Reported today on The New York Times For the full article visit:
Global Financial Giants Swear Off Funding an Especially Dirty FuelSome of the world's largest financial institutions have stopped putting their money behind oil production in the Canadian province of Alberta, home to one of the world's most extensive, and also dirtiest, oil reserves.In December, the insurance giant The Hartford said it would stop insuring or investing in oil production in the province, just weeks after Sweden's central bank said it would stop holding Alberta's bonds. And on Wednesday BlackRock, the worlds largest asset manager, said that one of its fast-growing green-oriented funds would stop investing in companies that get revenue from the Alberta oil sands.They are the latest in a flood of banks, pension funds and global investment houses starting to pull away from fossil-fuel investments amid growing pressure to show they are doing something to fight climate change."If you look at how destructive oil sands can be, there's a very strong rationale," Armando Senra, head of BlackRock's iShares Americas funds, said in an interview, saying that Alberta's oil fields, along with coal, are "the worst offenders, if you want, from a climate perspective."In a sign of the potential power of the financial industry to influence climate policy, Alberta is fighting back hard.In April, voters elected a provincial leader who promised to punish companies that stopped financing the oil sands. Then, in December, Alberta opened what it called a war room to attack anyone perceived as criticizing the industry."We have been targeted by a foreign-funded campaign of special interests," Alberta's premier, Jason Kenney, said after winning office last year. "When multinational companies like HSBC boycott Alberta, we'll boycott them." HSBC, the largest bank in Europe, has said it w
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