal Reserve, the yearly review is aimed to ensure that banks have a forward looking capital planning that ensures that it has sufficient capital and can continue operations in times of financial stress.
    Citigroup Inc takes the spotlight this year because it failed the CCAR last year over concerns of internal processes. It was disallowed from expanding its share repurchase program and increasing its dividends. In fact, it failed the test twice in three years and Citi was the only major bank to fail the test last year…
    According to the Federal Reserve, despite the fact that Citi progressed in its risk management practices, its capital plan depicted weakness in its ability to project losses and revenue from global operations…
    The same rules apply this year, if Citi fails to pass the test of proving its ability to survive in events of crisis, it can’t buy back stock to boost its share price or pay dividends…
    “The CEO’s (Michael Corbat) job is on the line with the stress tests…This stress test has taken unusual importance… I’m literally planning my vacation around the stress test,” said CLSA analyst Mike Mayo…
    But in the long run, the consensus opinion is that Citi will need to go under a massive structural reform.
    “There’s nothing that knits this business together to make sense….There’s not a real catalyst here for a business model, and if I were in the boardroom I’d be thinking about how to break this thing up,” said Kroll Bond Rating Agency analyst Chris Whalen…
    http://www.bidnessetc.com/35405-will-citigroup-inc-pass-the-feds-stress-test/

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    pat

    READ ALL…seems to be an editorial.

    23 Feb: WSJ: Citi Turns Green
    In a Dodd-Frank world, the bank commits billions to clean tech
    Simply put, it is a $100 billion investment in sustainable growth.” That all this reflects the No. 1 domestic priority of the Obama Administration is no doubt a coincidence.
    Apologies for the skepticism, but banks have entered a new age. It may or may not be the age of environmental economic opportunity. It is unquestionably the age of Dodd-Frank and its creature, the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Banks understand that their first client today is in Washington.
    Traditionally, a banker’s priority was supposed to be the allocation of capital to its highest use, thereby maximizing shareholder value. Asked if these would be market-based loans, a Citi spokesman assured us, “Yes, absolutely.”
    The bank says that green energy is good for business because its customers are asking for financing for such projects.
    “They are not mutually exclusive,” Marshal Salant, who heads Citi’s alternative energy finance, said. As evidence, he cited studies by the United Nations, Bloomberg New Energy Finance and the Department of Energy, which “all talk about the need for this investment.” …
    Shaping a lending policy around a green agenda while the politics and science of climate change remain controversial and the technology of fossil-fuel extraction is advancing rapidly seems like a recipe for raising risk…
    Again, we don’t doubt Citi has run the numbers on its $100 billion sustainability fund, and we wish them luck with it. But one of the unspoken political goals of Dodd-Frank was to give the government more influence over credit allocation, and this looks to us like an example. Politicized lending in time always leads to trouble. We thought that lesson had been learned in the housing-mortgage crisis.
    COMMENT by SCOTT FRANKLIN: Guess who just got a free pass on their next stress test?
    http://www.wsj.com/articles/citi-turns-green-1424736112

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    ROM

    @ King Geo

    The problem now is that the “Great Green Plague” is a global pandemic which unlike the “Great Bubonic Plague” can only be terminated by a “big freeze [LIA]” whereas the “Great Bubonic Plague” was terminated by heat (the “Great Fire of London”).

    Right through all this angst at the current political situation re the green marxists operating under the pretext of concern for the planet and who are making attempts at a societal take over there is an almost total  concentration on the situation in western nation’s politics and media .

    Nobody ever seems to take a long hard look at what the 5 billions of humanity are thinking or doing in the rest of the world.

    Maybe I should modify that figure as about 1.6 billions of those who nominally profess to believe in the same religion are very busy at the moment trying to kill one another plus anybody else who comes along.
    I doubt that any of them are very concerned with greenpeace, watermelon marxists, slime mongers , skeptics, catastrophic global warming , climate change or anybody or anything much else.

    And then there are the couple of hundred million who have a busy little war going on in the Ukraine which if somebody spits the wrong way could easily get out of hand.

    India, the close second largest population nation on earth has more or less thrown the green marxists aka greenpeace out as their treasury has calculated that Greenpeace is annually costing India about 1% of its GDP in lost development.

