Climate and Law, Sarah Barker | Acclimatise

Climate change is increasingly being understood as an issue of financial risk to corporates. This has brought the issue to the attention of corporate lawyers like Sarah Barker, Special Counsel and Head of Climate Risk Governance at MinterEllison, the largest commercial law firm in the Asia Pacific. For over six years, Sarah has been a leading voice in the field of climate risk governance for business.

As climate change is now widely accepted as a financial risk issue, it necessarily enlivens established legal frameworks around corporate management and disclosure of climate risk. In this Acclimatise Conversation on Climate Change Adaptation, Sarah Barker talks us through why it is so important, from a legal perspective, for businesses to govern for the financial risks associated with climate change.

Bringing Climate Change onto the board agenda | Deloitte

Climate change is likely to drive some of the most profound changes to businesses in our lifetimes. Impacts on products and services, supply chains, loss of asset values and market dislocation are already being caused by more frequent and severe climate-related events. These effects are now compounded by the accelerating pace of policy and regulatory change as humanity recognises the challenge we face and the drastic and rapid actions we all must take in order to protect our planet and our own livelihoods.

'Hell Is Coming': What Lies Ahead for Europe's Climate | SPIEGEL ONLINE - International

In a world without climate change, Utrecht in the Netherlands would expect temperatures like these only once every 20 years. Now, though, they will occur every five years. The same, they claim, is likely true of many German cities.

Listed UK companies and pensions face mandatory climate reporting | FT

The government’s new green finance strategy, to be published on Tuesday, will “set expectations” for listed companies and large asset owners to report climate risks by 2022, said the Treasury, adding that work with regulators “will explore the most effective way of doing this, including whether mandatory disclosures are necessary”

Green New Deal: The enormous opportunity in shooting for the moon | Medium

In short, without changing the size of our homes, or our cars, or fundamentally changing the fabric of our lives, these discounts mean that a fully electrified energy economy using non-carbon fuel sources would require less than half of the total amount of energy we use today.

Green New Deal: The enormous opportunity in shooting for the moon.

Global Climate Talks Stall as Temperature Soars in Europe | Bloomberg

“The delegates remained deadlocked on accounting rules and governance for the system, pushing the debate to their next meeting in Chile in December. They also failed to agree a statement on a scientific report about the risks of rising temperatures, with a group of countries trying to water it down, even as Berlin and Paris were facing highs near 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).”

Booming LNG industry could be as bad for climate as coal, experts warn | The Guardian

Natural gas is at times described as a transition fuel in the response to the climate crisis as it has about half the carbon dioxide emissions of black coal when burned to generate electricity. That argument has been rejected by the head of the International Energy Agency and science bodies warning the world needs to rapidly move to clean energy and industries.

Implementing the BEAR | APRA

Climate change risk should be part of monetary policy | ECB's Villeroy

“It is also part of our mandate for monetary policy because climate change affects price evolutions, effects the economic outlook,” Villeroy told French asset manager Amundi’s annual investment forum in Paris.

Climate change: Awareness to action | APRA

Climate Change: The role for central banks | P Fisher, K. Alexander

This paper addresses what constitutes appropriate central bank policy in respect of environmental sustainability. Sound money and sustainability both depend on finding the right balance in the economy. Central banks use monetary policy to try to balance aggregate demand and supply. When they intervene in markets they can have significant impact – either to steer the economy or to address financial instability. This gives central banks the power and opportunity – subject to mandate - to address market distortions and externalities.

TCFD 2019 Status Report

Download the full report here

The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) published its 2019 Status Report to the Financial Stability Board (FSB) today. The TCFD’s second status report provides an overview of disclosure practices aligned with the Task Force’s recommendations between 2016 and 2018. The report also examines the decision-usefulness of existing climate-related financial disclosures to users of disclosure, and evaluates disclosures of strategy resilience and the challenges faced by preparers using scenario analysis. At the time of publication, nearly 800 organizations have expressed their support for the TCFD recommendations, a more than 50% increase from the publication of the first status report in September 2018.

An artificial intelligence (AI) review of reports from over 1,100 large companies across multiple sectors in 142 countries found that the average number of recommended disclosures per company has increased by 29% from 2.8 in 2016 to 3.6 in 2018. At the same time, the percentage of companies that disclosed information aligned with at least one of the Task Force’s recommendations grew from 70% in 2016 to 78% in 2018.

Climate Change: The Church of England's Mission to Change Investment | Der Spiegel

Investment professionals are increasing the pressure on big corporations to do more to combat climate change. A small, but influential investor, the Church of England has become a leader in the mission to save the environment through finance. 

Climate change risks to Australian businesses | Ben Scheltus for the RMIA The Risk Magazine

When doing your Risk Assessments, please be mindful of the physical and transition risks presented by climate change.

For three years in a row, the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report (GRR) has called out the risks we collectively face from climate change. In the 2019 report published in February, climate change and environmental risks dominate the “high likelihood” and “high impact” quadrant of the global risk matrix. Read the article here.

Click here to view the RMIA Risk Magazine April edition. Please note the magazine is for RMIA members only.

Climate Risk Is Both Chronic and Acute. Here’s What That Means for Portfolio Managers | Barrons

A renewed focus on lesser fuel usage was originally promoted by United Continental as a responsible move for the atmosphere. But the effects were felt most strongly by the company’s investors. United managed to save $343 million in a single fiscal year. 

Record-Breaking Heat in Alaska Wreaks Havoc on Communities and Ecosystems | The Smithsonian

cross Alaska, March temperatures averaged 11 degrees Celsius above normal. The deviation was most extreme in the Arctic where, on March 30, thermometers rose almost 22 degrees Celsius above normal—to 3 degrees. That still sounds cold, but it was comparatively hot.

Why we must act on climate change | Rural News Group

It is not alarmism to suggest that climate change is itself an emergency. It is the causal force driving up the frequency and severity of each of these other crises.

Arjuna Capital: Oil Majors Face “Existential Threat” from Near-Sighted Response to Climate Change | Business Wire

ExxonMobil and Chevron will square off at annual meetings today (29th May) with concerned investors who want to see greater action to address climate change risk, and a tangible shift in the corporate culture behind the companies’ intransigence. 

Matt Canavan shrugs off Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions increase | The Guardian

Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions increased for fourth year in a row in 2018.

Australia isn't doing its part for the global climate. Sooner or later we’ll have to pay our share | The Guardian

As things stand, however, Australia will be faced with the necessity of making the same transition over a period of perhaps five to 10 years. That will entail massive investment in solar PV, storage and wind, totalling perhaps $100bn. Given the uncertain environment created by decades of policy reversals, governments will need either to undertake this investment directly or provide long-term guarantees.