TLDR & TLDL: The war in Ukraine may be a pivot point for the world’s climate change actions, in one direction or the other. It may encourage an acceleration by some to wean themselves off fossil fuels even faster. Others may just double down on oil, gas and coal to reduce the immediate pain for consumers and voters.
One irony for Aotearoa-NZ is the rising cost of carbon is creating a pot of fiscal gold that some want to see given back to consumers to reduce the pain of higher fuel prices, allowing them to keep buying cars and tanks of gas. (I talk about this more in the podcast above for paid subscribers and below the paywall fold for subscribers.)
Elsewhere in the news this morning:
Russia followed up a weekend threat to target the western suppliers of munitions to Ukraine with a strike on a facility used for NATO weapons training that killed 35 near Ukraine’s border with Poland. In response, the United States pledged a full NATO response if Russia was to attack Poland (Reuters);
The United States warned China it would “absolutely face consequences” if it helped Russia evade sanctions (Reuters); and,
talks to revive a deal with Iran to stop its nuclear development and free up its oil exports were suspended over the weekend after Russia demanded the deal include a ban on sanctions on Russia’s trade with Iran (The Guardian)
Coming up this week, I’ll be watching out for:
the PM’s post-Cabinet news conference expected for 4pm today;
the US Federal Reserve’s first (25 basis point) rate hike since Covid on Thursday morning NZ Time; and,
Aotearoa-NZ’s December quarter GDP later on Thursday morning.
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