Climate change can wait for too many investors in oil

Want to know why rock-bottom oil prices are a bad thing? A group of investors led by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and the Church Commissioners for England have signed a motion calling on ExxonMobil to disclose the resilience of its business model in the wake of the Paris agreement on climate change.

They and a group of co-signatories hold more than $1bn (£700m) in Exxon shares between them. So while they’re not big guns in investment terms, they have clout.

And they’re raising an important issue. The Paris agreement was signed because it was very necessary. So it’s pertinent to raise it with companies whose activities and products result in enormous amounts of carbon being belched into the atmosphere.

Let’s assume Exxon were inclined to listen – and, for the record, it has pointed to work it says it has already done on climate change. Its problem is that it is having to grapple with making money at a time when oil is as cheap as chips.

The big guns of investment are far more concerned about the large losses they’re sitting on than climate change. They will be pressing Exxon to cut costs, preserve dividends and the devil take the hindmost.

That sort of attitude spells trouble for us all in the long term. While the motion’s signatories see that, too many in investment circles suffer from environmental myopia.