The ‘Bond Vigilante’ Exposing Fossil Fuel Risk

Since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2015, banks and large investors have dumped $3.8 trillion into fossil fuels.

It's a staggering number. This is why writer and activist Bill McKibben calls money the "oxygen" that fuels the fire of global warming. While the wildfires burning around the world are getting worse each year, it’s like the world's bankers are blowing on those fires, making them even bigger.

For this episode, we have a story about two people who are trying to cut off that supply of oxygen to global lenders and the insurance companies backing them. It comes from our executive editor, Stephen Lacey.

We’ll hear from Ulf Erlandsson, founder and chief executive of a non-profit called the Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute. Ulf is a former bond trader who calls out deals in corporate and government lending that would be a disaster for the climate. He’s helping bond traders “short” these bad investments.

We’ll also hear from Elana Sulakshana, an energy finance campaigner with the Rainforest Action Network, about why insurance companies are enabling trillions of dollars to pour into new fossil fuel infrastructure. Resources:

Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute

Stop the Money Pipeline

Banking on Climate Chaos report

Insure Our Future climate scorecard

Follow our co-hosts and production team:

Leah Stokes

Katharine Wilkinson

Stephen Lacey

Jaime Kaiser

Dalvin Aboagye

A Matter of Degrees is a production of Post Script Audio. For more episodes, visit our website.