#stranded assets

Energy companies aren’t worth as much as they claim. To prevent disastrous climate change, a third of known oil reserves and 80 percent of coal reserves will need to stay in the ground. But energy companies still include these reserves, what economists have begun to call “stranded assets,” on their balance sheets, increasing their value by billions. When everyone realizes what these stranded assets can’t be burned should be really worthless, the stock prices of these energy companies will plummet.