Climate change is much, much worse than we thought, study finds | The Independent

The research challenges the ways that researchers have worked out sea temperatures until now, meaning that they may be increasing quicker than previously suggested.

The methodology widely used to understand sea temperatures in the scientific community may be based on a mistake, the new study suggests, and so our understanding of climate change might be fundamentally flawed.

The new research suggests that the oceans hundreds of millions of years ago were much cooler than we thought. If true, that means that the global warming we are currently undergoing is unparalleled within the last 100 million years, and far worse than we had previously calculated.

The published research paper can be found here.

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Germany set to pay customers for electricity usage | The Independent

German power producers are poised to pay customers to use electricity this weekend. 

Wind generation is forecast to climb to a record on Sunday, creating more output than needed and driving electricity prices below zero, broker data compiled by Bloomberg show. It would be the first time this year that the average price for a whole day is negative, not just for specific hours.

Germany’s grid operators can struggle to keep the balance between how much energy people are using and how much is being produced when there are high amounts of wind generation. Negative prices mean that producers must either shut down power stations to reduce supply or pay consumers to take the electricity off the grid.

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A list 2017 | CDP

CDP, the world’s largest environmental disclosure platform, has just published its annual scores and analysis of how the biggest companies globally are responding to climate change.

Last year, they found many big companies failing to meet Paris Agreement goals. This year, companies are moving faster:  

• 89% of world’s biggest, most environmentally-impactful companies now have carbon emissions targets, with a fifth planning low-carbon into their futures to 2030 and beyond.

• 14% of 1,000+ sample are committed to aligning their targets with climate science, a 5% increase since last year. An additional 300+ companies (30%) plan to set science-based targets within two years.

• Companies are closing the emissions gap, with current targets taking the sample 31% of the way to a 2-degree world, up from 25% in 2016.

• The CDP A List names 159 leading corporates recognised as pioneers taking action on climate change, water and deforestation in 2017. Unilever and L'Oréal lead the way with A’s across all three areas.

Fourteen per cent of a sample of 1,073 responding companies have future-proofed their growth by committing to set science-based targets via the Science Based Targets initiative. 31 Australian companies responded, only 1 (3%) got A list ranking for climate change.

The press release and the full report can be downloaded.

Why climate change puts the poorest most at risk | Financial Times

The largest negative impacts of the shocks being made more frequent by global warming are on tropical countries. Nearly all low-income countries are tropical. Yet these countries are the least able to protect themselves. Thus they are innocent victims of changes for which they bear no responsibility. Read more

An Evening With Dr Paul Fisher

Please join us for a private dinner with Dr Paul Fisher, former executive director at the Bank of England. Dr Fisher is in Australia to brief organisations on the recommendations made by the Task Force on Financial Disclosures and to consider how Australian firms may be impacted. The recommendations could have a considerable impact on the way companies report risk and assess their investments.

Dr Fisher will also provide an update on developments in Europe, where he is a member of the European Commission’s high-Level Expert group on Sustainable Finance, which is drawing up detailed policy proposals to be implemented in the EU.  You can find the group’s interim recommendations in their first report here.

You will have the opportunity to meet other like-minded senior executives and participate in a conversation with Dr Paul Fisher. 

A limited number of seats are still available.

Click here for more information or to book your seat.

Have you booked your seat for the Climate Alliance National Conference?

We’re entering an era of unprecedented commercial change. Our energy systems, our cities, and our food production – and everything connected to them – will be transformed.

The speed, complexity and diversity of change is unpredictable. The operating scenario for every business sector has already begun to transform, and our banking and financial sectors are responding.  

The Climate Alliance 2017 National Conference offers you the opportunity to learn more about the key dynamics that will shape new operating scenarios for business.

Speakers include Fiona Wild, Dr Paul Fisher, Chloe Munro and Dr Karl Mallon.

