Opinion Credit

Welshcake

The geopolitical turmoil besetting Europe is, at its heart, a crisis of vision. It stems from over-reliance on unsustainable energy sources, the perpetuation of structures no longer fit for purpose, and a morbid fixation on an imagined past whose glory bears little resemblance to reality.

So it pained me to see president Vladimir Putin deliver a history lesson that was about as coherent as the diatribe I might spout if you banged on my bunker door at 4am demanding to know why I’m blasting out The State Anthem of the USSR while wearing only a borsch bib.

Putin’s directive on Luhansk and Donetsk came almost eight years to the day since Russia annexed Crimea. Little that has happened in the spiralling Russia-Ukraine crisis speaks of any regard for a better way of doing things in the future. Germany’s postponed operation of the Nordstream 2 pipeline is big, but only serves to remind us how dependent Europe remains on Russian fossil fuel.

Sustainable energy alternatives

Jet is a pilot for the more ambitious Iter (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) in France. Speaking at a press conference on 9 February, three of the scientists spearheading the initiative — Doctors Athina Kappatou, Fernanda Rimini and Constanza Maggi — gave a detailed run-through of the mechanics underlying the reaction, which produced a core heat of 150 million degrees centigrade (10 times hotter than the heart of the sun).

While Jet’s reactor ran for only five seconds, it gives an idea of the possibilities should our brightest minds be given enough support. It is fitting women continue to take a lead, given a long chain of involvement that spans back to Lise Meitner first recognising fusion in 1938.

Unlike destructive nuclear fission, fusion forces hydrogen together to create helium plus tons of energy and a tiny amount of short-lived radiation.

Compare and contrast the scientists with the stymied guys running the show on the international stage. Putin’s vision is of returning to an idealised Russian (and Ukrainian) history that glosses over the bad bits and ignores where such rear-view protectionism has taken its neighbour Belarus. The US has failed to use the post-Soviet opportunity to reframe relationships in a way that casts Russia as anything other than a perpetual opponent, which only fuels Putin’s narrative. Europe undermines its own autonomy through fossil fuel addiction, while the UK baulks at the notion of expunging Russian oligarch financial clout from the nation’s capital.

It’s tempting to think credit can merely hope to navigate safe passage through such clashing rocks. Since the 2008 crash, the structured credit market has taken great strides at self-improvement and become a driving force for sustainable finance. But it remains woefully un-diverse at a senior level, leaving a narrowness of view that could one day become an existential problem.

Covid-19’s silver lining is the greater work-life flexibility women and men alike have been afforded. This should be an impetus towards more open, forward-looking operations, where all feel empowered to follow in the footsteps of the best our market has to offer.

Let’s keep with this project like a tokamak reactor, rather than fearing the incumbent weaponry that maintains the status quo.