Some of the world's biggest investors have pleaded with governments of the world's largest economies, including Australia, to stick with their commitments to tackle climate change and to introduce carbon pricing to help achieve them.
There is strong speculation that American President Donald Trump could renege on his country's commitments under the Paris Accord signed in 2015, which aimed to hold temperature rises well below 2 degrees Celsius.
Technological advances and falling prices are driving the momentum toward low-carbon energy production across the globe. In this episode of the McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey partner Arnout de Pee and Lord Adair Turner, chair of the Energy Transitions Commission and the Institute for New Economic Thinking, speak with McKinsey Publishing’s Cait Murphy about the shift toward renewable resources and the future of sustainable development.
For the first time a majority of global investor heavyweights recognise the financial risks of climate change, according to the results of a major global index rating how investors manage such risks.
But despite the advances, the Asset Owner Disclosure Project chairman, John Hewson, has warned there is still an “enormous resistance” to managing climate risk.
The AODP releases its fifth global index on Wednesday, ranking the world’s largest 500 asset owners and, for the first time, the 50 largest asset managers on their performance managing financial risks associated with climate change.
Australia appears to have converted a national advantage – cheap and plentiful energy – into a national energy crisis, for business and consumers. We ask – how did this happen? And is there a way out!
Join the John Cain Foundation for a lively discussion with two experts in energy policy and pricing.
Journalist and writer Tim Colebatch will facilitate a discussion between energy experts Tony Wood, Grattan Institute, and Alan Pears, RMIT University. A Q&A will follow presentations by the speakers.
Join us for drinks at 5pm prior to the presentations.
Wednesday 3rd May, 5.30 to 7.30 pm
Graduate House University of Melbourne
220 Leicester Street
Tony Wood - Tony has deep experience in the energy sector. Prior to joining Grattan Institute in 2011, he worked at Origin Energy for 11 years, and was an adviser to the first Garnaut climate change review. He was also program director of Clean Energy Projects at the Clinton Foundation.
Tim Colebatch - Tim is a freelance journalist and writer, mostly writing on economic and political issues for the website Inside Story. He earlier spent four decades writing for The Age, the last half of them as economics editor and columnist. He is the biographer of former Victorian Premier Sir Rupert Hamer (Dick Hamer: the liberal Liberal), and recently won the Melbourne Press Club's Quills award as the best columnist of 2016.
Alan Pears AM - Alan Pears AM is a Senior Industry Fellow at RMIT University and consultant. Alan is a well-known researcher, commentator and educator on energy policy issues, in particular related to energy efficiency, clean energy policy, energy markets and climate policy. He has worked in this field for 40 years, with governments, businesses and community groups. Alan worked in Victorian energy agencies from 1980 to 1991, and has worked on energy and climate policy and program development across Australia since then.
New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg urged world leaders not to follow President Donald Trump's lead on climate change and declared his intention to help save an international agreement to reduce carbon emissions.
Bloomberg, who considered a presidential bid after serving three terms as New York City's mayor, addressed his intensifying focus on climate change in an interview with The Associated Press.
The risk of the controversial Adani Carmichael coalmine becoming a stranded asset has increased in the last 12 months, according to a new report. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), says the Carmichael project is likely to be “cash flow negative” for the majority its operating life, even with concessional loans. The IEEFA’s new report, Adani’s Remote Prospects, warns Adani Enterprises is not in a strong financial position.
It has thrown into doubt the wisdom of lending the project $1bn worth of taxpayers’ dollar through the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF).
It comes a week after John Hewson, a former Liberal party leader, warned the Carmichael coalmine was already a “stranded asset” and the last thing the Turnbull government should be doing is lending Adani $1bn.
Friday was Britain’s first ever working day without coal power since the Industrial Revolution, according to the National Grid.
The control room tweeted the milestone on Friday. It is the first continuous 24-hour coal-free period for Britain since use of the fossil fuel began. West Burton 1 power station, the only coal-fired plant that had been up and running, went offline on Thursday.
A coalition of 17 US states filed a legal challenge on Wednesday against efforts by Donald Trump’s administration to roll back climate change regulations, deepening a political rift over his emerging energy policies.
Led by New York state, the coalition said the administration has a legal duty to regulate emissions of the gases scientists believe cause global climate change.
“The law is clear: the EPA must limit carbon pollution from power plants,” New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman said in a statement announcing the challenge.
Just down the coast from Donald Trump's weekend retreat, the residents and businesses of south Florida are experiencing regular episodes of water in the streets. In the battle against rising seas, the region – which has more to lose than almost anywhere else in the world – is becoming ground zero.