More information and book you seat for Melbourne October 24th

More information and book your seat for Sydney October 26th

UK Government releases £2.5bn climate change plan | Independent

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Australia's coal & CSG delusion | RenewEconomy

Statistics don't show how high Australian power bills really are | finder.com.au

Australia's politics only barrier to clean energy system, report finds | The Guardian

APA approved for up to 240 MW in Australia | PV Magazine

The group can now proceed with the development of the Beelbee project, which will be built roughly 40 km west of Dalby, Queensland, according to the Western Downs Regional Council. The local government body has now approved nine solar projects for development in the Western Downs, a region near the city of Brisbane. In August, it gave Singapore-based Equis Energy the green light to build a massive 1 GW solar plant near the town of Wandoan.

UK Ministers launch group to help boost green business investment | The Guardian

A new group led by investors and leading figures from the City of London has been brought together by the government to draw up measures to encourage “green finance” in the UK.

The Green Finance Taskforce will have six months to come up with proposals on how to increase investment in the low-carbon economy and will work with banks and other financial institutions. Chaired by Sir Roger Gifford, former lord mayor of London, the taskforce will look at measures to make the UK’s planned investments in infrastructure, for instance on energy and transport, more environmentally sustainable.

Hot and Dry: Australia's Weird Winter | The Climate Council

Climate Change made Australia’s warmest winter on record an astounding 60 times more likely, according to this latest report by the Climate Council.

The “Hot & Dry: Australia’s Weird Winter,” report shows the nation experienced its warmest winter on record (for average maximum temperatures), while more than 260 heat and low rainfall recordswere also broken throughout the season.

Climate Councillor and ecologist, Professor Lesley Hughes said Australia’s hottest winter in history was related to worsening climate change.  “Without any meaningful action to tackle climate change, we will continue to see many more hot winters, just like this, as global temperatures rise,” she said. “We must take meaningful action to strongly reduce Australia’s emissions from fossil fuels."

The Real Unknown of Climate Change: Our Behavior | New York Times

Temperature anomalies last 100 years | Antti Lipponen, FMI Beta

How has temperature changed in each country over the last century? This data visualisation shows temperature anomaly – the departure from the long-term average – by country from 1900-2016. Visualisation by Antti Lipponen (@anttilip) of the Finnish Meteorological Institute based on GISTEMP data (CC BY 2.0).

Why UBS Is Bringing Its Climate-Proofing Strategy to Proxy Voting | Bloomberg

Carmakers face electric reality as combustion engine outlook dims | Reuters

European car bosses gathering for the Frankfurt auto show are beginning to address the realities of mass vehicle electrification, and its consequences for jobs and profit, their minds focused by government pledges to outlaw the combustion engine.

As the latest such announcement by China added momentum to a push for zero-emissions motoring, Daimler, Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) and PSA Group made disclosures about their electric programs that could give policymakers some pause.  More

What Lies Beneath | Breakthrough

Human-induced climate change is an existential risk to human civilisation, yet much climate research understates climate risks and provides conservative projections. Reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that are crucial to climate policymaking and informing public narrative are characterised by scientific reticence, paying limited attention to lower-probability, high-risk events that are becoming increasingly likely.  

This latest Breakthrough report argues for an urgent risk reframing of climate research and the IPCC reports. Download the report here.

China has already surpassed its 2020 solar target - Energydesk

By the end of July this year, China’s solar PV capacity topped 112GW, after installing a stunning 35GW in just seven months — more than twice as much as installed by any other country in all of 2016.

As a result, total solar PV capacity now exceeds the government’s 2020 goal of 105GW, set as recently as last year.  More

Harvard scientists found Exxon using the tobacco playbook | The Guardian

As Oreskes documented with Erik Conway in Merchants of Doubt, tobacco companies and several other industries that profited from harmful products engaged in decades-long campaigns to sow doubt about the scientific evidence of their hazards. As one R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company 1969 internal memo read:

"Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the mind of the general public"

The results of this new paper show that Exxon followed this same playbook. While the company’s internal communications and peer-reviewed research were clear about human-caused global warming, its public communications focused heavily on sowing doubt about those scientific conclusions.

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