Thinking creatively about phasing out coal

At the landmark Paris climate change conference just three years ago, countries agreed to phase out global greenhouse gas emissions by the second half of this century. Despite that noble aspiration, two recent UN-level events have highlighted the mounting urgency of the challenge and underscored the need for new thinking.

It isn’t so much the global climate negotiations that
 immediately threaten coal workers in the Hunter Valley.
 It’s the opening of mega-coalmines in Queensland’s Galilee basin.

First, in October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a special report on the effects and feasibility of holding warming to within 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. 

That figure was enshrined as an aspiration in the Paris Agreement, and the report shows why it is a better benchmark for mitigating catastrophic climate change than the 2°C goal that has long been the focal point of international negotiations. To meet the 1.5°C goal, says the IPCC, net global greenhouse gas emissions need to be phased out by around 2050.

Read the story from The Monthly by Fergus Green and Richard Denniss - “Thinking creatively about phasing out coal.”

Managing Climate Risk in Agriculture

Coming up in Beechworth later this month is a conference farmers cannot afford to miss.

Managing climate risk in agriculture.

Farmers for Climate Action (FCA) will host the “Managing Climate Risk in Agriculture” conference on Thursday, October 25.

Spokesman for FCA, Corey White said, “From the back paddock to parliament, everyone’s talking about climate change. What does it mean for agriculture? What are the risks? What can farmers do? 

“Managing climate risk is now core business, with the future of farming, good food, tens of thousands of livelihoods, and whole communities at stake,” he said.

Mr White said the conference will involve producers and industry leaders.

He added that also featured would be scientific, legal, financial, health, market, and technology experts all with a message to help farmers and others better understand the climate risks, how to manage them, and within that, how agriculture can be climate smart. 

Details of the event, which is just $35 including lunch, can be found in the attached brochure. 

Climate Conversations interview Corey Watts about the October 25 conference:

Pope to address oil majors in Vatican climate conference

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican will host executives of the world's top oil companies for a conference next week on climate change and the transition away from fossil fuels, a Vatican source said on Friday.

Pope Francis arrives to lead the Wednesday general audience
 in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican, May 23, 2018. 

Pope Francis, who wrote a major document on protection of the environment from global warming in 2015, is expected to address the group on the last day of the June 8-9 conference.

The conference, organized by the University of Notre Dame in the United States, is expected to be attended by the heads or senior executives of companies including Exxon Mobil, Eni, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Pemex, the source said.

Read story from Reuters by Philip Pullella - “Pope to address oil majors in Vatican climate conference.”

France to commit 700 million euros to International Solar Alliance

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - France will commit 700 million euros to the International Solar Alliance (ISA), President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday at the founding conference of the organization, reiterating the European country’s commitment to the alliance and clean energy.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) shakes hands with French
President Emmanuel Macron as he arrives to attend the International
 Solar Alliance Founding Conference in New Delhi, India, March 11, 2018.

ISA is an inter-governmental organization that aims to mobilize $1 trillion in funds for future solar generation, storage and technology across the world. It has 60 signatories, with 30 of those countries having ratified the agreement.

The treaty-based organization, launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015, aims to promote solar energy in 121 countries.

Speaking at the conference, Macron said France was more than tripling its commitment to the alliance, and its total monetary contribution to the alliance stood at one billion euros.

Read the Reuters story by Sudarshan Varadhan - “France to commit 700 million euros to International Solar Alliance.”

Climate change increasing the intensity and impact of extreme weather, BOM tells emergency managers

Cyclones are expected to be less likely in the future due to climate change, though the intensity and impact of extreme weather will be greater, according to a senior climatologist with the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).

Climatologists are warning the intensity
and impact of extreme weather will worsen.

Dr Blair Trewin has told an Australian emergency management conference in Sydney that tropical cyclones are holding more moisture and dumping more rainfall.

He said Hurricane Harvey produced record rainfall because it parked for four days over Texas in the United States.

Dr Trewin said storm surges would also become worse as a result of sea levels that were rising at 3.4 millimetres per year.

He said extreme heat events were already occurring with greater frequency and intensity, which he said were both indicators of a changing climate.

Read the ABC News story - “Climate change increasing the intensity and impact of extreme weather, BOM tells emergency managers.”

Australia’s new horizon: Climate change challenges and prudential risk

Thank you for welcoming me again to your conference.

Geoff Summerhayes.

I spoke here, around this time last year, on ‘culture, rugby and regulation’. This time around we’re still in the cricket season – but I’ve promised my team that I’ll be keeping the sporting analogies to a bare minimum.

My focus today will be climate change and climate risk. Following my remarks here last year, I fielded a question from the floor on climate change and associated prudential risks, and noted some of the implications for financial sector entities. The questions moved on, but I have continued to reflect on these issues with my colleagues over the past 12 months.

At the same time, developments in Australia and abroad placed climate-related financial risks firmly in sight. Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney, said last year that the entry into force of the Paris Climate Agreement ‘brings the horizon forward’ for action on climate change. It heightens transition risks and opportunities, makes them more immediate, and ‘puts a premium on the ability of private markets to adjust’. ¹Australia’s ratification of the Paris Agreement last November ensures we have a new horizon too.

Today I want to reflect on these and other developments. I want to offer some observations about why climate-related risks are likely to be relevant and important, not only for insurers but for all APRA-regulated entities. I will also talk about how we see ‘climate risks’ as part of our broader approach to prudential risk management and supervision.

Read the speech by Executive Board Member of the Insurance Council of Australia, Geoff Summerhayes at the group’s annual forum in Sydney -  “Australia’s new horizon: Climate change challenges and prudential risk.”

India predicts it will exceed Paris renewable energy target by half

This scene could be a thing of the past in
 India as the country vows not to build
 another coal power station until 2027. 

