“Meanwhile, back at home, the shambles that is Australian climate policy limps on, with some backbenchers as fossilised as their favourite fuel. Defying global trends, the government wound back the Renewable Energy Target, and we remain the only developed country to repeal a carbon price.”
How a possible two-metre sea level rise would flood thousands of Melbourne homes | The Age
Tens of thousands of homes and businesses in Melbourne face a bigger risk of tidal flooding by century's end, and major roads, tram routes and industrial areas could disappear under water due to future sea level rises, new modelling shows.
The updated modelling of possible sea level rises caused by climate change predicts Victoria's coastline could be hit by sea level rises of two metres or more by 2100, due to the rapid melting of ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland.
A two-metre rise would flood several low-lying suburbs in Melbourne including South Melbourne, Albert Park, Port Melbourne, Southbank, Docklands, Altona, Williamstown, Elwood, St Kilda, Seaford, Carrum, Bonbeach and Aspendale. Large areas in Geelong and the seaside towns of Barwon Heads, Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale would also be heavily inundated at high tide by century's end, it is predicted.
Submission to the Victorian Government Retail Electricity Review | Alan Pears AM
The Victorian Government has appointed an independent panel to conduct a review of electricity and gas retail markets in Victoria (the review). The panel comprises John Thwaites, Terence Mulder and Patricia Faulkner. The panel will prepare a final report to the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change that examines the operation of the Victorian electricity and gas retail markets and provides options that would improve outcomes for consumers.
The independent panel will be supported by a secretariat administered by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP).
The review will consider the operation of the electricity and gas retail markets in Victoria in respect of supply to residential and small business consumers – defined for Victorian regulatory purposes as consumers with annual consumption less than 40MWh for electricity and 1,000GJ for gas.
Submissions in response to the discussion paper are invited by Tuesday 28 February 2017.
Please click here to read Alan Pears' AM submission to the review.
How to spend an extra US$600 billion a year on climate finance | The Fifth Estate
Jenya Khvatsky’s start-up company CleanTek Market has been founded to create a global online platform to connect clean technology projects, technologies and organisations with investors, end users and intermediaries. Here’s how he reads the imperatives for such a service.
We are in the midst of a clean technology revolution. There is now widespread acceptance that the global economy is transitioning away from a traditional fossil-based model to one based on sustainable use of resources and energy.
To achieve an orderly transition, the scale of financing required can be counted in the trillions – not billions – of dollars. A widely quoted report by the International Energy Agency estimated that US$1 trillion a year to 2050 is required to finance this transition (IEA, 2015). Yet the cleantech market has averaged US$360 billion a year over the first half of this decade, peaking at US$391 billion in 2014, to be valued at US$5.5 trillion (CPI, 2015). The current scale of the market is impressive – and yet it is some 60 per cent below what is required. A clear market failure.
Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures report
The report outlines a set of recommendations for voluntary, decision-useful, climate-related disclosures to be made as part of mainstream financial filings. The recommendations will help organisations identify and disclose information needed by investors, lenders, and insurance underwriters to appropriately assess and price climate-related risks and opportunities.
The recommendations are issued for public consultation which is open until February 12, 2017.
The Task Force developed four widely adoptable recommendations on climate-related financial disclosures that are applicable to organisations across sectors and jurisdictions. Importantly, the Task Force’s recommendations apply to financial-sector organisations, including banks, insurance companies, asset managers, and asset owners. Large asset owners and asset managers sit at the top of the investment chain and, therefore, have an important role to play in influencing the organisations in which they invest to provide better climate-related financial disclosures.
The Task Force structured its recommendations around four thematic areas that represent core elements of how organisations operate: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets.
The four overarching recommendations are supported by recommended disclosures that build out the framework with information that will help investors and others understand how reporting organisations think about and assess climate-related risks and opportunities. In addition, there is guidance to support all organisations in developing climate-related financial disclosures consistent with the recommendations and recommended disclosures. The guidance assists preparers by providing context and suggestions for implementing the recommended disclosures.
Click here to download the full report. The TCFD website has additional reports relating to the project: Public Consultation, Implementing the Recommendations and a Technical Supplement.