Week 9: A Climate Mosaic: Corporate Accountability, Activism Surge, and Global Policy Crossroads
Dear all,
In this newsletter, the fading trend of ESG tourism, only third-party assurance of climate data matters; global industrial CO2 emissions are up, and CSDDD may be just stubbed to death. And why did five climate change activists get convicted of smashing a glass revolving door at JP Morgan’s European headquarters?
ESG tourism has been one of the most profitable trends in the finance industry for the last 5 years. Droves of ESG tourists from all over the finance world have visited destinations such as the Bay of Exclusion, beaches of integration, thematic parks, and climate coral reefs. In some cases, even ESG safaris have been arranged under the banner of biodiversity, enabling ESG tourists to explore extinct species and take some photos to bring back home, and as custom is, show all their friends how magnificent that trip really was and how serious their newly awakened concerns are.
ESG tourist conferences were arranged where middle-aged tourists, mostly men, with a self-confident tone, described their excursions, explorations into the ESG jungles and forests, and assured a bewildered audience about the sincerity of their quests. Most ESG destinations were described as unique and genuinely extraordinary experiences. ESG tourists could, depending on their interest and time, choose full or half pension solutions with additional services, such as reports and measurements, and in some cases, real-time data for every single destination.
Tourist industry associations around the world, realizing the depth and significance of this trend, had to draw and develop new ESG tourist guidelines to show that, after all, there is some order in the house. Guidelines were developed, brochures printed, and reports produced. New ESG tourist trip packages were created, such as ESG ETF diving sessions and Climate Change rafting trips, forcing trip organizers to report, thus not change, anything in their underlying packages. Labelling was introduced more as an indicative value of the destination, stipulating certain glossy undertakings by organizers, all packaged into labels such as 6, 8, and 9, as if to say that now, after an incredible boom, things have after all come to order. Clients could, after all, understand what they are paying for and what attractions are expected. The common questions by ESG tourists, such as what attractions are to be experienced on the exclusion bay or beaches of integrations, let alone on the Climate Rafting trips, were answered by lengthy chat-bots on process, diligence in the selection, and the unbeatable experience of guides conducting these trips.
As with many tourist trends that become industrial-scale machinery, most ESG destinations became exploited, attractions get worn down, food less tasty, and packages hollow. Tourism is the commercial organization and operation of holidays and visits to places of interest. Then when you're done, you go home and get on with whatever you do. The latest departure of large ESG tourist financial organizations around the world from, as they previously pledged, genuine and extraordinary commitments, indicates that new, more profitable destinations are to be developed. Talks about Impact Mountain trails, Sustainability Child labor retreats, Biodiversity bungee-jump experiences, as well as Net-Zero melted glacier explorations, are the next big tourist attractions for the seasons to come. New guides are educated and recruited, and new brochures are printed. At the same time, the financial industry still organizes mainstream tourist attractions, such as whale hunts, habitat destruction packages, destroy rivers camps, and how to invest in war excursions.
The real thing with ESG tourism, regardless of its global breakthrough, is that it is still, in many cases, just plain tourism and as such temporary amusement for many financial industry players around the world. The true, or let me put it this way, the underlying purpose of ESG is to evolve current business models, to change them. The simplest equation explaining the current status of the world from this perspective is to conclude that mainstream tourist attractions offered by the financial industry are far more numerous and diverse, creating volumes of income and returns, regardless of the toxic impact they have. ESG tourism is a fading trend; some will retreat to their original offerings, still claiming they do but not really; some will rename destinations to avoid any legal or reputation damage, and some will stay and do the work needed. But as long as the amount of money around the world invested in mainstream, we-don’t-care destinations is larger than money invested in truly sustainable finance destinations, we cannot expect any evolution of the underlying economic model.
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