CRRM3 (Episode 27): Summer recap

Accelerating subsidies | The Great Hydrogen Race is ON | The Urgent Disclosure Imperative

Welcome to CRRM3, the weekly weekend podcast that uses objective, quantitative policy risk measurements to identify strategic shifts in public policy globally regarding climate and energy policy. We use patented technology to transform the words of the public policy process into quantitative data so that patterns, trends, shifts, and trajectories can be identified.

The long weekend that marks the end of summer in the United States provides a welcome opportunity to survey the policy landscape and identify what can reasonably be accomplished by year end.

Many will gladly bid good bye to the summer of 2023, which was marked by dramatically out-of-control fires on multiple continents alongside increasingly erratic weather patterns. Climate change advocates often grimly took note that some of the more dire predictions regarding dislocations seemed to be coming true.

Policymakers took note. The race to develop hydrogen alternative energy sources hit high gear this summer, as we noted in our July podcast. Policymakers in Europe and the United States accelerated the disbursement of green subsidies, mostly for geostrategic reasons rather than as a reaction to wildfires. In the United States, the first anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act provided opportunities for reflection as well as controversy.

The usual flurry of midsummer summits occurred. The Chart of the Week (actually, the Charts of the week) demonstrate where the normative center of gravity existed. But the most important development occurred at the margins of the climate change debate.

Advanced economy policymakers have become acutely aware that the public purse cannot fund all climate and energy transition initiatives. A persistent high inflation environment and a still-intensifying set of geopolitical conflicts with Russia and China compete for official sector attention, priority-setting and resources. So the Summer of 2023 was the summer when a critical mass of policymakers began taking a hard look at why and how private financing markets focused on green projects are not gaining traction much less momentum. One key missing ingredient: sufficient data and disclosures concerning a range of climate-related risk exposures.

This Episode 27 starts the autumn season with a high level look at the summer macro policy landscape using a new tool to display more of the data that our patented process generates. We deliver for your consideration a short video showing one of the charts available to our dashboard users. Those charts depict both the volume of activity for key issues by policymaker name. They also provide our beta version of policy trajectory measurements. Let us know what you think!

The Quote of the Week and the Top Three Reads sections remain the same.