Sony Kapoor Profile picture
Prof Climate Geoeconomics Finance @eui_eu | CEO @InstituteNordic | Board @FriendsofEurope | YGL @wef | Sr Fellow @e3g | @iitdelhi @FMS_Delhi @LSEnews | Keynotes
Jan 20, 2023 18 tweets 15 min read
3 confessions from #ClimateActivists & #ClimateEconomists seeking to tackle the #ClimateCrisis

We were wrong

-2 promise apple pie & motherhood sans costs
-2 repeat solar PV cheapest form of power sans caveats
-2 dismiss any trade-off between climate & development

#Thread Back in the day those, including me, who worked on many different versions of the #greendeal all focused on the win-win scenarios ... #greenjobs #greengrowth #justtransition etc. and tho the context has changed completely this win-win farming remains even in the year 2023
Jun 9, 2022 5 tweets 4 min read
It is impossible to disentangle Italian debt sustainability from the scope, size and design of the @ecb’s market operations.

Italy’s debt is sustainable if #ECB deems it so through its actions. It is not, if #ECB expresses doubts about its sustainability

A circular question! Put differently, the ECB and Italy are pathologically co-dependant.

Now that Italy is in the #Eurozone, it’s future depends on the @ECB.

At the same time, an #ECB that out of neglect and inaction, or something worse, sows doubts about #Italy, will bring about its own demise!
Feb 28, 2022 29 tweets 12 min read
I have got many questions abt policymaker logic behind #Russia #sanctions, their impact on Russia, EU, global finance, & the economy

Their scope, potential 4 evasion, deterrence, potential long-term impact & possible next steps.

1 Pls read 🧵 ⬇️ 2 I will answer Q in a new🧵👇 When #Russia attacked, policymakers faced a hard choice. What could we do to deter and dissuade #Putin short of a risky military confrontation between nuclear powers?

We primarily had large financial sanctions that front loaded the pain, ideally narrowly targeted towards Putin!
Feb 26, 2022 14 tweets 12 min read
Understanding the #Russia #sanctions debate in brief!

Financial and Economic Sanctions against #Iran cutting it off from global finance and trade rank 9/10

#Russian sanctions only 5/10 for now.

A lot of room to tighten the noose, of which cutting off #SWIFT is only one part ALL #Russian banks, big and small, need blocking sanctions. This needs to include the Central Bank of Russia, mirroring the case with current sanctions that operate against #Iran, which has also been kicked off #SWIFT. Only humanitarian, medical & food import funds to be allowed!
Feb 24, 2022 19 tweets 16 min read
Thoughts on how we got here in #Ukraine, what is happening, & what we in the #EU & #NATO need 2 do now

#thread 🧵1/n

Bon courage 2 all #Ukrainian friends & citizens

Admiration 4 journalists on the ground - stay safe

Understanding for #Russian citizens who did not want war First we need to hang our head in shame. The US was explicit in intelligence readouts saying what has happened would happen. So it's not like we were not warned.

From early December onwards the playbook #Russia has followed was clearly laid out and this was brushed off lightly!
Nov 1, 2021 18 tweets 10 min read
#Norway´s #ClimateShame and the impossibility of getting a good and just #COP26 outcome ... a brief #thread

Accounting for exported emissions, #Norway has fourth highest per capita emissions in the world after Kuwait, Brunei and Qatar.

Much higher than Russia, USA, China, UK! Norway also happens to be one of the richest countries in the world with a GDP per capita that is in the top 3 or top 10, depending on which ranking you look at.

In addition, it has an #OilFund with money in the bank worth more than 300% of GDP, the largest #SWF in the world.
Oct 31, 2021 4 tweets 4 min read
In this reed boat made without the aid of any modern tools, #ThorHeyerdahl crossed the Atlantic making the journey of 5,200 km from Safi to Barbados in just over 50 days with a 7 man crew from 7 different countries in the year 1970!
I took the kids to learn about his adventures In 1947 #ThorHeyerdahl and crew sailed from Perú to Polynesia, a journey of 6,900 km in 101 days on a craft made entirely of balsa wood! The wonderful #KonTiki museum in #Oslo where I took Darius and Irya yesterday has the original boats that made both journeys and is a must see!
Sep 12, 2021 11 tweets 4 min read
As I catch up on a rich, moving, diverse set of reporting and stories about 9/11 in a very emotional morning full of sobs, anger and vivid memories here is my recollection of the day’s events. My girlfriend at the time, Vibeke Fonnesbech and I had just come back from NYC where We had visited my old offices, met friends and dined at the word trade centre where I had been working a few months before. I was at work, trading derivatives, on the phone to a broker in the WTC, when the first plane hit. He did not make it
May 31, 2020 43 tweets 26 min read
The #GeorgeFloydMurder is the latest in a long history of #racist atrocities visited on Black people & minorities in the US & elsewhere.

If u are in some position of authority, power, privilege & have a public platform you need to speak up and be counted. A v personal #thread I am brown of Indian origin, but when asked, I always say I don't really know what #racism looks like, I have almost never experienced it, and I am in a position of power and privilege so I don't think its appropriate for me to speak about it. But today, I write about it here ...