Lethal Heating: 01/19/21

19/01/2021

(AU) Climate Change Pushed Ocean Temperatures To Record High In 2020, Study Finds

ABC Weather | Ben Deacon

Oceans warmed to record levels in 2020, which is likely to have serious impacts on marine ecosystems.(Supplied: Grant Thomas, The Ocean Agency)

The world's oceans absorbed 20 sextillion joules of heat due to climate change in 2020 and warmed to record levels, a study has found.

That quantity — expressed numerically as 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules — is equivalent to the energy from 10 Hiroshima atomic bombs being released every second of the year.

Report co-author Kevin Trenberth, from the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, said oceans absorbed more than 90 per cent of the solar energy trapped by greenhouse gases.

"There's a tremendous amount of energy that's actually involved in this — it's not surprising that it has consequences," he said.

"Since about the mid-1990s, at least, the oceans have been warming very steadily.

"In fact, they are the best single indicator that the planet is warming."

The mercury has been rising steadily since the 1990s.(Supplied: Kevin Trenberth)

Danger by degrees

The study came as scientists confirmed that global air temperatures in 2020 were equal to 2016 — the hottest on record — and as Australia experienced its fourth hottest year on record.

"The ocean is a key controller of the climate that we see on the continent of Australia," CSIRO oceanographer Bernadette Sloyan said.

She said warmer oceans could lead to increases in extreme weather.

The seas to the north-east of Australia (yellow and red) are warmer than average water because of La Niña. (Supplied: earth.nullschool.net)

"That heat is actually providing the fuel that can bring in monsoons, rains and tropical cyclones," Dr Sloyan said.

"We've already dialled in what we're going to see over the next 20, 30, 40 years.

"That's because the oceans have the heat and will slowly release it back to the atmosphere and impact weather and severe weather events."

She said increased heat was also directly affecting ecosystems like coral reefs.

"Corals live within a really small temperature range," Dr Sloyan said.

"Once we exceed those temperature ranges – and if we exceed them for long periods of times – we have significant coral bleaching."

Coral bleaching is a direct result of increased ocean temperatures. (Supplied: The Ocean Agency)

Simmering south-east

Australia's south-east has been identified as an ocean surface warming hotspot, according to Jessica Benthuysen, an oceanographer with the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

"We've had a number of dramatic marine heat waves in the Tasman Sea over the past five years, including in 2016," she said.

"That was the longest, most intense marine heat wave on record — and that was associated with a shift in fish species and Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome for the first time."

Sea surface temperatures to the south-east of Australia are increasing at twice the global average. (Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology)

In its State of the Climate 2020 report, the Bureau of Meteorology said the average sea surface temperature in the Australian region had warmed by more than one degree Celsius since 1900.

Eight of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2010.

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(AU) Corporate Watchdog Puts Climate Change Warnings Into Action

The Australian - David Ross

The release of the heavily redacted document from the corporate regulator comes after ASIC has repeated warnings to business on climate change risk. Source: Facebook / NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly

An internal briefing document to the corporate regulator has shown the regulator putting its climate change warnings into action, revealing deep-dive surveillance of five of the nation’s biggest listed companies.

The document, prepared for internal eyes in August last year, came only two months after ASIC temporarily suspended its investigations in June on the back of the COVID-19 pandemic.

These deep-dive surveillances of five companies in the energy, real estate, materials, consumer staples and industrials sectors have seen corporate regulators examine climate-related disclosures in public documents released by the companies. These include annual reports from those five companies, and any sustainability, environmental or climate change reports or policies.

The document reveals regulators from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission also exercised their compulsory information gathering powers to obtain and review internal company books and records.

The regulators observed those five companies’ internal deliberations and considerations, governance and risk frameworks of climate change. ASIC’s document notes their focus on a task force on Climate Change Related Financial Disclosures.

“We have provided preliminary feedback to, and are continuing to engage with, these five deep-dive target companies in relation to their climate risk governance and disclosure practices,” it said.

The deep-dive investigations come on top of “desktop” examinations of climate-related disclosure practices at 12 large ASX-listed companies.

ASIC targeted a range of companies across energy, finance, industrials, property and consumer discretionary sectors.

Corrs Chambers Westgarth partner Sandy Mak said climate change-related disclosure and risks were becoming increasingly critical for boards and shareholders.

“Recent examples in the Australian market have shown us that even if economic returns are adversely impacted, as they were at the height of the pandemic, shareholders are still holding boards accountable from an [environmental social and corporate governance] perspective and are unwilling to put short-term financial returns ahead of strong corporate governance,” she said.

