Stocks Protecting The Planet And Digital Lifestyles

Is it possible to invest in companies that aim to secure humans’ existence on an ever-dwindling planet and those that protect our increasingly digital lifestyles? Finweek looks at these issues and analyses four offshore companies that fit these themes.

- Jaco Visser

Two things happened during the middle week of May that propelled the importance of a cleaner energy future even more onto centre stage. Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, halted the ability to pay for his company’s products through cryptocurrency. Apparently, it uses a lot of energy. A second, less glamorous happening, though far more significant than the exclamations of a celebrity CEO, is the fact that companies are beginning to play along in decarbonising the planet: The price of a tonne of carbon rose higher than €50 for the first time. This is of fundamental importance.

Humans’ exploitation of earth is well documented. In a recent World Economic Forum report, it is summarised as follows: 32% of the planet’s forests are destroyed, 40% of invertebrate pollinators (such as bees) face extinction, land surface productivity (to produce food among others) shrunk by 23%, due to land degradation (such as erosion), and 50% percent of species face extinction by the end of the century – that is in 79 years’ time. Left unchecked, global warming will reach 4.1°C to 4.8°C above pre-industrial levels by 2099.