Rising sea levels pose huge financial, economic and humanitarian risks, as shown by the Climate Council’s latest report, Counting the Costs: Climate Change and Coastal Flooding. If the world ignores the problem, by mid-century rising seas could cost the world more than a trillion dollars a year as floods and storm surges hit.
Hurt by sea: how storm surges and sea-level rise make coastal life risky | The Conversation
The journal Climatic Change has published a special edition of review papers discussing major natural hazards in Australia. This article by The Conversation, which was written in November 2016, is one of a series looking at those threats.
Australia is a huge continent, but a coastal nation. About 80% of Australians live within 50km of the coast, and a sea-level rise of 1.1 metres (a high-end scenario for 2100) would put about A$63 billion (in 2008 dollars) worth of residential buildings at risk.
Anyone who lives along Sydney’s northern beaches, especially in Collaroy, saw at first hand the damage the ocean can wreak on coastal properties when the coastline was hit by a severe east coast low during a king tide in June.
Carbon Dioxide Is Rising at Record Rates | Carbon Central
For the second year in a row, carbon dioxide concentrations as measured at Mauna Loa Observatory rose at a record-fast clip, according to new data released by the Environmental System Research Laboratory (ESRL). The annual growth of 3 parts per million in 2016 is the slightest shade below the jump in 2015 of 3.03 ppm. Both years mark the first time carbon dioxide has risen more than 3 ppm in a single year in ESRL’s 59 years of monitoring.
An exceptionally strong El Niño helped kick the numbers up a bit, but ever-increasing carbon pollution is the main driver behind the uptick. The annual growth rate has increased since record keeping began in 1960 from just under 1 ppm in the 1960s to more than 2.4 ppm through the first half of the 2010s. The past two years have set a record for the fastest annual growth rate on record.
Unsafe to ignore climate risks, says APRA | AFR
The prudential regulator says it is "unsafe" to ignore climate change risks just because the topic is controversial, as at least one of the major banks reviews the mortgage risk associated with rising sea levels.
Looming energy crisis cries out for bipartisanship | AFR
If ever there was a test for all our politicians - and whether they can, for once, concentrate on the problem at hand rather than simply blame each other - this is it. Maybe this is something dangerous enough for all involved that they will realise they need each other to help solve the problem .
Earth's oceans are warming 13% faster than thought, and accelerating | The Guardian
New research has convincingly quantified how much the Earth has warmed over the past 56 years. Human activities utilize fossil fuels for many beneficial purposes but have an undesirable side effect of adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere at ever-increasing rates. That increase - of over 40%, with most since 1980 - traps heat in the Earth’s system, warming the entire planet.
But how fast is the Earth warming and how much will it warm in the future? Those are the critical questions we need to answer if we are going to make smart decisions on how to handle this issue.
Thabametsi coal-fired power station in SA’s first climate change lawsuit | Mining Review
Earthlife Africa Johannesburg (ELA), represented by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), yesterday submitted comments on the draft climate change impact assessment for the Thabametsi power station, ahead of SA's first climate change lawsuit to start in the Pretoria High Court this week.
The impact assessment was made available for public comment in January 2017 following the Minister of Environmental Affairs’ decision to order Thabametsi coal-fired power station to conduct an assessment of the climate change impact of the proposed coal-fired power station in water-stressed Limpopo.
At the same time, the Minister decided to uphold the proposed power station’s environmental authorisation – a decision which ELA will be challenging in court from Thursday.
ELA’s case is based on the fact that climate change impact is a significant environmental impact, given the impact that climate change will have and is having on water availability and temperature increases, particularly in respect of a proposed coal-fired power station.
Keep it in the ground: Shell's 1991 film warning of climate change danger uncovered | The Guardian
More than a quarter of a century ago, oil giant Shell made an extraordinary public film about the dangers of global warming, called Climate of Concern, which has just been rediscovered. The film, says one leading climate scientist, is one of the best he has ever seen: the science is sharp, the predictions uncannily accurate and the suggested solutions smart. The film even had an urgent message: “Action now is seen as the only safe insurance.”
Yet Shell has spent the 26 years since investing many billions in highly polluting tar sands and helping to lobby against climate action. As Bill McKibben told me: “Imagine if Shell had taken their own advice and we’d spent the last quarter century in all-out pursuit of renewables, energy efficiency, and conservation. We wouldn’t have solved the problem of global warming, but we’d be well on the way. Shell made a big difference in the world – a difference for the worse.”
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.
APRA declares managing climate risk a prudential obligation | Investment Magazine
After years of ambiguity, the prudential regulator has stated clearly that banks, insurers and superannuation funds have a duty to calculate the financial risks associated with climate change.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) last week put the financial services industry on notice that it is worried about the financial risks climate change poses, declaring it an “important and explicit part” of the agency’s thinking. More
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.
'Clean coal' too costly for CEFC mandate | AFR
Mandating the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to invest in "clean coal" would require a spectacular government backflip just nine weeks after it issued the lender with strict conditions on the profitability of new projects.
Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told the agency that its purpose was to help mobilise investment in "renewable energy, low emissions and energy efficiency projects and technologies", and instructed them to "apply commercial rigour when making investment decisions".
In particular, the direction said the CEFC must strive for an average return across the portfolio of 3 to 4 percentage points above the five year bond rate (2.3 per cent).
However, there are only three carbon capture and storage projects operating in the world and none are currently commercially viable. Super critical coal-fired power stations would also struggle to deliver commercial returns, while also not meeting current guidelines to reduce emissions by 50 per cent.
Climate Alliance Newsletter - February 2017
'Clean coal': billions of dollars and lots of carbon | Ben Potter
The Turnbull government wants to ease Clean Energy Finance Corporation guidelines to allow "clean coal" to qualify for "clean energy" funding but figures from a big Japanese supplier of clean coal plants suggest the guidelines would have to be gutted to get the plants over the line. Jonathan Carroll
A top executive at the largest Japanese supplier of high tech coal-fired power plants says they would likely cost more than thought in Australia and still emit relatively large quantities of carbon.
Akihiko Kazuno, head of global strategic planning for Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, said the company's ultra-supercritical power stations – the most advanced currently being built commercially – typically cost between $US1.5 billion and $US3.5 billion per 1000 megawatts of capacity.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, Treasurer Scott Morrison and the Minerals Council of Australia – which is launching a "Coal: Making the future possible" advertising campaign – are pushing for "clean coal" plants to be built in Australia.
But industry says the plants are "unbankable" because of their high costs and carbon risk and resources entrepreneurs Gina Rinehart and Trevor St Baker have shunned the technology too.
Are fossil fuel companies telling investors enough about the risks of climate change? | The Conversation
Prior to President Donald Trump taking office, there was a push to require oil and gas companies to inform their investors about the risks of climate change. As governments step up efforts to regulate carbon emissions, the thinking goes, fossil fuel companies’ assets could depreciate in value over time.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, was probing how ExxonMobil discloses the impact of that risk on the value of its reserves. And disclosure advocates have been pressing the agency to take more decisive action.
Now that Republicans control Congress and the White House, will the SEC reverse course? And should it?
The Trump administration’s apparent skepticism regarding climate change may portend such a change in direction. And Congress’ decision to roll back transparency rules for U.S. energy companies in the Dodd-Frank Act suggests transparency policy more broadly is being loosened.