The Indian government predicts it will vastly exceed its renewable energy target agreed at the Paris Climate Change conference last year.

A draft 10-year energy blueprint published this week predicted the country would be generating 57 per cent of its energy through renewable sources by 2027.

The target set by the conference last year was 40 per cent by 2030.

According to the document, the country is on course to achieve 275 gigawatts of energy from renewable sources by 2027 with a further 100GW generated from “other zero emission sources” like nuclear.

Read Caroline Mortimer’s story in the Independent - “India predicts it will exceed Paris renewable energy target by half.”

Busy and emotional time leading up to Paris climate conference

T

his year will be both busy and emotionally draining for those concerned about the welfare of the world’s climate.



Executive Director of the Global Carbon
Project at the CSIRO, Pep Canadell,
was interviewed for this story.

Concern for and interest in climate matters found a fresh energy in 2007, percolated away in 2008, reached a crescendo with the IPCC December conference in Copenhagen and feeling the effects of controversy driven by the “denial machine” collapsed into chaos.

However, climate change activists have regrouped and armed with little more than truth, and compelling evidence from around the world, now work toward success at the United Nations Climate Change Conference late this year Paris.

The Conversation considers the Paris meeting - “Paris 2015 climate summit: countries' targets beyond 2020”.

We need global 'everything' for a successful response

Professor John Wiseman -
he was one of three from
the University of Melbourne
to attend the forum in China.

“Today, human societies are facing unprecedented ecological crisis and challenges. Ecological maintenance and restoration should be not only based on national or regional conditions, but also examined from a global perspective.  “Our response to the crisis and challenges hinges on global governance, global partnership and global consensus”.

That was the opening statement from the theme for the July forum in China entitled: “Eco-civilization Education: A Global Perspective”.

University of Melbourne sustainability leaders attended the Inaugural Conference of the Green Alliance of Universities for a Sustainable Future (GAUSF) to share sustainability ideas and build links to universities across the globe.

The conference was a sub-forum of the 2014 Eco Forum Global in Guiyang, capital of China’s Guizhou province.

Its focuses were to establish the mission of the GAUSF, examine universities as incubators of sustainable development and to study present and future eco-friendly development in Guizhou from a global perspective.

University attendees were Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) Simon Evans, Deputy Director of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute (MSSI) John Wiseman and Professor Deli Chen from the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences.

Professor Wiseman said universities play a three-fold role in the maintenance of a sustainable society: innovation and the development of new ideas and inventions through research, teaching and involvement of students in sustainability, and by engaging with communities, governments and business to translate this knowledge into action.

Universities must also lead society by ensuring their campuses are examples of sustainability.

Professor Wiseman said that the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute combined these roles across the University.

“Its role is to bring together researchers and students across disciplines to conduct research and translate ideas through teaching and engagement to improve sustainability outcomes,” he said.

Professor Evans said the alliance presents Melbourne researchers and students to collaborate with longstanding University partners including GAUSF founder and convener Peking University and Tsinghua University from China, Edinburgh University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Freie Universität Berlin.

“There are significant opportunities to develop deep research collaborations with all the members of the Alliance – and to create opportunities for students to connect with their counterparts from around the globe,” he said.

Professor Wiseman said there were many opportunities for the University to collaborate and build links with other GAUSF institutions, particularly in the movement towards a zero-carbon economy and the development of sustainable cities and agriculture.

Professor Chen addressed the necessity of a balance between food security and sustainability in his presentation to the conference.

Professor Wiseman noted the importance of forming sustainability connections with China.

“The senior Chinese people there strongly emphasised the centrality of sustainability – what they call eco-civilisation – as a central priority for the future of China, and indeed for the world,” he said.

“There’s real opportunity to build on that foundation”.

Gray seeks national discussion about nuclear power

The climate change conversation is complex in the extreme, but is little more than a friendly neighbourhood chat compared to the emotion-charged discussion about nuclear power.

Federal Resources Minister,
 Gary Gray, he wants a
national discussion about
nuclear power.

Discussion devoid of logic and driven by argument pining for fact herds reason into a cul-de-sac leaving the nuclear power advocates on an isthmus that a flood a disapproval is about to cut loose from the mainland.

Traditional power sources, primarily coal, are clearly responsible for many thousands of deaths, maybe even millions, while deaths nuclear power faults on a comparative basis, relatively few.

The discovery of coal and the subsequent realization that it’s energy could be accessed by humans and used for many purposes freeing them from a paradigm in which the prime sources of energy were sun, wind, water, human and animal to open a new vista in which fossil-fuel energy freed them from their daily drudgeries and without those natural limitations, humans flourished.

As with everything, however, there are unintended consequences and so after more than two centuries of gouging on reserves nature had put aside, the party, to use Richard Heinberg’s words, is over for we have damaged the climate (at least in human terms) to such an extent, that the only exist open to us is a return to sun, wind, water, human and animal power.

There is, however, still another fossil energy that humanity has until now only, in the greater scheme of things, really simply fiddled with. That is a suggestion that the French would unquestionably take umbrage with for some seventy per cent of their power come from this source.

Uranium, an energy-rich fossil fuel, allows for nuclear power and being effectively free of carbon-dioxide emissions, it stands as a genuine alternative to meet the world’s energy needs and when considered in isolation it would be a major step in mitigating global warming.

Federal Government Resources Minister, Gary Gray, wants Australian’s to objectively and honestly discuss and although he didn’t say so much, such a discussion would only produce an effective result if each of us were able to enter it in a non-ideological manner.

Mr Gray talked about the need for a national discussion about nuclear power at the recent Australian Uranium and Rare Earths conference in Perth.

The ABC report on the matter in a story headed: “Federal Resources Minister Gary Gray wants nuclear Australia debate”.