Green and Sustainable finance is not only a leading topic of discussion in financial centres as countries pledge their willingness to meet global sustainable development and climate objectives, it now offers an attractive investment opportunity for international and Australian companies.
The Australian Building Codes Board have released their proposed changes for the National Construction Code 2019.
Join us to hear Alan Pears, Tony Isaacs and Eli Court discuss what these proposed changes mean for residential building
Doors open at 5:30 PM, presentations will commence at 5:45 PM
Light refreshments provided.
This event is organised by: Sustainable Building Innovation Laboratory (SBiLab), School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University
Alan Pears, RMIT University
Alan is one of Australia’s best regarded sustainability experts. He is a Senior Industry Fellow at RMIT University, advises a number of industry and community organisations and works as a consultant.
Tony Isaacs, Tony Isaacs Consulting
Tony helped to set up the NatHERS scheme, developed the FirstRate software and oversaw the development of the 5 star RIS as a public servant. Now a consultant, Tony has been involved with the development of a number of RISs for building energy efficiency regulations, helped develop some of the DtS elemental provisions and is currently the lead technical consultant for the Victorian Residential Energy Scorecard tool.
Eli Court, Climate Works
Eli is Implementation Manager at ClimateWorks Australia, leading ClimateWorks’ work on delivering low energy, high performance, zero emissions buildings. Eli has led several major projects for ClimateWorks including an industry roadmap to zero carbon buildings, and a current research/industry collaboration to set new construction standards on a trajectory to zero emissions. Prior to ClimateWorks, Eli worked in public policy and law, and is a graduate of the Centre for Sustainability Leadership’s Fellowship Program.
At the end of September 2015, Mark Carney (Governor of the Bank of England) made a speech at a Lloyd’s of London dinner. During this landmark speech, he elevated an issue to a new level. The issue is a consequence of the Paris Accord. In signing the Paris Accord, the world’s governments have agreed to limit global warming to 2oC. This decision may result in fossil fuel companies being unable to extract and sell all of their proven reserves of fuel.
In the recent past, there have been examples where changes in government policy have had a dramatic impact on the value of equity prices. The fortunes of the top five largest US listed coal companies are a salutary reminder of how quickly markets act. In the space of five years, the share prices of these companies were dramatically reduced - with some of the companies filing for Chapter 11.
Mr Carney was concerned that the investments of UK insurance companies would be placed at risk if the share prices of the fossil fuel companies suffered a downward correction. This is because insurance companies are heavily invested in fossil fuel company shares. Addressing this risk has now entered the mainstream of regulators, risk managers and asset managers.
As a result of this concern, an eminent task force, chaired by Mr Michael Bloomberg, was established earlier this year to address this issue. The Task force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) will develop voluntary, consistent climate-related financial risk disclosures for use by companies in providing information to investors, lenders, insurers, and other stakeholders.
In order to address the various aspects of this issue, Climate Alliance was very fortunate to secure the services of Dr Paul Fisher, until recently an Executive Director at the Bank of England. During a whirlwind tour in October, Dr Fisher addressed many organisations in Melbourne and Sydney. See here for details of the press coverage. His talks addressed the policy, transitional and physical risks facing organisations as a result of the agreements reached at the Paris Accord.
Climate Alliance hosted its conferences in Melbourne and Sydney. Dr Fisher was the Keynote at each event, with Mr Rob Gell the MC in Melbourne. Sarah Barker, of Minter Ellison addressed this issue from the perspective of directors’ fiduciary duties. She addressed their duties as required in the Corporations Act and suggested that their fiduciary duty is the sum of their actions taken in good faith and best interests of the corporation plus their competence – demonstrated by due care and diligence. In summary, Ms Barker said directors had little choice but to consider climate change risk in the same manner as any other business risk.
In Sydney, Pauline Vamos (until recently CEO of Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia) addressed the Conference audience and spoke about this issue from the perspective of an investor. Mr Maged Girgis, Partner at Minter Ellison addressed directors’ fiduciary duties.
CAL encountered considerable interest from a broad section of the business community. The two primary areas of interest were investment risk and directors' fiduciary duties.
Investors have ample information to enable them to thoroughly assess the risks associated with climate change and the resulting policy changes that may ensue.
Directors of entities that invest funds on behalf of their shareholders or customer have a duty to take this risk seriously and are no longer able to claim that climate change is not real; or that they were unaware of the risk.
As Dr Fisher was quoted in The Saturday Paper: “This is a financial risk if you’ve got a long-term asset portfolio. Forget the ideology, do the risk analysis, otherwise you’re not meeting your responsibilities. We need to sweep the politics to one side and say this is just a commercial business risk, like any other, that we need to take into account. It’s coming, and ignoring it or pretending it isn’t there is not going to help.”
For non-subscribers you can apply here for a 24-hour free pass which begins from the moment your registration is accepted. You then have access to the entire website for 24 hours. To hear the podcast, head to this link once the 24-hour free pass has been activated.
Liz Bossley, author, carbon trader and expert witness in the UK will talk about the state of the EU carbon market, outlook for the Durban talks and the background to the registry thefts in the EU.
Rosemary Bissett, Head of Sustainability at the NAB will talk about why the NAB decided to go carbon neutral and the impact this decision had on staff engagement. Climate Alliance will be releasing this fascinating story on the day. This is mandatory reading for anyone interested in mobilising staff engagement.
On May 5, 2011 Climate Alliance hosted a very successful seminar that considered the risks from sea-level rise to businesses with assets located near Port Phillip Bay. Dr John Church was the Keynote speaker and he provided an overview of the state of the science that supports the current projections. Representatives from the legal, insurance, mapping and transport industries contributed to a very informative and insightful afternoon.
Four presenters will speak about the challenges Sustainability Managers face in large companies.
