Axios

The COVID-19 pandemic is an "accelerant" of a divergence between the world's poor and its wealthy, Rockefeller Foundation President Rajiv Shah said at an Axios event Tuesday.

Why it matters: Shah said "history has shown we did not do enough" for the world's lower income communities coming out of the 2008 recession, "and we have experienced this tremendous divergence as a result."

Ambitious long-term emissions targets are now pretty commonplace for big emitting nations, but two things highlight the deep disconnect between the goals and getting on a path to achieve them.

Driving the news: A new BloombergNEF analysis looks at climate policies in G20 economies that would actually spur implementation of measures consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Exxon on Tuesday announced a roughly $20 billion dollar quarterly loss, signaling the latest challenges for the company that has now posted losses in the last four quarters.

Driving the news: The company's Q4 result stemmed from over $19 billion in write-downs on the value of its assets. But excluding the impairments, Exxon posted a small profit of 3 cents per share, and its stock ticked up slightly this morning.

The first major winter storm of 2021 was lashing much of the Eastern U.S. over Monday night, with up to 30 inches of snow falling in some places.

The big picture: COVID-19 vaccination sites and schools closed across the Northeast, including in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York City, where the outdoor subway service was suspended. New Jersey's Transit also paused its bus and rail operations. Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed in NYC, Philadelphia and Boston. At least three deaths have been attributed to the storm in Pennsylvania, per AP.

There's a lot of drama swirling around Exxon these days, which means their fourth quarter earnings report Tuesday will be even more closely watched than usual.

Driving the news: On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal and then Reuters reported that the CEOs of Exxon and Chevron last year discussed a blockbuster merger between companies whose combined market cap is currently over $350 billion.