New M&A guidance aims to minimize climate risk from sales of oil, gas assets
Sellers of fossil fuel assets should require buyers to continue climate change and emissions reduction plans, according to principles devised by environmental investors group Ceres and the Environmental Defense Fund.
A quick and dirty method for oil and gas companies to reduce their carbon emissions is to sell heavy-emitting assets to smaller, often privately backed firms, the groups said in a Jan. 19 report. That does nothing to reduce the global carbon count, though, which could even increase if a buyer cancels emissions reduction plans to save money.