[MCN] Are our political candidates listening? A "legendary" capitalist goes to war with fossil fuels

[Lance Olsen]

Institutional Investor  February 13, 2020

Where Jeremy Grantham Expects to Be ‘Kicking Ass’
Venture capital is the sole feature of American capitalism that is still thriving, says Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of GMO.
Christine Idzelis <https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/topic?author=Christine+Idzelis>
<<https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1kbb2wtlv3mh7/Where-Jeremy-Grantham-Expects-to-Be-Kicking-Ass <https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1kbb2wtlv3mh7/Where-Jeremy-Grantham-Expects-to-Be-Kicking-Ass>>>

Excerpts
GMO co-founder Jeremy Grantham is throwing his weight behind venture capital investments, using a growing portion of his family fortune to tackle the existential threat posed by climate change.

Venture capital is the sole feature of American capitalism that is working exceptionally well, Grantham said on stage at the Investing for Impact conference <https://events.economist.com/events-conferences/americas/investing-for-impact-2020> hosted by The Economist in New York. “It is still alive and snappy.”

During his remarks on stage, Grantham described “green” venture capital as the “the cutting edge of the cutting edge” and called out traditional asset managers and regulators for being too slow and ineffective at solving urgent problems tied to the environment.

“We expect to be kicking ass,” Grantham said of his personal fund’s VC strategies in green energy. 

Grantham, a legendary value investor who is based in Boston, said during the interview with II that the U.S. still excels at venture capital partly because the industry collaborates with prestigious universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

During his remarks on stage, Grantham railed against the oil and gas industry for its knowing contribution to the climate crisis. He claimed that experts at ExxonMobil understood decades ago they were adding dangerous amounts of carbon emissions to the atmosphere. 

He warned that fossil fuels were contributing to the warming of the earth, with flooding being just one of the damaging consequences expected to increase over time. Grantham said part of the problem is that the oil and gas industry, with all its money and power, has wielded strong influence over lawmakers and regulators.

His concerns about the environment are about “survival,” and as part of that, he said his “objective is to make the oil industry pariahs.”

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“...many scientists say deep emissions cuts are necessary … to prevent … 
dangerous consequences of global warming. 

"Getting from here to there would require a massive economic shift.”

Rachel Pannett and Jeffrey Ball. “Australia Approves Energy Bill.”  
The Wall Street Journal  p.A7, August 21, 2009

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