JPMorgan Says US Risks Missing Energy Goals Without Wind, Solar

(Bloomberg) -- The US will struggle to generate the energy it needs to power growth in its tech industry without including wind and solar, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s global head of sustainable solutions.

“It’s difficult to conceive of a situation in which they won’t need to tap into those sources of energy,” JPMorgan’s Chuka Umunna said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Tom Mackenzie ahead of the BNEF Summit in London on Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump has called renewable energy a “joke” and singled out wind turbines as “pathetic,” in a recent address at the United Nations. He also called the very concept of climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.” Instead, the White House is seeking to ratchet up production of fossil fuels, and has singled out nuclear and geothermal as its preferred low-carbon energy sources.

The concern with nuclear is that it “takes years to come on stream,” Umunna said. So “renewables are an essential part of the answer.”

Against that backdrop, renewable stocks have seen a rebound this year, with energy security driving valuations. “The nature of the debate has really changed,” he said. 

It’s not just climate and the environment, but rather, “how do you become self sufficient,” Umunna said.

JPMorgan’s focus on that question is one of the reasons the bank on Monday unveiled plans to funnel $1.5 trillion into industries that bolster US economic security and resiliency over the next 10 years, he said.

“Sustainability is interwoven with these issues of competitiveness and geopolitics,” Umunna said. So the debate around what’s sustainable is changing, he said. It “is no longer a binary debate.”

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