The Buzzfeed story lead says it all: “Meet the woman whose two-word catchphrase made the military care about climate” . That woman is Sherri Goodman, and she will be in Australia in early April.
The national security dimension of climate change receives little attention in Australia, but is the subject of intense focus overseas, particularly in the United States. Climate change interacts with other pre-existing problems to become an accelerant to instability in unexpected ways. Scarce resources, growing water scarcity, declining crop yields, rising food prices, extreme weather events and health impacts become catalysts for instability and conflict, especially in Asia. This has profound implications for Australia, economically and socially, quite apart from the climate change impact on Australia itself.
The Age of Consequences is a gripping documentary film investigating the impacts of climate change on increased resource scarcity, migration and conflict through the lens of US national security and global stability.
Critically acclaimed and recently shown on ABC Four Corners, this showing is also a chance to hear Sherri Goodman, a member of the cast, and a panel of experts discuss the issues in person.
Through an unflinching case-study analysis, an insider group of distinguished admirals, generals and military veterans take us beyond the headlines. From the conflict in Syria and the European refugee crisis, to the social unrest of the Arab Spring and the rise of ISIS, The Age of Consequences lays bare how climate change stressors interact with societal tensions and spark conflict.
It makes the compelling case that if we go on with business as usual, the consequences of climate change will continue to grow in scale and frequency, with grave implications for peace and security in the 21st century.
“Age of Consequences” speaking tour with Sherri Goodman.
SYDNEY - Tuesday 4 April, Tickets and more info here
CANBERRA - Wednesday 5 April, Tickets and more info here
MELBOURNE - Thursday 6 April, Tickets and more info here
A cyclone the size of Debbie could have catastrophic consequences on the Gold Coast, new modelling has shown, as climate change pushes cyclones further south and puts tens of billions of dollars worth of infrastructure at risk.
Actuaries, who predict and model scenarios for banks and insurers, have warned properties could become "uninsurable" as premiums rise to meet environmental challenges. Debbie devastated northern Queensland and swept floods into NSW which caused $1 billion in damage, forced 30,000 people to evacuate and took two lives. More
The trailer for “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,” the second film in Al Gore’s franchise of climate change documentaries, depicts President Trump as an antagonist. The clip that Gore shared via Twitter on Wednesday shows the president at an airport rally held last April in Rochester, N.Y., where then-candidate Trump mocks the climate science consensus.
“It’s supposed to be 70 degrees today,” Trump says. “It’s freezing here! Speaking of global warming, where is — we need some global warming!” More
We don’t yet know whether the $5bn Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) will be – as was alleged in parliament this week – a “slush fund” used to pursue the government’s “pro-coal agenda”. But we do know some government ministers are absolutely determined to promote coal mining and generation – in particular the Indian conglomerate Adani’s $21bn Carmichael coal mine in Queensland – without a thought for how it will contribute to the global warming that is bleaching the Great Barrier Reef up and down the Queensland coastline and increasing the intensity of cyclones.
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Asset managers have a huge role to play in making this happen (transitioning to a low-carbon economy). Not just as corporate citizens themselves but as long-term stewards of trillions of dollars of investor capital, they have a huge stake in maintaining long-term political and economic system stability, especially in a globalized economy in which large public companies do business all over the world while the reach of sovereign governments is limited. If the global financial system itself isn't sustainable over the long run, neither will be their investments.
Audrey Zibelman, the new chief executive of the Australian Energy Market Operator, has been in the job for little over a week, but is already making her mark, signalling the biggest shift in energy management philosophy in a generation.
There is no sense in spending billions of dollars trying to guarantee the impossible – that the lights will always stay on. But this has not stopped government ministers, corporate executives and numerous commentators from pretending a particular source of power will always keep the lights on. Nor has it stopped journalists from repeatedly asking ministers to guarantee "the lights will stay on" in future. It might be tempting to claim that everyone understands it is impossible to deliver these promises, but much of the current debate is conducted on the premise that they don't.
Long-term mismanagement of Australia’s gas industry has seen price gouging by cartels and the possible need for imports. Even if the government can put things to right, natural gas will never again be a cheap alternative fossil fuel. By Mike Seccombe.
If you’ve been watching the news in recent days, you’ll know we have an energy crisis, partly due to a gas crisis, which in turn has triggered a political crisis.
That’s a lot of crises to handle at once, so lots of solutions are being put forward. But what do people and businesses actually need? Do they need more gas, or cheaper prices, or more investment certainty, or all or none of the above? How do we cut through to what is really important, rather than side details?