    I doubt that Peru will be very sympathetic to greenpeace.
    Russia locked greenpeace oil rig protesters up for a couple of months although Putin is using and finacing Greenpeace to disrupt fraking companies in the UK and Europe which might eventually come back to haunt Russia in ways that nobody can predict.

    China, Korea, SE Asia, India, japan, a billion Africans, all will go their own way paying lip service at best to the global warming catastrophe meme while all the time increasingly keeping a very wary and very untrusting eye on the western created and based green eco-fascists to make sure that as the global catastrophe meme winds down they don’t start to suffer the affliction of a green ecofascists created societal nightmare that is on the way to destroying much of what was once thought of as the great jewel of civilisation, our western democratic traditions, laws and and society.

    Our western civilisation like all civilisations through history has a finite life.
    Perhaps we are seeing the end game for our western civilisation.
    But we have created the ways and means and the technology and the political and social structures which will ensure that another civilisation will rise on the foundations that our western civilisation has laid down over the last 1000 years.

    That new and vigorous civilisation might be rising in the East but it will be almost indistinguishable, a continuation of what we here in the west regard as “our western civilisation”.

    Mankind as always takes two steps forward and sometimes more .
    And then he takes one step back and sometimes more.
    But he is always on the move, restless, aggressive, never satisfied. 
    And thats why we as a species believe that we can control the world.

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    Scott M

    Remeber

    The advertiser is the customer, the viewer/reader(eyes) are the product being delivered to the advertiser.

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    Keith

    Jo,

    You may be interested to know that, according to Dealogic, Citi was the bank that gained most fees out of deals in the oil and energy arena in 2014.

    http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/as-oil-prices-fall-banks-serving-the-energy-industry-brace-for-a-jolt/?_r=0

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    Leonard Lane

    Nice post Jo and nice comments folks.
    Thanks for many points to ponder. Many things I knew but pushed to the back to deal with day to day life. And some I did not know about to add to the databank in my head.
    I often wish more of those data were retrievable, sigh!

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    Ruairi

    Observe the sham cavalcade,
    Drawing warmists of every shade,
    With some bankers in tow,
    Keeping it on the go,
    With billions to fund this charade.

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    Louis Hissink

    Blast – misposted in previous thread.

    The bank’s biggest problem is figuring out how the various socialist economies, and governments, are going to pay their borrowings. Greece’s debt is 175% of it’s GDP and getting worse.

    The real issue is that the socialists globally have no idea how to pay the banks back, and this is why I suspect there is a move to another way of paying the debts via a carbon tax or something similar.

    The whole problem of course is the socialist/statist politicians who borrow funds in order to allow their voting supporters to consume in the here and now. Equally the burgeoning public sectors which produce nothing, also need funding, and if you kill off the capitalist productive sector, how then are you going to create wealth or facilitate trade?

    No, this whole problem is one vast socialist stuff up, created by people who believe, ultimately, that some thing can be created from nothing.

    Interesting times we are living in.

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    macha

    The aluminium industry, companies like Alcoa, do the same green promotions. Aluminium is not called “electric-metal” for nothing. Once again, the CAGW fear mongering is all about energy not saving the planet from human behaviour. Companies simply try to survive against all other companies or competition that sucks investment funds. If you are not with them, you are mising out.

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    Rod Stuart

    I was looking for some data provided by turnedoutnice or backslider relative to the emissivity of CO2 in the near IR frequencies of 1437, 1955, 2013, and
    2060 nanometers, particularly pertaining to temperatures determined by Maxwell’s equations. I can’t locate it in Jo’s database. Can anyone remember where to find it please?

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    Glen Michel

    Why not subvert the capitalist system say the greens; white-ant the monetary;all governments go into fiscal melt-down- save afew I guess.Soon, when the population is reduced we can reintroduce the barter model(?) .All happy Earth mothers children.All by demonising a trace gas.Amazing!

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      James Bradley

      Glen,

      The Labor Party are doing environmental impact studies now on that very system to participate move to either Victoria or Queensland.

