[lbo-talk] Counting on the private sector to avert catastrophe

[Marv Gandall]

The rhetoric and pledges coming out of the climate talks in Paris are primarily intended to encourage banks, hedge funds, and other large institutional investors to shift from fossil fuels to renewables in their own self-interest, as alternative energy becomes more cost-competitive and profitable. 

Early market signals gingerly point in this direction, but whether the hoped-for private sector reallocation of capital will be of sufficient scale and in time to avert climate catastrophe is doubtful in the absence of direct public investment and ownership of the energy industry and a virtual shutdown of coal, oil, and gas production.

http://fortune.com/2015/12/14/paris-climate-deal-sinks-coal-stocks-lifts-renewable-energy/