How do you transform an entire economy?' The firm taking on the climate funding problem

A growing number of governments, including of every Australian state, Britain and the European Union, have set targets of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Few have mapped how to get there.

Martijn Wilder, a former Baker & McKenzie
 lawyer turned founding partner of
Pollination Capital Partners, whose aims
including redirecting capital that has been
committed but not to climate solutions.

It is a similar story in the corporate sector. Businesses are under increasing pressure from investors and shareholders to back up claims they are committed to the goals of the Paris agreement. Take BHP, one of the world’s 20 big emitters: it has set a mid-century net-zero emissions target but is yet explain how it will reach it, and plans to invest more in oil and gas than climate solutions.

Martijn Wilder, long-time head of Baker & McKenzie’s global climate law and sustainable-finance practice and a founding board member of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, has seen up close the divide between the decision-making that goes into setting targets and establishing rules at United Nations climate talks and that drives spending decisions. Having moved in both diplomatic and investment circles, he found people in each who wanted to tackle the climate crisis but had little comprehension of how the other worked.

Read the story from The Guardian by Adam Morton - “‘How do you transform an entire economy?' The firm taking on the climate funding problem.”

The Age of Collapse

You don’t have to look very hard to see that the great theme of the 21st century so far is sudden, ruinous collapse. America, Britain, Europe — all teetering on the brink. But it’s hardly just countries in a political sense. The planet. A mass extinction of life itself. People’s sense of optimism and faith in the future imploding into nationalism, extremism, fascism. Trust, meaning, belonging, purpose. Bang! Everything, more or less, as far as you look, seems to be collapsing in on itself, as wide as you care to see. Why is that?

If collapse is the theme of this new century, then what’s really weird, strange, and remarkable is that when you really look at all these very different kinds of collapse, whether what’s imploding is economies, societies, minds, food chains, or ecosystems, it seems to follow a specific and characteristic pattern too. The glaciers melt from the bottom. The insects and bees and little fish and mammals are dying off first. The oceans are warming faster than the atmosphere. Economies are imploding because a new class of poor has grown — whether in America, Britain, or Europe. Do you see the pattern yet?

Read the Medium story by Umair Haque - “The Age of Collapse.”

Why is tiny Nauru getting $26.9m in climate finance to build a port?

Britain didn’t like the idea. Neither did Japan. France had doubts. Civil society groups were far from convinced.

The joint-funded project will upgrade
Aiwo harbour, on Nauru's western side. 

So why has tiny Nauru – best known in recent years for hosting a contentious Australian immigration detention centre in return for aid dollars – been given $26.9 million in international climate funding to build a port?

At the heart of the question is the vexed and unresolved issue of what qualifies as climate finance, and how it differs from traditional development aid.

The Nauruan project was discussed by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) at a board meeting in Cairo in October after a proposal was put forward by the Asian Development Bank, which had backed it with $20.7 million grant. The Australian and Nauruan governments had committed another $17.6 million between them. But the biggest chunk was requested from the UN agency.

Read the story from Climate Home News by Adam Morton - “Why is tiny Nauru getting $26.9m in climate finance to build a port?”

How Britain kicked coal

Despite the chaos of Brexit and the difficulty of expanding renewable generation in a country where sunshine is notoriously scarce, and despite strong opposition to wind turbines, Britain has just about ended its use of coal-fired electricity. The last coal-fired power stations are set to close by 2025, but the process is almost complete already. How was this achieved?

The answer can be found in this graph released by Ofgem, the British electricity regulator. As it shows, coal (shown in orange) supplied around 40 per cent of British electricity in 2006, yet by 2018 its contribution was negligible. (The graph on Ofgem’s site is interactive, so you can see the actual numbers there.)

Read the story by John Quiggan from Inside Story - “How Britain kicked coal.”

Minor earthquakes emerge as major threat to UK fracking

Protests, legal challenges and planning rejections have failed to stop the return of fracking in Britain, but the government’s regulations on earthquakes are fast emerging as the biggest threat to the nascent shale gas industry.

 Cuadrilla’s fracking well at Little Plumpton
 ( with Blackpool Tower behind) in Lancashire.

The energy company Cuadrilla has been forced to stop work at its Preston New Road site in Lancashire twice in four days – on Friday last week and on Monday – due to minor earthquakes occurring while it was fracking. The tremors breached a seismic threshold imposed after fracking caused minor earthquakes at a nearby Cuadrilla site in 2011.

Read the story from The Guardian by Adam Vaughan - “Minor earthquakes emerge as major threat to UK fracking.”

