(Tony Sifert, Headline USA) Even as the Vatican encourages Catholic investors to divest from fossil-fuel corporations, more realistic fund managers are increasing their investments in oil and gas, according to a report from Bloomberg.
“European-based ESG [Environmental, Social and Governance] equity funds have been increasing their investments in energy companies, including Shell Plc, Repsol SA, Aker BP ASA and Neste Oyj, according to analysts at Bank of America Corp,” Bloomberg wrote.
ESG funds are designed to be responsive to the demands of the woke oligarchy that runs, among other global institutions, the World Economic Forum, which highlights ESG investing as an example of its “strategic intelligence.”
With ESG-friendly money managers like the multi-trillion-dollar firm BlackRock leading the way, they have, heretofore, been at the forefront in pushing a globally oriented green-energy agenda.
The Vatican, too, has gone out of its way to encourage global elites to abandon fossil fuels.
In a recent press conference, Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J., prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, relayed Pope Francis’s call for “bolder action from all nations” on climate change.
“All new exploration and production of coal, oil, and gas must immediately end, and existing production of fossil fuels must be urgently phased out,” Czerny said. “This must be a just transition for impacted workers into environmentally sound alternatives.”
But a new economic reality appears to have set in as the war in Ukraine has made plain Europe’s near-total dependence on Russian gas.
Reuters has reported that Europeans have turned their attention to Africa, despite global efforts to prevent the West from exploiting the continent’s natural resources and exacerbating its alleged climate crisis.
“Energy firms are considering projects worth a total of $100 billion on the continent,” Reuters reported. “African countries that currently have little or no oil and gas output could see billions in energy investments in the coming years, including Namibia, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania.”
