A peek inside Bloomberg’s Xanadu where no detail is too small or issue too big
In Samuel Colderidge’s epic 1797 ode, Xanadu, he describes a dreamy sanctuary of sunny ice domes where learning, art, and innovation flourished. In this euphoric, opium-induced fantasy, man and nature were in perfect harmony.
Last week, I thought of Colderidge’s dream as I stepped inside the calm perfection of the Global Renewable Summit, a conference spearheaded by Michael Bloomberg and hosted in the gilded ballroom and discreet meeting rooms of Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel. I then spent a day at another Bloomberg Xanadu – the dazzling work environments, natural light, and computer walls of his global headquarters a few blocks away inside Bloomberg Tower.
Xanadu on Lexington Avenue
For a few magical days, I escaped the chaos that subsumes New York every year when Climate Week and the U.N. General Assembly converge. For the briefest moments, I could experience the elixir of climate hope in his stately pleasure domes. Here, no detail was too small or the issue too big. No problem could not be overcome here, and 1.5 degrees was still within reach.
Gilded perfection
But Bloomberg sells way more than experiential fantasy. Also on display was Bloomberg’s unmatched ability to convene and drive a global climate agenda. While there were more than 1,000 formal and informal events across Manhattan, there was little doubt about who the chief climate convener was or how he does business: He is a demanding, intense, controlling, and data-driven perfectionist.
There was little doubt about who the chief climate convener was or how he does business:
Consider one day of meetings at the Plaza:
8:30 AM — GFANZ Principals Group Meeting – Floor 4 Xavier / Pulitzer
8:30 AM — European Investment Bank Meeting – Floor 20, Suite 2034
9:30 AM — PPCA Coal Transition Commission – Floor 20, Suite 2038
10:00 AM — ITA Leadership Council Meeting
10:00 AM —GFANZ Index Investing Stakeholders – Floor 4 Xavier / Pulitzer
11:00 AM — Climate Finance and Nature (Duke University) – Floor 20, Suite 2036
11:30 AM — Global Renewables Summit Plenary – Floor 1 Edwardian Room
11:45 AM — GFANZ-Brazil Tropical Forest Finance Facility Roundtable* Floor 4 Xavier / Pulitzer
12:00 PM — One Planet Sovereign Wealth Fund Roundtable – Floor 20, Suite 2040
Noon — UN Ocean / France Philanthropy Roundtable – Floor 20, Suite 2034
1:00 PM — High-Level Carbon Markets Roundtable – Floor 4 Champion
1:30 PM — One Planet Sovereign Wealth Fund – Edwardian Room
2:00 PM — Bloomberg Philanthropies & The Climate Exchange: Climate Change & Ratings Risk – Xavier
2:00 PM — GFANZ Roundtable on Transition Finance – Floor 20, Suite 2038
2:00 PM — Climate Finance Funders Roundtable – Gatsby / Monroe
Turbocharging climate action
The flurry of meetings at the Plaza underscores the urgency and significance of Bloomberg’s public and private climate agenda. These meetings are a series of events and a strategic platform where Bloomberg can convene key stakeholders and drive his public and private global climate agenda. They also support his ambitious climate goals: tripling renewable power by 2030, designing a rule-based taxonomy for the clean energy transition, and sparking a candid discussion on the future of natural gas.
Sitting at the intersection of climate and capital, Bloomberg makes no secret about his position in the highly politicized climate debate. “The problem of climate change cannot be solved without capitalism,” he says. “Governments have tried for over three decades with little to show for it. While more of them are now engaging partners in the private sector, the world is still lagging in deploying the full power of the market.”
His agenda mirrors former Biden advisors like Brian Deese, who argue that the U.S. must coordinate its private capital to influence the global energy transition for the good of the world and its national self-interest. “The clean energy transition remains the most important planetary challenge. It also presents the greatest economic opportunity: it will be the largest capital formation event in human history,” wrote Deese in the most recent Foreign Affairs issue.