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    pat

    ***Big Business really wants to save the world!

    25 Feb: RTCC: Ed King: UK warns Brussels against “watering down” EU climate targets
    Secretary of State Ed Davey writes to Commission, says credibility of Brussels leadership on climate change is at stake
    The European Commission’s latest set of proposals for a UN climate deal could “severely undermine” efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, UK climate and energy chief Ed Davey has warned. He said the UK strongly objected to plans – released on Wednesday – that would see naturally occurring carbon sinks like forests and wetlands used to meet the EU’s emissions reduction target of 40% on 1990 levels by 2030…
    “Implying that the land-use sector is included has the potential to severely undermine ambitions, as land is a sink and could impact ambition by 1-2%,” he wrote.“This is not insignificant and the inclusion or not of land within the -40% was very clear’y not agreed in the October [2014] Council.”…
    A perception the EU is trying to wriggle out of its climate commitments could impact alliances with other countries in the run-up to Paris, where a UN deal is set to be agreed in December, he added. In a statement sent to RTCC, Davey said he would push for land use to be added “on top of a 40% target” where it could not be used to help other sectors avoid decarbonisation…
    European officials released the ‘Road to Paris’, outlining the bloc’s proposed contributions for the UN pact, on Wednesday…
    In addition to land use and the 40% target, concerns have been raised over the Commission’s claim that domestic EU commitments cannot be increased ahead of Paris…
    ***Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, Director of the Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group, which includes Unilever, ***Sky, Shell and 3M as members, said the prospect of faltering EU ambition would concern the business community.“Moving to include emissions from forestry and land use change in the EU’s target sends the signal to other industrial sectors that they are being let off the hook – just when greater effort is needed,” she said.“This is bad news for our business leaders who have invested up front in low-carbon solutions and who believe that a robust target is needed to deliver wider change.” …
    http://www.rtcc.org/2015/02/26/uk-warns-brussels-against-watering-down-eu-climate-targets/

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    pat

    25 Feb: European Commission: Climate Action: EU sets out vision for Paris agreement alongside Energy Union strategy
    The Communication, “The Paris Protocol – a blueprint for tackling global climate change beyond 2020”, is part of a package unveiled by the European Commission as part of the EU’s Energy Union strategy. As well as securing Europe’s energy supply, ensuring affordable and competitive energy and an integrated energy system, the strategy also aims to tackle climate change through the transition to a low-carbon, climate-friendly economy…
    MULTPLE LINKS TO DOCUMENTS
    http://ec.europa.eu/clima/news/articles/news_2015022501_en.htm

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    pat

    25 Feb: Bloomberg: Top U.S. Solar Makers Plan Venture to Own Low-Risk Power Plants
    byChristopher MartinEhren Goossens
    A decision by the two largest U.S. solar manufacturers to form a joint venture to own and operate their power plants offers the companies more long-term cash and a low-risk opportunity for investors.
    First Solar Inc. and SunPower Corp. are jumping on the yieldco train, an increasingly popular business model that lets renewable-energy companies generate money over the long term by keeping their power plants instead of selling them.
    The move is a significant shift for the companies, which have previously sold most of their projects to power producers. The venture will be backed by decades-long contracts to sell electricity and may be worth as much as $2.8 billion…
    “It’s a way to further monetize the projects they were already developing,” he (Shayle Kann, analyst. GTM Research in Boston) said…
    Under this model, energy developers such as SunEdison Inc. and TransAlta Corp. have created separate units, the yieldcos, to own and operate power plants…
    Six energy companies have formed yieldcos through initial public offerings in North America since mid-2013. The growing use of the model is a sign the clean-power industry is maturing, said Angelo Zino at S&P Capital IQ.
    Yieldcos’ power plants come with decades-long contracts to sell electricity. Those deals provide both stability and visibility, making the companies low-risk investments and reducing their borrowing costs…
    “This is a great way for investors to support solar without taking on the risk that manufacturers and developers carry,” Zino said…
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-25/top-u-s-solar-makers-plan-venture-to-own-low-risk-power-plants

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    Lament of the Commonwealth Bank

    A hand-maiden, where once I ruled
    A Queen from sea to sea!
    No task too vile to set me to,
    Who strove to make you free
    God! Did I once stand upright
    from My frightful servitude
    And wear upon my beaten brow
    The crown of nationhood?
    As in a dream I see them pass,
    My deeds of long ago.
    My bright Homes, filled with happiness,
    In peace and comfort glow.
    My Credit flows in running streams
    To help you in your need.
    It saves you from the usurer’s grip,
    And private banker’s greed.
    When Ruin turns his grim face
    on Your primal industries,
    My ships steam swift, and carry forth
    Your produce overseas.

