The Great Climate Change Wealth Transfer Is Here
Losses from natural disasters hit $280 billion last year. Fossil fuel companies will profit, while homeowners will pay the price.
The cost of inaction.
Photographer: Eddie Seal/BloombergThere’s rarely been a better time to be a seller of fossil fuels — nor a worse time to be exposed to their effects.
Thanks to resilient crude prices and lackluster investment activity, shareholders in oil and gas companies are enjoying a bonanza. Of the $569 billion in dividends paid by businesses with at least $10 billion in net income over the past 12 months, more than a third — $206 billion — has come from fossil energy. Almost half of that has come from just one firm, Saudi Arabian Oil Co. America is producing more oil and more gas than any nation in history. The S&P 500’s index of energy companies hit a record high in April.