The link between climate change and financial markets: AMNT Open Day

Former Equity analyst and Climate Change expert Meg Brown was the next speaker at the AMNT open day. Meg accepts that while she clearly sees a obvious link between climate change and investments that not everyone shares her views.

She doesn't think that equity analysts are all that skillful. Their skill is mostly in the selling. It is all about "belief" and what you expect to happen.

How else can you explain that companies are still spending a colossal $674 Billion on looking for more fossil reserves when we can only at best burn 1/3rd of existing reserves without causing climate change disaster.

Meg used the example of UK coal electric power provider Drax which is successfully changing from burning coal to bio mass. It went from facing bankruptcy to becoming a profitable success by adapting its business to climate change.

Meg spoke about the current floods as being physical evidence of climate change and how we need to look at the impact on insurance companies. There was a bit of debate in the Q&A about whether the increase in insurance pay outs due to extreme weather in recent years is due to climate change or the development of the insurance industry.

 

We were then split into work groups and looked at different investment funds from point of view of climate change risk. This made me realise that the lack of transparency in many funds made this very difficult if not impossible with some funds. 

Some questions that Meg suggested we should be asking our fund managers - 

Q. Where is the climate change risk in our fund? (And what are you doing about it)

Q. How do you see this risk developing?

Q. How are you hedging that risk? 

Top Bosses Rip Off Workers (and Shareholders) 14% pay rise FFS!!!!

"Commenting on the latest FTSE 100 director’s pay trends published today (Monday) by Income Data Services – which show that median total earnings of FTSE 100 directors increased by 14 per cent last year – TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“Britain’s top bosses are back to their old tricks as their pay is growing 20 times faster than the average worker.

“It’s one thing replacing bonuses with long-term incentive plans, but FTSE 100 companies are simply exploiting this change to make their fat cats even fatter.

“The time has come for legislation to put ordinary workers on the pay committees of companies. This is the only way to bring some sanity to the way in which directors are paid.”

Can you believe how greedy these people are?  When most workers in this country have had their wages cut in real terms for the last 5 years? Their pensions and insurance policies are also being reduced to pay for what I can only assume to be in the majority of cases - simple fraud and embezzlement

Enough is enough. The British people are not powerless in this. Parliament is sovereign and in 2015 vote Labour and demand they do something about our broken market economy.

Remember if you don't vote you have no right at all to moan about this.

Workers Memorial Day - The cost of cheap clothes is paid for in blood & why we are all guilty

Tomorrow is Workers Memorial Day (WMD). An international day of remembrance for those who have been killed in accidents at work or who have died of work related ill health.

As I type this rescuers are still trying to save workers trapped for days in the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The BBC report that at least 336 people have died and 600 are missing.

WMD is also a campaigning day to fight for the living as well as remember the dead.

We all have to take responsibility for the dreadful events in Dhaka. The ridiculous cheap prices for clothes at discount stores such as Primark or Matalan is paid for in blood. Shoppers need to understand this and demand responsible and accountable ethical sourcing.

But the problem is wider than this. No doubt the middle class John Lewis brigade will be shaking their heads in disgust at the thought of all these chavs buying their cheap clothes - while at the same time their pension and insurance policies are profiting from the world wide exploitation of the same workers.

Pension trustees need to raise their game and make sure that the companies they invest in have pro active and vigorous supply chain inspection regimes and that all their sub contractors truly respect workers rights and safety. 

We also need to make sure that that the huge contract pension and insurance funds that don't have any trustee oversight are brought into the responsible investment fold. If you pay into any product that invests in any part of this supply chain you can't wash your hands of your responsibilities as a owner and a beneficiary of what is done in your name.

Why don't we make UK companies and investors legally responsible for the reckless mass deaths of companies they invest in as they are for the manslaughter of workers they directly employ in the UK? 

Also, before we get too smug, don't forget the 20,000 plus Brits who die prematurely every year in this country because of their work.

Check the TUC website for list of local events to mark Workers Memorial Day.