    The Story of the Commonwealth Bank 1911
    “… A study of events leading up to the establishment of the Commonwealth Bank, and subsequent developments, provides an understanding of a vital, but comparatively little-known part of Australian history. Events since the publication in 1948, of the twelfth (revised) edition of The Story of The Commonwealth Bank, have both highlighted how the bank could have been used to serve the Australian people, and the author’s fears about the implications of acceptance of the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1947.
    Much more is known today about the long-term strategy of those international forces which created the International Monetary Fund and The World Bank. For example, with the emerging programme to establish a New International Economic Order, it has been revealed that the British economist, John Maynard Keynes, who played a major role in preparing the Bretton Woods Agreement, had in 1942 drafted a memorandum –
    ‘The International Control of Raw Materials’….”
    To understand real credit as opposed to bank ‘credit’ read “The Story of the Commonwealth Bank”
    http://www.alor.org/blog/index.php/the-story-of-the-commonwealth-bank-1
    But we need to widen our thinking 100 years later. With the advances of automated technology and industry, the situation has changed dramatically in the last 100 years – human energy has been dramatically replaced by the energy of solar power, etc.
    Governments of both persuasions are now desperate to invent more jobs – even to working on desalination plants that remain idle. Read up on ‘The Precariat’, it is important. In the present socio-economic regime of the Lib/Labs, their tax income-support is shrinking while the ‘unemployed’ dependence-overhead is expanding.
    But neither the ‘Left’ nor the ‘Right’ of politics have demonstrated they were or are capable of thinking outside the box by putting forward policies that would distribute the amazing real wealth/abundance of this land, without pauperising one section of the people to pay the other section ‘deprived of income’. Even socialists appear to be becoming aware of the insuperable problem under present finance/economic policies.
    Ask any capable production engineer – who does have to deal with reality, that is, the real world – whether Australia, with its huge productive capacity could/does produce more than enough for its population – without the need for every adult citizen to be ‘wage-employed’.
    Maybe as an opener, your readers could have a look at “Financial Credit versus Real Credit” by Jeremy Lee. Found here… http://alor.org/MOV/Financial%20Credit%20versus%20Real%20Credit.mov

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    Ron Cook

    O/T

    Is there a list of which Liberal (and just maybe Labour [oxymoron}) politicians who are skeptics?

    R-COO= K+

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    Speaking of money, the conclusions of the pro-renewables think tanks in Germany: (PDF)

    Without a fast-acting reform, emissions trading as a tool for European climate policy is dead. Currently, EU emissions trading has a structural surplus of 2.5 billion certificates, which will grow to 3.8 billion by 2020 and without reform will reach 3.4 billion by 2030. Without structural reform, the CO2 price will remain permanently under 5 euros per tonne.

    “Agora Energiewende” is a joint venture between the Mercator Foundation and the European Climate Foundation which is itself partly funded by the Mercator Foundation.

    I mention the Mercator Foundation because it’s a partner in the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) of which one Ottmar Edenhofer is the director; alongside his Directorship within the Potsdam Institute for Climate Catastrophism (PIK). PIK in partnership with the Mercator Foundation formed the MCC. (Am I allowed to say that with that amount of incest that it’s inevitable that the children will be idiots?)

    Edenhofer, who is also Chief Economist at PIK, recently called (link in German) for the expropriation of owners of coal, oil and gas resources. i.e. depriving them of property. Globally!

    This Chief Economist seems woefully unaware that all mineral resources in most countries belong to the people (via the respective State) and extraction rights are granted in return for royalties that are (notionally) applied for the public good. vis e.g. the oil company that looks like a nation; Norway.

    N.B.: PIK advises the German government on energy and environment policy.

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    TdeF

    Possibly the most infuriating problem for Big Wind and Big Carbon in protecting their billion dollar a day incomes is that they cannot cutoff the money supply for their opponents. That is simply because there is none.

    The popular revolt against the faux science of Global Warming is a grass roots one. Knock over one journalist, scientist or blogger and another one pops up. Self funded retired scientists, school teachers, geologists and independent journalists and bloggers are finding they have mass support. No one believes the silly science scare any more and career warmist scientists are having real trouble hiding what is possibly a real decline in world temperatures.

    A freezing December in Paris could well be the end of the IPCC and their thousands of loyal Nobel Laureates. The great human tragedy is that an amazing amount of real good could have been done instead of building a quarter of a million windmills. The greatest period of world peace in human history and we have built windmills. That was the tragedy of Global Warming.

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