Page 114 - COVID-19: The Great Reset

of physical and social distancing, may re-emerge with
renewed vigour once the periods of confinement are over.

Emboldened by what they saw during the lockdowns (no
air pollution), climate activists will redouble their efforts,
imposing further pressure on companies and investors. As
we will see in Chapter 2, investors’ activism will also be a

force to be reckoned with. It will strengthen the cause of
social activists by adding an extra and powerful dimension
to it. Let’s imagine the following situation to illustrate the
point: a group of green activists could demonstrate in front

of a coal-fired power plant to demand greater enforcement
of pollution regulations, while a group of investors does the
same in the boardroom by depriving the plant access to
capital.

Across the four reasons, scattered factual evidence gives us

hope that the green trend will eventually prevail. It comes from
different domains but converges towards the conclusion that the
future could be greener than we commonly assume. To

corroborate this conviction, four observations intersect with the
four reasons provided:

1. In June 2020, BP, one of the world’s oil and gas
“supermajors”, slashed the value of its assets by $17.5
billion, having come to the conclusion that the pandemic

will accelerate a global shift towards cleaner forms of
energy. Other energy companies are about to make a
similar move. [115] In the same spirit, major global

companies like Microsoft have committed to becoming
carbon negative by 2030.

2. The European Green Deal launched by the European
Commission is a massive endeavour and the most tangible
manifestation yet of public authorities deciding not to let the

COVID-19 crisis go to waste. [116] The plan commits €1
trillion for lowering emissions and investing in the circular
economy, with the aim of making the EU the first carbon-

neutral continent by 2050 (in terms of net emissions) and
decoupling economic growth from resource use.

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