Why Glencore's Ivan Glasenberg buckled on coal | Financial Review
Glasenberg said the coal production cap was part of the company's climate change policy, which could also see it dropping its support of the World Coal Association.
"Our commodity portfolio and its key role in enabling the energy and mobility transition for a low-carbon economy enables us to look ahead with confidence and to remain focused on creating sustainable long-term value for all our shareholders," he said.
Suncorp calls for climate action as profits slump | Financial Review
Suncorp CEO Michael Cameron: "The facts support undeniably that change is occurring in our climate, and we need to make sure that the communities are resilient."
Shell faces lawsuit in the Netherlands, a new legal front in climate battle | Climate Liability News
“for decades, Shell has been aware of the impact of burning fossil fuels on the climate. Like ExxonMobil, Shell had studied the problem and acknowledged the danger in internal documents, yet publicly downplayed the risk while funding climate denial groups.”
The truth about big oil and climate change | The Economist
"Yet amid the clamour is a single, jarring truth. Demand for oil is rising and the energy industry, in America and globally, is planning multi-trillion-dollar investments to satisfy it. No firm embodies this strategy better than ExxonMobil, the giant that rivals admire and green activists love to hate."
Facing up to the age of environmental breakdown | IPPR
“In the extreme, environmental breakdown could trigger catastrophic breakdown of human systems, driving a rapid process of ‘runaway collapse’ in which economic, social and political shocks cascade through the globally linked system – in much the same way as occurred in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2007-08,” the paper warns.
What is the role of central banks in managing climate change? | London Institute of Banking and Finance
Dr Paul Fisher, well known to many at Climate Alliance has written a very interesting article for the London Institute of Banking and Finance. He asks the question whether central banks should play a role in managing the risks presented by climate change.
Greenhouse gas emissions contribute to coal mine refusal | Norton Rose Fulbright
In an Australian first, development consent for a new coal mine was refused by the Land and Environment Court of NSW (the Court) for reasons that included its material greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and contribution to climate change.
It’s Official: 2018 Was the Fourth-Warmest Year on Record | NY Times
NASA scientists announced Wednesday that the Earth’s average surface temperature in 2018 was the fourth highest in nearly 140 years of record-keeping and a continuation of an unmistakable warming trend.
New Zealand sea level rise: Councils' $8b climate change warning | Stuff
"Costs will likely go far beyond tangible measures; not only will infrastructure be exposed, but so will potential economic development and growth, community health and safety and social support systems."
‘We have to change capitalism’ to beat climate change, says world’s biggest asset manager | Renew Economy
Researchers warn of sealevel rises of 1.2 m by 2300 | The Australian
As scientists refine their models, the outlook only worsens. We need to start planning for the scenarios forecasted.
Sea levels would rise between 70cm and 1.2m by 2300 even if the Paris Agreement greenhouse gas emissions targets were urgently met, researchers say. Every five-year delay in achieving zero net global carbon dioxide emissions this century would add 20cm .... Read More
The Diesel Disaster: Are Driving Bans Coming for German Cities? | Der Spiegel
There is a growing tide of opposition to fossil fuel powered cars. Can the car industry respond quickly enough?
Fixing cities’ water crises could send our climate targets down the gurgler | The Fifth Estate
The hidden costs of supplying our drinking water may be large!
Elon Musk, SA Premier in deal to give solar panels, batteries to 50,000 homes | ABC
South Australia Government again acts decisively and makes others appear laggards
Turnbull is on a 'clean coal' collision course with APRA | The AFR
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is on a collision course with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority over his government's crusade for Australia's $10 billion green bank to invest in "clean coal" power stations, experts say.
The independent banking regulator entered the climate policy debate 10 days ago with a speech by APRA member Geoff Summerhayes warning that banks and their directors could be legally liable if they fail to consider the increasing risk of carbon-intensive assets such as power stations becoming "stranded'.
APRA's dramatic intervention came days after Treasurer Scott Morrison brought a lump of coal to Parliament to champion "clean coal" power as a solution to the blackouts that have hit the electricity grid with growing shares of wind and solar energy and coal plant retirements.
Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg and other ministers say they will change the $10 billion Commonwealth-owned Clean Energy Finance Corporation's guidelines to redefine "clean energy' to include "clean coal" power in order to stabilise the grid.
APRA channels its inner Fisher/Carney | Sarah Barker, Minter Ellison
Sarah Barker at the Climate Alliance National Conference in October 2016 talking on the subject of fiduciary duties.
As was heavily covered in the weekend press, there has been a significant shift in APRA’s position on the relevance of climate change risk to the financial sector. In a keynote speech to the Insurance Council of Australia entitled 'Australia's New Horizon: Climate Change Challenges & Prudential Risk', Mr Geoff Summerhayes (Executive Board Member of APRA) stated:
· APRA-regulated entities can no longer treat climate change as ‘non-financial’ issue, or one that will only crystallise in the distant future. Associated risks extend far beyond the physical (ecological) realm to economic transition risks (regulatory, technological and societal). Many of these risks are financial in nature, foreseeable and material – and are actionable now by Australian banks, insurers, asset owners and asset managers.
· The speech cites three key recent developments that have influenced APRA in articulating this view: (a) the Paris Agreement, and Australia’s ratification thereof, (b) the G20 Financial Stability Board Bloomberg TCFD climate risk disclosure recommendations, and (c) a recent legal opinion on directors’ duties with regard to climate change risks by senior commercial barrister Noel Hutley SC (briefed by Sarah Barker of Minter Ellison on instruction of the Centre for Policy Development and Future Business Council).
· In dealing with these risks, ‘scenario planning is the new normal’. Markets and investors increasingly expect corporations to apply a sophisticated and robust approach to modelling of the potential impacts of climate-related risks under different scenarios, and over different time horizons. This includes the sub-2°C transition scenario around which the Paris Agreement (ratified by Australia in November 2016) is anchored. The Recommendations of the G20 Financial Stability Board’s TCFD, released on 14 December 2016, provide clear guidance in this regard.
· A failure to proactively govern the financial risks associated with climate change, now, can present significant litigation exposures for corporations and their directors.
· This does not mean that APRA is ‘suddenly elevating climate-related issues to the top of our priority list. But it does mean joining the wider conversation that is already going on around this issue – and being explicit that climate change is likely to have material, financial implications that should be carefully considered.’
The full transcript of Mr Summerhayes' speech is available here.
Legal opinion shaking up the nation's boardrooms | The Age
On February 17 Australia's prudential regulator warned that climate change could threaten the stability of the entire financial system. It follows a landmark legal opinion that company directors could face heavy fines and damages if they ignore climate change related risk.
The climate bombshell the politicians didn't touch | The Age
Non-existent clean coal does not power Turnbull's house! | The Saturday Paper
It is an unusual double standard by which Malcolm Turnbull lives.
The common complaint against politicians is that they do not practise what they preach, that their private behaviour is of a lower standard than what they publicly advocate. But in Prime Minister Turnbull’s case it’s the opposite. He practises what he dares not preach.
On his Point Piper mansion, his office confirmed this week, Turnbull has an array of solar panels capable of generating 14.5kW of electricity.
That is a pretty big system. The current average capacity of new domestic solar systems in New South Wales is about 6kW, but people can get by with less, provided they are not profligate with their power.
The leader of the Greens, for example, Senator Richard Di Natale, runs a household of four people on 3kW of solar-generating capacity with attached storage, and lives completely off-grid. Occasionally, during the bleakest months of the Victorian winter, he tells us, he augments this with generator power.