The world has made the link between Australian coal, fires and climate.

With our south-east coast aflame, our dead uncounted, our holiday beaches rendered into evacuation zones; with our queues for water, fuel, food and for simple escape, Australia now has the world’s attention.

Illustration: John Shakespeare

In international eyes, our leaders have been found wanting not only in planning for such a catastrophe, and not just for the failure of some to match the tenacious heroism of our volunteers, but for their refusal to accept the catastrophic reality of climate change and its link with the burning of coal.

Read the story from The Age by Nick O’Malley - “The world has made the link between Australian coal, fires and climate.”

Climate Change Solution Under Our Noses

Our planet’s outermost surface is so important, it bears its name: earth. It’s the foundation of forests, grasslands and other natural habitats and the medium that gives us food, medicine, clothes, fuel, and livelihoods. Unfortunately, our use and misuse of land accounts for a significant proportion of our total annual greenhouse gas emissions, yet it accounts for a paltry amount of climate funding. We cannot prevent the worst effects of climate change without improving the ways we use land.

Every minute, about 27 football pitches’ worth of forests are lost. Their destruction — and that of grasslands, mangroves and other habitats — emits huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, where they heat the planet. At the same time, habitat loss diminishes the earth’s capacity to pull those gases back into the ground.

Read the story from Medium by the leader of WWF’s global Climate and Energy Practice, Manuel Pulgar Vidal -  “Climate Change Solution Under Our Noses.”

Insurance companies have a role to play in equipping us for challenges of climate change

Lloyd's of London will no longer allow their trading platform to be used for investing in coal, because this fuel is the main driver of climate change. Given the global insurance industry has been harking on for decades about the increasing risks of extreme weather to property, one would have thought they might have arrived at that conclusion a little sooner.

A resident in the flooded streets of Rockhampton
during the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie in April 2017.

During their 25 years of inaction on this front, the insurance industry, through investments and cover, has facilitated massive coal use around the world, locking emissions and unavoidable warming into the atmosphere. As a result, we now have a large number of property owners around Australia who are going to feel the heat of surging insurance prices to cover worsening weather extremes. The industry has an obligation to respond.

Read Karl Mallon’s comment in today’s Melbourne Age - “Insurance companies have a role to play in equipping us for challenges of climate change.”