“In 2021, boards should also take the time to conduct comprehensive scenario planning.”

Ms Mak said it was interesting that ASIC had exercised its compulsory information disclosure powers in order to find out what companies thought they should disclose.

“This suggests that ASIC is taking this sort of disclosure very seriously. It’s wanting to police the police that it put in place,” she said.

“Companies need to not take the tick-the-box approach to climate change disclosure.”

She said Australian businesses were behind their global partners on environmental, social and corporate governance.

The release of the heavily redacted document from the corporate regulator comes after ASIC has repeated warnings to business on climate change risk.

In September 2018 ASIC released the findings of its report into climate risk disclosure by Australia’s listed companies.

In August 2019 ASIC published updates to its existing regulatory guidance around climate change-related risks and opportunities.

The Council of Financial Regulators Working Group on Climate Risk has been targeting the financial fallout for businesses exposed to climate change.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority will undertake a climate change vulnerability assessment of authorised deposit taking institutions. ASIC and the Reserve Bank will co-ordinate with APRA on ensuring a consistent application of analysis and disclosure recommendations.

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(AU) Top Judge Urges Lawyers To Take Stand On Climate Change

AFR - Michael Pelly

Lawyers have an obligation to follow the lead of "climate-conscious" practitioners and help repair a "wounded" planet, according to the nation's leading environment law judge.

Justice Brian Preston, chief judge of the NSW Land and Environment Court, says that on top of advising their clients on legal issues, there are myriad ways for lawyers to follow "the path of climate consciousness".

Writing in the latest issue of The Australian Law Journal, the judge, who helped found the NSW Environmental Defenders Office in 1985, says lawyers "need to integrate ethical thinking and ethical action into their day-to-day legal practice".

"A climate-conscious approach requires an active awareness of the reality of climate change and how it interacts with daily legal problems," writes Justice Brian Preston. James Brickwood

Justice Preston says this could involve "moral counselling with clients", in which lawyers might "discuss the rightness or wrongness of the client’s projects or business activities and the impact of those projects or activities on people and the planet, including the climate change consequences of different courses of action".

"By the lawyer’s moral persuasion and negotiation, the client may be prepared to modify its behaviour so as to mitigate the climate change consequences of its projects or activities and promote climate change justice," he writes.

He says other ways include promoting human rights and encouraging industry to "advance efforts towards sustainable business models that mitigate their contribution to climate change".

He also suggests lobbying the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government "to address the climate change crisis", engaging in "intellectual activism" and acting pro bono.

Justice Preston stresses the professional obligation to advise clients against risk, a point also made by former banking royal commissioner Kenneth Hayne.

"A climate-conscious approach requires an active awareness of the reality of climate change and how it interacts with daily legal problems,'' he writes.

"A climate-conscious approach demands, first, actively identifying the intersections between the issues of the legal problem or dispute and climate change issues and, second, giving advice and litigating or resolving the legal problem or dispute in ways that meaningfully address the climate change issues ...

"If the failure to provide advice on the relevant climate change issues meant that the advice was not to the standard expected of a reasonably competent lawyer, this may amount to professional negligence."

He notes that company directors have not been targets for litigation but that could soon change given the greater awareness of the risks of climate change.

Lawyers would also need "to predict what courts are likely to pronounce to be the legal responsibilities in future litigation, rather than look backwards to what courts have held to be legal responsibilities in past judgments".

"The courts of the future will be asked to determine the legality of present action and inaction of governments and enterprises in relation to climate change."

He cites the example of Gloucester Resources, which appealed the minister’s refusal of consent to the Land and Environment Court, in warning against a "climate blind" approach.

"Neither party initially raised the impact of the mine on climate change as an issue in the proceedings."

The NSW Environmental Defenders' Office succeeded in being named as a party to the action last April and widened the argument to include the effect of the open-cut coal mine on climate change. It was cited by Justice Preston as another reason for its refusal.

Justice Preston invokes the parable of the Good Samaritan in suggesting that ethical approaches "can be shaped by following the example of climate-conscious lawyers and emulating their climate conscious attitudes and behaviours".

"An intuitive understanding of the parable is that lawyers should act likewise to climate conscious lawyers.

"Climate-conscious lawyers have compassion for people and a planet wounded by climate change and are, in their daily legal practice, providing advice and taking action to heal these wounds."

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