Britain reaches new wind power output record

Britain reached a new record of wind power output on 17 March, as wind farms generated 14.2GW.

New wind power record for Britain.

The National Grid confirmed that at 14:30 GMT, wind power accounted for 34.2% of all energy generated in Britain.

Gas was producing 20.3% of energy, Nuclear created 17.6%, and coal only accounted for 12.9%.

“2017 was a record year for green energy and it’s looking likely 2018 is set to exceed that,” commented Fintan Slye, Director of the System Operator at National Grid.

Read the Energy Digital story by Sophie Chapman - “Britain reaches new wind power output record.”

So far, so good for South Australia’s energy future

“I don’t think I’ve ever invested in a more open society,” says the British entrepreneur Sanjeev Gupta. He is talking not about Britain, where his global business empire is based, or India, where he was born, but Australia. Here, he is investing at least $1 billion reviving the steelworks at Whyalla, in South Australia, and launching renewable energy projects. “Access to politicians is more open and casual than in Europe,” he says. “I have met the highest level of people here when they were dressed in shorts sitting in cafes.”

Renewable energy is a given: Sanjeev Gupta at the
Arrium steel plant in Whyalla, South Australia, with Labor
senator Kim Carr (centre)and SA Premier Jay
Weatherill in September last year. 

Outwardly, at least, Gupta himself has adopted some of this casual culture. Speaking in his Sydney office, he wears a white shirt, dark blue trousers, a light blue jacket and R.M. Williams riding boots. Since he bought the failed Whyalla steelworks company Arrium out of administration six months ago, his family has moved to Australia. They live in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, where his children attend private schools. “In a short space of time, it has become home,” he says. “We have had a very accepting reception.”

Read Robert Milliken’s Inside Story - “So far, so good for South Australia’s energy future.”

Plastic bag ban is only the first step in our essential war on waste

British Prime Minister Theresa May has declared war on plastic waste. In a recent speech, Mrs May said she hoped to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste in Britain within 25 years. Her proposals include plastics-free aisles in supermarkets, where food would be sold loose, and a charge for plastic take-away food containers.

Britain already has a five-pence charge on plastic bags sold at supermarkets; the Prime Minister said she wants to extend this charge to small shops, too.

Read the Editorial from today’s Melbourne Age - “Plastic bag ban is only the first step in our essential war on waste.”

Powering Past Coal Alliance: 20 countries sign up to phase out coal power by 2030

Twenty countries including Britain, Canada and New Zealand have joined an international alliance to phase out coal from power generation before 2030.

The Hazelwood power station in Victoria's La Trobe Valley.

The Powering Past Coal Alliance was unveiled at the COP23 climate talks in Bonn, Germany, which were working out the technical details of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

"I think we can safely say that the response has been overwhelming," Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said.

The alliance, which isn't legally binding, was launched days after a pro-coal presentation by the Trump administration jarred with many ministers who wanted the talks to focus on cleaner energy sources.

Read the ABC News story - “Powering Past Coal Alliance: 20 countries sign up to phase out coal power by 2030.”

Storm Doris set to bring winter's worst weather to UK as warnings extended.

The worst storm of the winter is set to batter Britain on Thursday, with the Met Office warning that Storm Doris will bring gale-force winds and snow to more areas than previously feared.

Thursday (‘Doris Day’) is likely to bring travel
problems and widespread damage.

An amber “be prepared” weather warning has been extended further south to include Birmingham and the northern edges of the home counties where winds of up to 80mph are forecast.

More snow than initially expected is also predicted for Scotland and northern England. A new amber warning for heavy snow has also been issued for southern Scotland and the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland, where up to 30cm of snow is forecast.

A yellow “be aware” warning of high winds has also been extended to include almost all of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Read The Guardian story - “Storm Doris set to bring winter's worst weather to UK as warnings extended.”

Sunshine and mostly brown slopes greet skiers in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc Valley

CHAMONIX, France — Bright sunshine and mostly brown slopes welcomed skiers to the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc Valley just before New Year’s Eve, a sight that hardly came as a shock.

Across France, December 2015 was already on track to be the warmest since 1900, a fact since confirmed by Météo France, the national weather service.

The toll of global warming on Alpine ski resorts has already been well documented. A 2006-7 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which landed in the middle of another warm winter, had an immediate impact. In Germany, Der Spiegel warned of “Snow Cannons Against the Apocalypse,” and The Daily Telegraph in Britain declared, “Global Warming Could Spell Ruin for Alps.”

Read The New York Times story - “For French Ski Resorts, a Scramble to Offset Snow Deficit.”