13/12/2017

World's Biggest 100 Polluting Companies Put On Notice By Investors To Tackle Climate Change

Fairfax - Nicole Hasham

Shareholders have turned up the heat on the world's 100 biggest polluting companies including Australian firms BHP Billiton, Wesfarmers and Rio Tinto, in the first coordinated global effort by investors to force corporate action on climate change.
The Climate Action 100+ initiative, to be launched in Paris on Tuesday evening eastern standard time, will target 100 global companies responsible for an estimated 15 per cent of global emissions.


Water bills headed 'same way as energy'
Rising population and climate change could translate into much higher water bills without action being taken now.

It marks a significant escalation of investor pressure on corporations to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, improve climate-related financial disclosures and increase governance on climate change.
More than 200 of the world's biggest investors, responsible for $26 trillion in assets, have signed up to the initiative. It includes Australian investment giants Australian Super, AMP Capital, VicSuper, First State Super, Hesta and Cbus.
Mining company Rio Tinto is named by the campaign as among the world's top 100 polluting companies. Photo: Bloomberg
Shareholder action on climate change has been gathering pace, given new momentum by the Paris climate accord. A strong response from the international corporate sector is needed if the goal of limiting the global rise in average temperatures to no more than two degrees is to be met.
Emma Herd, chief executive of the Investor Group on Climate Change in Australia, said two years had passed since the Paris climate deal was signed and investors now wanted "action that's faster and goes further than what we've seen before".
Ms Herd cited Exxon Mobil, the world's biggest oil company, which was this year forced by a shareholder vote to be more transparent about the impact of climate change on its business.
"Engagement between investors and the companies they own is one of the core foundations of our economy and how it runs," she said.
If a company does not respond to investor demands on climate change, shareholder options include resolutions and votes, and divestment.
Investors who sign up to the effort can nominate companies to be added to the list.
Companies in the sectors of oil and gas, electricity and transport make up the bulk of the 100 companies. It also includes PepsiCo and Nestle, as well as the Wesfarmers group which includes Coles, Bunnings, Kmart, Target and Officeworks, as well as coal mine assets.
A spokesperson for Wesfarmers said: "Wesfarmers regularly engages with investors on this issue and will continue to do so. As a group, we strive to reduce the emissions intensity of our businesses and improve their resilience to climate change."
The methodology used to compile the list included direct and indirect emissions, as well as emissions from transport and product consumption.
Anne Simpson, investment director of sustainability at CalPERS, the largest public pension system in the United States, said there was "nowhere to hide from climate risk".
"Ultimately shareholders are the owners of these companies and ... if we don't make sure these companies make the transformation to a low carbon economy we are exposed to the risks of their emissions, not just directly through the investments we've got in those companies but also by the indirect impact on all the other assets in our portfolio," she said.
BHP Billiton declined to comment. Its latest annual report said it had a "strong record of supporting and complying with robust reporting requirements on climate change issues".
Rio Tinto had not responded at the time of publication. The company's website says it is "taking action to improve productivity and reduce emissions. Our challenge is to meet the world's growing needs for the metals and minerals we produce, while addressing the issue of climate change."

Links
at No comments:

Emmanuel Macron Says The World Is Losing The Fight Against Climate Change: 'We're Not Moving Quick Enough'

The Independent - Mythili Sampathkumar

Donald Trump not invited to Paris summit where tag line of event was 'Make Our Planet Great Again'
The French President heading the Paris-based summit. Philippe Wojazer, Pool via AP
Emmanuel Macron has said that the world is “losing the battle” against climate change and issued a plea to the leaders of wealthy countries: “We’re not moving quick enough. We all need to act.”
Mr Macron was speaking at the One Planet summit in Paris, a meeting of 50 countries to which the US President was not invited.
But in a light-hearted nod to Donald Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax”, the tag line for the summit was “Make Our Planet Great Again”.
Mr Macron said the US was not willing to “join the club” on combating climate change, he told Time.  As part of the summit, 18 mostly US-based scientists will win paid opportunities to live and conduct climate-related research in Europe, away from the climate scepticism of Mr Trump.
Other attendees to the summit included Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Theresa May and the secretary-general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres.
France announced a raft of 12 non-binding commitments, from a $300m pledge to fight desertification to accelerating the transition towards a decarbonised economy. But there was no headline promise likely to reassure poor nations on the sharp end of climate change that they will be better able to cope.
Developed countries have pledged to provide $100bn (£75bn) a year to poorer countries, every year after 2020 – when the Paris Agreement, a global accord to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming to 2C, comes into force.
The funds were supposed to go towards adapting poorer countries’ infrastructures and economies to be more climate resilient, particularly in the event of a natural disaster. But specific details about financial pledges did not make it into the main text of the Paris Agreement in 2015, as governments called for flexibility.


Barack Obama jokes ‘Thanks, Obama’ when talking about climate change progress

Now, there are fears that countries are not getting even close to that figure for the first year. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates only about $68bn (£51bn) has been collected.
Also in focus is how public and private financial institutions can mobilise more money and how investors can pressure corporate giants to shift towards more ecologically friendly strategies.
More than 200 institutional investors with $26 trillion in assets under management said they would step up pressure on the world’s biggest corporate greenhouse gas emitters.
Part of the reason to keep up momentum on fighting climate change is the vacancy in action and financing left by the US government under Mr Trump.

Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella

The US withdrew a $2bn pledge to the Green Climate Fund, one of the myriad pots set up for developing countries to receive aid money.
In June, Mr Trump ordered the start of the official withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement, after former President Barack Obama was obliged to use an executive order to join the deal in 2016 to bypass climate deniers in Congress.
The US remains the only country not in the Paris Agreement after previous holdouts Nicaragua and Syria joined the rest of the world.
And the US actively promoted the use of fossil fuels at a UN climate change meeting last month.
Industry representatives from coal, oil, gas and nuclear power companies like Peabody Energy, nuclear engineering firm NuScale Power, and Tellurian, a liquefied natural gas exporter, were prominently featured during the event.
During the panel, Mr Trump’s international energy issues adviser George D Banks said it was “controversial only if we chose to bury our heads in the sand”.
“Without question, fossil fuels will continue to be used, and we would argue that it’s in the global interest to make sure when fossil fuels are used that they be as clean and efficient as possible,” Mr Banks said.
However, the US private sector and state governments – like Governor Jerry Brown representing California – have not been left out of the One Planet summit. 
Over a thousand governors, mayors, and CEOs in the US have pledged to keep up the commitments outlined in the Paris Agreement despite the federal government’s inaction.

Links
at No comments: