'Desperate': Commbank Rules Out Lending To Adani's Carmichael Coal Mine

Fairfax - Peter Hannam

The Commonwealth Bank has ruled out lending money to the proposed Carmichael mega coal mine in Queensland in a move green groups say adds pressure on the federal government to run out loans of its own.
A bank spokeswoman confirmed Australia's biggest lender would not be making loans to the Adani mine proposed for the Galilee Basin. The initial thermal coal mine requires about $4 billion, but later expansion could require as much as five times that investment.

Protestors wearing suits resembling Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Adani chief, Gautam Adani, take part in a protest in Canberra on Thursday. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

"Whilst in general we do not comment on specific clients, we can confirm that we are not amongst the banks who have been, or will be, asked to consider this financing," she said.
A spokesman for Indian-owned Adani said the miner "welcomes CBA's clarification and confirmation of their view", adding it was in line with the bank's stance earlier this year.
"Adani has not and does not intend to approach CBA for project finance," he said. "Adani is well-advanced in discussions with international financial institutions re project finance."
However, Julian Vincent, executive director of anti-coal mining group Market Forces, said the bank's move would dent Adani's prospects for raising funds.
"These are desperate times for Adani," Mr Vincent said. "[CBA] plays an important financing role but a critical credibility role."
The big four banks – which include NAB, ANZ and Westpac – had supplied 75 per cent of project finance for fossil fuel ventures in Australia over the past decade, Market Forces data shows.

Adani copped a $12,000 fine for releasing eight times its licensed concentration of pollution from its Abbot Point coal terminal. Photo: Glenn Hunt

Mr Vincent said that with Indian banks increasingly wary of taking on more risky ventures, the viability of the Adani mine could hinge on the federal Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) – which is mulling a $1 billion loan to help fund a rail line to the coast – and the Chinese debt market.
The NAIF "is really the big game changer", Mr Vincent said.
Bank exposure to fossil fuels drew attention from the Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe, who told a parliamentary committee on Friday that Australia could have a lot of stranded assets if the Paris Agreement curbed demand. While not an immediate threat to financial stability, the issue would need watching over the long-term, he said.
"The RBA is now starting to think about stranded electricity assets and an Australia that exports less coal, which is more than Labor or Liberal governments are doing," Adam Bandt, Greens climate and energy spokesman, said.
"But the bank isn't yet on the same page as the financial regulator, APRA, which is ringing alarm bells and telling us 80 per cent of coal needs to stay in the ground."
Separately, Adani also copped some bad news with a $12,000 fine for releasing eight times its licensed concentration of pollution from its Abbot Point coal terminal during the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie in March.
"If Adani can't safely operate the Abbot Point coal terminal, how can they be trusted to build Australia's biggest coal mine?, Basha Stasak, Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner, said. "This is not a company that should be trusted with our Great Barrier Reef, our clean water or the fate of the endangered Black-throated finch."

Links

• Westpac branded as 'wimps' over coal pledge
• Carmichael coalmine: Commonwealth Bank indicates it will not lend to Adani
• CommBank must rule out all new coal - not just Adani's Carmichael mine
• Adani picks funding advisor for giant Australia coal mine -sources
• Adani says it might not need $1 billion in federal cash for Carmichael mine; real figure 'could be less than $500m'
• Enjoy it while you can: Australia's ski industry faces 'terrifying' future
• Sydney storm: erosion swallows 50 metres of Collaroy, Narrabeen beaches

It’s Unambiguous And Definitive. These Five Charts Prove That The Planet Is Heating Up.

Washington Post - Jason Samenow

2016 temperature difference from normal. (NOAA)

The warming of the Earth's climate is indisputable.
A new international climate change report, prepared by 450 scientists from more than 60 countries, has published trends from thousands of data sets that — across the board — present a clear-cut picture of a warming world.
Led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the report revealed that heat-trapping gases, global temperatures, ocean heat content, and sea levels reached record or near-record highs in 2016. It is the 27th version of the report, titled State of the Climate in 2016, and is being published as a special 280-page supplement in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
NOAA released the report documenting irrefutable evidence of global warming, even as President Trump and high-level members of his administration have expressed skepticism about the phenomenon, especially the human role.
Five indicators from the report, in particular, offer a particularly compelling illustration of the changing composition of the Earth's atmosphere and the warming that has occurred in lockstep.

1. Concentrations of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas, are rising and hit a record high in 2016

Via NOAA: "The global average concentration of carbon dioxide hit a record high in 2016. The increase from 2015 to 2016 was 3.5 ± 0.1 ppm — the largest one-year increase in the modern record."

2. Global surface temperatures are rising and hit a record high in 2016

Via NOAA: "In 2016, the global surface temperature was 0.45°–0.56°C (0.8°–1.0°F) above the 1981 — 2010 average — a record high, according to multiple independent data sets."

3. The number of extremely hot days are increasing worldwide

Via NOAA: "As the global average temperature has risen, so has the number of extremely hot days that occur each year. This graph tracks the changing frequency of days on which the temperature was in the 90th percentile of the historical record since 1950."

4. Sea levels are rising and hit a record high in 2016

Via NOAA: "Sea level hit a record high in 2016. Independent estimates show that waters are rising due to meltwater from glaciers and ice sheets (blue line) plus thermal expansion (red line) of the ocean water as it warms (red line)."

