The governor of France’s central bank, François Villeroy de Galhau, has said that
a global agreement requiring all listed companies to disclose their climate change risks in a standardised way is close and could be agreed at the UN COP26 conference in November.
This follows a momentous week for energy companies and ESG. ExxonMobil’s
shareholders voted to overhaul its board – giving the new directors a mandate to push the oil giant much harder on its strategy to reduce emissions.
On the very same day, a verdict from The Hague ordered
Royal Dutch Shell to cut carbon dioxide emissions more, and faster, than planned. And the management at Chevron also had its hand forced on climate issues by investors.
These
actions mark a “sea change” in the climate battle, our reporters note, and will have far-reaching consequences.
Indeed, what happened at the oil companies “
should act as a wake-up call for other executives with a bunker mentality,” writes chair of the US editorial board and editor-at-large Gillian Tett – they can no longer afford to ignore activists.
Looking more broadly, economics editor Chris Giles asks if
the world is entering an inflationary era in his Big Read. While central banks are confident that any inflation will be transitory, there is a chance that, for the first time in decades, price rises will be more than a flash in the pan.
One further problem is that
consensus on how to promote stable price growth amongst monetary authorities across the world has broken down. Central banks in the US, Europe and Japan, for example, are pursuing different strategies.
Indeed, the European Central Bank faces difficult decisions when its governing council meets next week. Figures
show inflation in the eurozone rose to 2 per cent in May – up from 1.6 per cent in April. It is the first time it has exceeded the ECB’s target in over two years.
But amid the concern, there was a note of positivity from the OECD. It predicted that
global output would rise 5.8 per cent this year, an upgrade on previous forecasts. And growth of 4.4 per cent the following year would bring most of the world back to pre-pandemic levels of activity.
There was less optimism around the UK economy, however.
The country faces a decisive decade, writes chief economics commentator Martin Wolf. It must tackle many difficult challenges from a base of stagnant productivity, high inequality, rapid ageing and high debt.
Brexit is already beginning to bite too.
UK services exports from 2016 to 2019 were cumulatively £113bn lower than they would have been had the UK not voted to leave the EU, new research shows.
And finally, directors looking for a
case study on strategy could turn to AstraZeneca. Its vaccine, once seen as a silver bullet in the fight against Covid-19 and a springboard into a new market for the company, is now facing an uncertain future due to a huge lawsuit and rare side effects.
