To experts who advise corporations, and to a growing group of chief financial officers, Musk's back-and-forth on bitcoin does speak to real issues: Should more corporations be adding bitcoin to the balance sheet? Should they be staying away from bitcoin due to concerns including the energy consumption required to mine it contradicts growing ESG commitments to climate change?
The answers: maybe "no" and "no." Starting with climate.
Climate, corporations and crypto thinking
Martin Whittaker, CEO of ESG market specialist, JUST Capital, which focuses on holding companies accountable on issues like carbon emissions, said climate criticisms of bitcoin are easy to make, but can be oversimplified. "I've seen the numbers on the carbon footprint equal to Sweden or New Zealand and the truth is it depends on how the power is generated. ... If you mine it all from bituminous coal that's going to give you one level of carbon intensity, but if it comes from clean power it is a totally different footprint. ... Cryptocurrency can be a big opportunity for anyone who cares about clean energy," Whittaker said on a CNBC Global CFO Council virtual event this past Thursday.