5. Mountain glaciers are retreating

Via NOAA: "This graph shows glacier mass balance — the difference between ice lost through melting and ice gained through new snowfall — each year since 1980 (blue bars) for the 44 glaciers in the World Glacier Monitoring Service's reference network."

Supplementing these charts, Climate Central, the nonprofit science communication firm in Princeton, N.J., created these visuals illustrating some additional key findings from the report:

1. The United States had its second-warmest year on record

Via Climate Central: "The 2016 average temperature for the contiguous U.S. was 54.9°F, which was 2.2°F above the 1981-2010 average, this is the second warmest since records began. Since 1970, the rate of warming has increased to 0.5°F per decade."

2. The 10 hottest years on record for the planet have occurred since 1998

Via Climate Central: "2016 was the globally averaged hottest year on record, surpassing 2015. The record warmth resulted from the combined influence of long-term global warming and a strong El Niño early in the year. Then 10 hottest years on record have all come since 1998."

3. Ocean temperatures in 2016 are rising and hit a record high in 2016

Via Climate Central: "Globally averaged sea surface temperatures were the highest on record in 2016. Global sea level was also the highest on record. The rate of warming and the rate of sea level rise in the global oceans are both accelerating."

Links

• Report confirms 2016 was the hottest year on Earth — third record breaking year in a row
• 2016 was hottest year on record, worldwide report confirms
• 2016 hottest year on record: US agency
• NOAA confirms 2016 as hottest year on record for the planet
• American Meteorological Society Report Confirms 2016 Was Warmest Year on Record
• Devastating Report Confirms Earth is Losing the Battle Against Global Warming

Federal Scientists Say Climate Change Is No Hoax, Refuting Trump

Bloomberg - Christopher Flavelle

• 2016 was hottest year on record, for third year in a row
• More frequent disasters 'putting a strain on local resources'

What the U.S. Departure Means for the Paris Agreement

Less than a week after President Donald Trump notified the United Nations of his intent to exit from the Paris climate accord, his government's chief science agency released a report demonstrating that global warming is real and getting worse.
The report, prepared by almost 500 scientists from around the world, shows that last year's average global temperatures were the highest ever recorded. There were more major tropical cyclones than usual, longer droughts and less snow cover. After years of increasing, Antarctic sea ice declined, undercutting an argument by those who dispute the science of global warming.
"The major indicators of climate change continued to reflect trends consistent with a warming planet," said the report, which was edited by Jessica Blunden and Derek S. Arndt of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Reports, such as the NOAA-supported one released Thursday in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, are "hard to dodge," according to David Schnare, who worked for a short time at the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump and wants the administration to abandon any efforts to tackle climate change. He said this and other federal reports documenting the severity of climate change could make it harder for the EPA to reverse its 2009 finding that carbon dioxide emissions pose a danger to the public.
Trump has labeled climate change a "hoax," and members of his administration have downplayed the role burning fossil fuels is having on the Earth and its changing weather patterns.
While Trump's administration seeks to unwind federal policies to address climate change, local governments are being forced to act. Nick Crossley, emergency management director for Ohio's Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati, said his agency dealt with more flash flooding than usual last year.
"Some call it climate change; some call it something else," Crossley said in a phone interview. But whatever you call it, "it's putting a strain on local resources."
Crossley, who is also vice president of the International Association of Emergency Managers, said his counterparts around the country are dealing with similar problems. He said that while federal reports documenting the extent of climate change might not capture the public's attention, they can help persuade local officials to better prepare for future storms, floods and other challenges. Those steps can include building storm-resistant infrastructure, and helping people who live in vulnerable areas move someplace else.
One of the surest signals that local governments are taking climate change seriously is that they're looking for new ways to pay for it. In South Florida, which is struggling with both rapid sea-level rise and an increase in flooding, the city of Coral Gables is looking for ways to start saving now for higher stormwater-managements costs.
"The earlier you do stuff, the easier it is to prepare," said Abby Corbett, a lawyer who specializes in climate adaptation and is advising Coral Gables. She said that while cities in South Florida have long had to cope with flooding, climate change could cause people to leave, shrinking the city's tax base.
"It may be that we have to struggle with revenues, just as costs are increasing," Corbett said.
Local officials aren't the only ones trying to cope with the effects of climate change. The accumulation of scientific data on global warming has put pressure on the U.S. coal industry, which is already suffering because of competition from cheap natural gas prices and renewable energy. It increasingly has to deal as well with the perception that coal is ruining the planet.
"I don't think the public is in the dark" about the scientific consensus on climate change, said Luke Popovich, vice president of the National Mining Association, which represents coal companies. He asked why the U.S. should reduce its own coal use when other countries, chiefly China and India, continue to burn it. And he said that for most people, climate change remains low on their list of worries.
"No matter how much information comes out of NOAA, it is not going to help put more pressure on the U.S. to do more," Popovich predicted. "We've got a hell of a lot of other problems to address."    

Links

• Read More: Trump Notifies UN of Paris Exit While Keeping Option to Return
• Read More: What Comes of Paris Climate Accord Without U.S.: QuickTake Q&A
• New studies and new catastrophes give climate change deniers a lot to deny
• 6 Trump Administration Climate Claims Exposed As Total Nonsense By Federal Report
• Scientists Fear Trump Will Dismiss Blunt Climate Report