What lies Beneath: The Understatement Of Existential Climate Risk | Breakthrough, David Spratt and Ian Dunlop

“Climate change is now reaching the end-game, where very soon humanity must choose between taking unprecedented action, or accepting that it has been left too late and bear the consequences.”

Those are the challenging words from Prof. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, for twenty years the head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and a senior advisor to Pope Francis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the European Union.  In the foreword to a new report, Schellnhuber says the issue now "is the very survival of our civilisation, where conventional means of analysis may become useless”.

The report, What Lies Beneath: The understatement of existential climate risk, is released today by the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration. 

California governor signs law for clean energy by 2045 | BBC News

As New York and London mayors, we call on all cities to divest from fossil fuels | The Guardian

Paris climate deal doesn't stop us building new coal plants, Canavan says | The Guardian

“We have to build power stations. There’s nothing in the [Paris] agreement that would stop us building power stations, including coal-fired power stations,” Canavan said.

Australia’s new PM risks climate trade-off with EU | Climate Diplomacy

When asked how Australia’s new approach to climate policy might affect the ongoing talks, a Commission spokesperson told EURACTIV that “it would be difficult to imagine concluding a broad trade agreement without an ambitious chapter on trade and sustainable development”.

The inconvenient truths about South Australia’s renewable success | Renew Economy

"But here’s the thing: South Australia’s renewable share has likely proved the opposite to what’s being claimed. Since the events of the summer of 2016/17, there have been no major outages. In fact, it’s quite possibly been the most reliable grid in the country."

California's response to record wildfires: shift to 100% clean energy | The Guardian

Water flows into Sydney catchment at 'shocking' record lows | The Guardian

Renewables haven’t screwed up the grid. Regulators and lawyers have | Renew Economy

“Is this intermittent?” Summers asks. “No. They (wind and solar) are doing the job of baseload while the actual baseload band (the synchronous generation) is misbehaving.” Summers noted that the legal framework had made this type of behaviour acceptable.

It's the end of the earth as we know it. Read all about it! | The Guardian

“In a nutshell, the findings suggest that emissions drive climate changes that trigger abrupt changes to Earth systems when they cross certain thresholds. Ten of these feedback loops are identified in the report, including the release of methane trapped in Siberian permafrost and the impact of melting ice in Greenland on the Antarctic.”

IAIS calls on insurers to intensify climate risk scrutiny | Property Casualty

“Climate change is now recognized as a critical emerged risk facing the insurance sector."

By 2030, Renewable Energy Costs Could Be "Effectively Zero" | Inverse

The Battery Boom Could End Up Burning Some Investors | Bloomberg

Investors call for ambition shortfall to be addressed in the NEG | IGCC

Insurance firms could face fines over climate reporting failure | ClientEarth

“We think the law is quite clear on this and by omitting financially material climate risks from their annual reports, these companies are not giving the full picture. Without this information, how can investors make a fully-formed investment decision?”

‘Peak coal’ is getting closer, latest figures show | Carbon Brief

"The amount of coal power capacity in pre-construction stages has declined every year since 2015."

Rhinehart's secret millions to the IPA | The Saturday Paper

"They give the impression of broad-based financial support from thousands of individuals, of an organisation not beholden to corporate supporters."

Super fund REST being sued for not having a plan for climate change | The ABC

This is the first time a superfund has been sued for not doing enough on climate change. Who will be next?

Climate Change Strengthens Earth's 'Heartbeat' — and That's Bad News | Space.com

Financing a resilient and sustainable economy | RIAA, IGCC, PRI, UNEP SI and UNEP FI

Joint Statement calls on the finance sector to support the development of Sustainable Finance Roadmaps for Australia and New Zealand

The Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) has today joined with the Investor Group on Climate Change, the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), the UN Environment’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance, and the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) – collectively representing over 300 institutions with $10 trillion in assets – to sign a joint statement that commits to starting the development of Sustainable Finance Roadmaps for Australia and New Zealand.  

We are now encouraging RIAA members and the wider finance sector in Australia and New Zealand to join with us in support of this commitment to develop Sustainable Finance Roadmaps by signing the Joint Statement in support of a Sustainable Financial System, released at the UNEP FI Conference on Financing a Resilient and Sustainable Economy in Sydney today. 

Get in touch to express your interest in supporting the Joint Statement here

The organisations that have convened this statement commit to convene finance, government, civil society and consumer bodies to kick-start the process to develop Sustainable Finance Roadmaps for Australia and New Zealand.

We will now open this statement up to other organisations to sign on to show their support of this commitment to develop Sustainable Finance Roadmaps and to participate in the process. 

A Sustainable Finance Roadmap is a set of recommendations across policy, regulation and finance practices that helps the finance sector contribute systematically to a more resilient and sustainable economy.  From the European Union to China, a growing number of regions and countries globally have developed Sustainable Finance Roadmaps to help achieve national, regional and global sustainable development goals.

You can read the RIAA’s briefing paper on Sustainable Finance Roadmaps produced for the conference here.

The Sustainable Finance Roadmaps build on RIAA’s work to date identifying key priorities for shaping more sustainable finance markets in Australasia, as outlined in our paper: Driving Long-term Investment and Delivering Responsible Financial Markets.