Asbestos Legal Update: London Regional Health & Safety Committee

Picture of Thompson's personal injury solicitor, Ann-Marie Christie, with London UNISON health and safety network members.

Yesterday lunchtime she gave an update to the Regional Health & Safety committee and branch officers network on the latest legal developments. 

The good news was that there was finally justice for many victims of the deadly asbestos cancer Mesothelioma following the recent ruling by the Supreme Court against 6 rogue insurance companies (the so called "trigger issue"). Who for the past 6 years had tried to get out of paying compensation by arguing that they should not pay out when the company they insured actually fatally exposed their workers to asbestos only when the cancerous symptoms developed. Since this was often decades later when the insurance policies were expired this of course would have meant that many of the 2,500 people per year who get Mesthelioma would receive nothing.

While this is indeed a victory (by the trade unions who funded the appeal) it is too late for all those who have died in the meanwhile since 2006.  Their families may now finally get recompense.

No such good news on the battle for Pleural Plaques compensation nor for a bureau to register the insurance policies for companies that have now gone bust. The TUC estimate that at least 5,000 people die every year from asbestos related conditions and that 1 in every 100 men born in the 1940's will also die prematurely from these conditions. The majority of asbestos imported into this country took place from 1955 to 1980.

The movie actor, Steve McQueen, died from Mesothelioma. Not because he was a racing driver who wore fire retardant overalls which contained asbestos, as I had read, but because he had worked in ship engine rooms and ship yards before he become famous. 

Update: I forgot to mention that I thanked Thompson's at the meeting for a £60k settlement they won for a member of my branch who suffered a nasty accident at work. Ann-Marie stressed the importance of taking pictures of the accident scene as soon as is possible.

Elephant Insurance: Seriously rotten and completely rubbish car insurance

This is I admit a bit of a rant but not that off message.  Every day in our society, we come across the message again and again, about how efficient and well run the private sector is since it is by led by “profit” when compared with the supposedly “inefficient” and producer interest driven public sector. Why is this so?

When everyone I speak to on this subject has at least one horrendous horror story to tell of being ripped off by a private Bank, Insurance company or utility.  

My tail of woe with Elephant started last year when I (stupidly) took out a car insurance policy with them. I had maximum no claims bonus but within a few months my car had been written off after being rear ended while parked and then my new car was bashed into at work by contractors.  

The whole Claim experience was pretty dire and completely rubbish. Be warned!  Firstly the car replacement service that they were suppose to provide while I was waiting for things to be sorted out were just incompetent. Phone calls were never answered and my replacement cars turned up very late and whenever it suited them. They didn’t turn up to collect the car at the end either which meant that the claim for my excess was held up for months while solicitors argued about the car hire fees. No one in Elephant seemed to give a damn about what was happening. 

You felt you were totally by yourself. I made complaints and told several Elephant employees that I do not want anything to do with such an incompetent company in the future. They apologised and assured me that my contract will end. Despite this they then stole £731 from my credit card account for a new policy. I of course complained and they agreed to cancel my policy and refund my £731. Of course they didn’t do what they had promised to do and they ignored all my complaints. I had to get my credit card company to refund my account. End of matter?

No, don’t be silly. Elephant now ignore the emails that they sent accepting they will refund my account and took £355 out of my account for breach of contract??? Needless to say they did not warn me that they will be doing this nor did they send my any receipt for doing so.  

Now, I know that no company or service is perfect and mistakes can happen. But what interests me is what happens when things go wrong? Is there a will to acknowledge what has gone wrong and make amends? Or is this rotten service just deliberate since rubbish companies such as Elephant and parent company Admiral make money out of exploiting customers in such ways? 

Do the the senior executives of this Company make their obscene bonuses not from providing decent services to customers but from the practice of deliberately ripping people off?  I am forced to conclude that they do. So the next time you see some silly tabloid headline about public services, just remember how simply c**p private services can be. They don’t give a damn about their customers they only want to exploit their competitive advantage to fleece you. This is red raw Capitalism folks – don’t you just love it!