Marching to Xanadu
And so the believers came in droves. Gliding past police barricades into the quiet opulence of the Plaza, they hobnobbed with the world’s most influential people: the president of the United States, the head of the European Commission, the president of the World Bank, the managing director of the IMF, past and current presidents of COP, and a steady stream of corporate and banking titans. Where else could you see European Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, and COP 28 President Sultan Al Jaber sitting beside each other, chatting amiably?
Bloomberg Nation: Jane Fonda introducing President Biden
Capitalizing on climate
Coincidentally, his climate agenda is also his latest business opportunity. As the global economy accelerates into an unprecedented transition from fossil fuels, there is a surging demand for Bloomberg’s data, analysis, and news. Last year, the world’s largest institutions paid an estimated (Bloomberg is privately held) $12.5 billion for Bloomberg’s data, information services.
As the global economy accelerates into an unprecedented transition from fossil fuels, there is a surging demand for Bloomberg’s data, analysis, and news.
This convergence of public service and profit was on full display throughout the week, as the steady flow of business intelligence from his events flashed across tens of thousands of Bloomberg terminals. Inside the Tower, salespeople were busy promoting Bloomberg’s expanding suite of climate-related financial products to banks and financial institutions. These included pitching hundreds of ESG and climate-related indexes, Bloomberg Sustainable Solutions, and its climate news service Bloomberg Green.
The limits of the Bloomberg ecosystem
Reflecting on Bloomberg’s extraordinary climate resume, what jumps out is that he has not accomplished more. No one is more plugged in. He is the UN Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions; Co-Chair for GFANZ, Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), which focuses on getting 450 financial institutions with more than $130 trillion in assets to accelerate decarbonization. He chaired the Financial Stability Board (FSB’s)’ Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), which developed a framework that led to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require companies to disclose climate-related risks. He also chairs the Climate Finance Leadership Initiative (CFLI), which convenes key financial, corporate, and multilateral leaders to push for the accelerated deployment of private capital for low-carbon, climate-resilient projects. And he has worked on global sustainability standards when he was chair of The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).
Lost horizon
Yet even with all those titles, his $60 billion and a Rolodex any American President would envy, he still admits he’s falling. “Why are we far below what is required to restrain rising temperatures?” Private capital, he admits, is still very much “on the sidelines.”
Financial titans: Mark Carney with the heads of the IMF and World Bank, Kristalina Georgieva and Ajay Banga. Source: Bloomberg Philanthropies
Ever the pragmatist, Bloomberg thinks the issue can be solved with a sensible market for carbon credits, the controversial financial scheme often criticized as opaque, and riddled with opportunities for greenwash.
If only that was true. Bloomberg’s challenge is far more profound. The problem is that there is one group that wants nothing to do with Michael Bloomberg—and that is the global fossil fuel industry.
Michael Bloomberg may be many things, but he is not God, and he does not have the power to reverse science.
Last week was a classic example of the global stalemate over fossil fuels. As Bloomberg’s guests trooped to the Plaza, Occidental Petroleum CEO Vicki Hollub was a few blocks south at The New York Times where she defiantly announced that the day Occidental and the world stop using fossil fuels is “when we run out of oil and gas.”
A deadly standoff
That’s a far cry from Bloomberg’s view: “If what they’re doing is going to kill everyone, I don’t care how valuable what they do is.”
Still, few can doubt that Bloomberg’s efforts last week – and the thousands of other climate events across New York – helped nudge the world closer to a much-needed consensus on climate action. Like in Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan,” Bloomberg can celebrate his ability to rally the power of human creativity.
But as Coleridge discovered, bursts of creativity can be limited, fleeting, and quickly lost. Michael Bloomberg may be many things, but he is not God, and he does not have the power to reverse science. That was evident as climate-fueled storms surged across America’s Southeast, wreaking billions in property losses. His data and intelligence machines tracked every tick of the storm for his increasingly anxious institutional subscribers. The good news is that Wall Street—particularly the insurance industry—is finally taking the climate crisis seriously.
Perhaps a more apt allegory for Bloomberg is the children’s nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty:
“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
Four-score Men and Four-score more,
Could not make Humpty Dumpty where he was before.”
Featured photo: Global Renewables Summit at The Plaza Hotel, New York, Tuesday, September 24, 2024. Source: Bloomberg Philanthropies.
