Home Front | A Breakthrough Production

Over the years an array of climate change related films have been produced in countries all around the world. Yet very few, if any of these productions have been made within Australia. It is extremely rare to find an Australian film or documentary that focuses on the local impacts and potential solutions to global warming. HOME FRONT sets out to change this, presenting a new and compelling narrative to enliven and motivate.

Featuring interviews with former Australian defence officials, fossil fuel industry executives, national security experts, and political and business leaders, you won't see your normal bunch of environmentalists presented in this film.

BYD, World’s Biggest Electric Car Maker, Looks Nothing Like Tesla | Bloomberg

More EVs were sold in Shanghai last year than in Germany, France, or the U.K.; the city of Hangzhou, smallish by Chinese standards, had higher sales than all of Japan.

APRA to update ESG guidelines | Investment Magazine

Australia’s industry funds believe an update of the ESG guidelines will likely reflect the latest movement in fiduciary duty and climate risk. 

How climate change could hit the financial sector | London Institute of Banking & Finance, Paul Fisher

Westpac joins shift to 100% renewables, starting with big NSW solar farm | One Stop Off The Grid

In a statement on Wednesday, Westpac said the deal would deliver a 45 per cent transition to renewables by 2021 for the bank globally, as well as providing greater cost certainty on its electricity spend.

Tectonic shift as network owner buys solar farm, points to renewable future | Renew Economy

The implications for the likes of AGL, Origin, EnergyAustralia and the government-owned Snowy Hydro, are significant, and they will no doubt increase their efforts to keep the networks out of what they see as their traditional business.

Only rebellion will prevent an ecological apocalypse | The Guardian

The political class, as anyone who has followed its progress over the past three years can surely now see, is chaotic, unwilling and, in isolation, strategically incapable of addressing even short-term crises, let alone a vast existential predicament.

Former fire chiefs warn Australia unprepared for escalating climate threat | The Guardian

“It’s just frustrating to hear the lip service being given to ‘Oh yes, we now believe in climate change and need to do something’ when every effort to do something about it is rubbished.”

Norway is walking away from billions of barrels of oil | SMH

The dramatic shift by Norway's biggest party is a significant blow to the support the oil industry has enjoyed, and could signal that the Scandinavian nation is coming closer to the end of an era that made it one of the world's most affluent.

How to Set Up Effective Climate Governance on Corporate Boards | World Economic Forum

“The vision and action of Directors, CEOs and senior-level executives is fundamental to addressing the risks posed by climate change and delivering a smooth transition to a low-carbon economy. Materials, such as this new World Economic Forum report, that support Boards and Executives understand how to deliver on the TCFD can help foster a virtuous circle of adoption, where more and better information creates imperatives for others to adopt TCFD and for everyone to up their game in terms of the quality of the disclosures made. “

2018 was boom year for renewables despite political chaos, report finds | The Guardian

“the amount of renewable energy capacity committed in Australia during 2018 increased 260% on 2017, with 14.8 GW underway in 2018 compared to 5.6 GW in 2017”

Global Energy Perspective 2019 | McKinsey & Company

With the speed and magnitude of these changes evolving rapidly, we’ve identified eight potential shifts that could further accelerate the energy transition. Although these eight shifts may not represent the most probable future, they should be considered conceivable based on the developments that can be observed today.

Download the summary here.

Updated Hutley opinion on directors' duties and climate risk | CPD

The Hutley legal opinion on directors’ duties and climate risk, first released in 2016, has been updated by Noel Hutley SC and Sebastian Hartford Davison to emphasise five developments in the elapsed three years which increase the need for directors to consider climate risks. Those are: regulator alignment on the impact of climate change; new reporting frameworks; investor and community pressure; advances in scientific knowledge; and increased litigation risks. The authors write:

“In our opinion, these matters elevate the standard of care that will be expected of a reasonable director. Company directors who consider climate change risks actively, disclose them properly and respond appropriately will reduce exposure to liability. But as time passes, the benchmark is rising.”

Investors set out policy priorities to limit systemic climate risks | IGCC

The policies investors have outlined today are critical first steps to managing the substantial risks of climate change. They will also unlock multi-billion dollar investments in economic revitalisation and zero carbon modernisation.” 

Download the Media Release or the policy document Policies for a Resilient Net Zero Emissions Economy.

A New Horizon - speech by Mark Carney, Governor Bank of England

“Once climate change becomes a clear and present danger to financial stability it could already be too late to stabilise the atmosphere at two degrees.

The paradox is that risks will ultimately be minimised if the transition to a low-carbon economy begins early and follows a predictable path. But for markets to anticipate and smooth the transition to a 2-degree world, they need the right information, proper risk management, and coherent, credible public policy frameworks.”

Here's why Australia needs to keep subsidising renewables | The Guardian

If Australia wants to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, we have the technologies and the policies to do so at our finger tips. And of course if we don’t want to, we don’t have to, but the polls suggest we do. Time will tell whether our democratic structures are capable of responding to a problem like climate change — what we do know is that subsidies, regulation and taxes work.

Weather insurance: Insurers ‘don’t fully understand climate change risk’ | Compelo

“Munich Re said in December that the wildfires caused $24bn in losses, $18bn of which were uninsured. 

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported there were a total of 8,527 fires burning an area of 1,893,913 acres, which is the the largest amount of burned acreage recorded in a fire season.”

Global Institutions Exiting Coal | IEEFA

Since 2013 more than 100 global financial institutions have made increasingly tight divestment/exclusion policies around thermal coal.

Revealed: Glencore bankrolled covert campaign to prop up coal | The Guardian

The C|T Group used teams in Sydney and London to further Glencore’s interests across the globe, including in Australia, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the project and documents seen by Guardian Australia.

Role of disclosure in addressing climate data deficiency | Geoff Summerhayes, Sustainable Insurance Forum

On the 22nd February 2019, Geoff Summerhayes gave this speech in London at the Sustainable Insurance Forum.

“The weight of money, through consumer demand, investor decisions and regulatory responses, is pushing the transition to a low carbon economy relentlessly forward. This shift has consequences for us all, but to make good decisions, governments, regulators, businesses and investors need access to timely, reliable and sufficiently granular information.”