A carbon shock for the global financial system

As large swathes of the Australian landscape continue to burn, the world’s central bankers have hit the panic button.

The IPCC has warned the global coal industry must virtually
shut down by 2030 to prevent catastrophic climate change.

The usually calm and measured overlords (and a few ladies) of the global financial system – who, it must be said, failed to predict the last major financial crisis – warned this week that we may be staring down the barrel of a climate change-induced financial crisis.

A paper released by the Bank for International Settlements warned central banks may soon be forced to step in as a buyer of last resort for “stranded assets” amid a widespread writeoff in the value of carbon-intense assets.

As if we weren’t jittery enough already. You can now add watching the world’s entire financial system go up in flames to your worries list.

Read the story from The Age by Jessica Irvine - “A carbon shock for the global financial system.”

‘This situation brings me to despair’: two reef scientists share their climate grief

As I write this, much of inland eastern Australia is enduring what is likely to be the worst drought ever recorded. Bushfires are devastating parts of New South Wales and southern Queensland, tearing through rainforest that should not be dry enough to burn. Major towns will probably soon run out of water. The condition of the vital Murray-Darling river system is dire.

A researcher completing bleaching surveys in the
southern Great Barrier Reef after a major bleaching event. 

Some federal government MPs have responded by questioning whether these events are linked to anthropogenic, or man-made, climate change. Others deny the science outright. Now we have a politically motivated Senate inquiry into water quality on the Great Barrier Reef.

This situation brings me to despair. For the past 45 years I have researched and managed coral reef water quality in Australia and overseas. Now 72, I see that much of my work, and that of my colleagues, has not led to a bright future for coral reefs. In decades to come they will probably still contain some corals, but ecologically speaking they will not be growing, or even functioning.

Read the story from The Conversation - “‘This situation brings me to despair’: two reef scientists share their climate grief.”

Australian Paper set to burn Melbourne's rubbish to power its mill

A waste-to-energy plant planned for the Latrobe Valley could burn the equivalent of more than half of Victoria's domestic rubbish.

Australian Paper's mill at Maryvale in the La Trobe Valley.

Garbage from 1.4 million Victorian homes could be converted to energy under the joint proposal from the owner of Victoria’s biggest paper mill and waste giant Suez.

Australian Paper announced late on Thursday that it would team up with Suez to build the huge energy plant, powered by hundreds of thousands of tonnes of household waste.

The plant at Maryvale would burn an estimated 650,000 tonnes a year of rubbish from Melbourne and Gippsland - roughly enough in cubic metres to fill three-quarters of the MCG, or 468 Olympic swimming pools.

Read the story from The Age by Adam Carey and Ed Bourke - “Australian Paper set to burn Melbourne's rubbish to power its mill.”