(AU) Councils Across NSW And Queensland Join Forces To Demand Climate Action From Morrison Government

NEWS.com.au - James Hall

An unlikely group of leaders have broken away from the historic state rivalry to pressure the Morrison government for ‘urgent action’.

Noosa Council is concerned by climate change. Credit: Supplied

Councils across NSW and Queensland are fed-up by the lack of climate action from the Morrison and state governments and have banded together to demand urgent change.

Seventeen mayors and councillors from Shellharbour, south of Wollongong, to Port Douglas, in the Sunshine State’s far north, have joined forces to send a message to Canberra, declaring “extreme weather is hurting Australia and our communities are paying the price”.

The local government areas stretch along the nation’s east coast and have been particularly exposed to devastating bushfires and destructive storm events in recent years.

“We are exhausted by the immediate costs and challenges, and we are worried about what’s to come,” the group’s statement declares.

“Extreme weather disasters used to occur every few years. Now, we are facing them every few months.”

Noosa is vulnerable to climate change. Source: News Regional Media

The plea for help follows a recent report from the Climate Council in which the leading independent body declared the cost of extreme weather on the Australian economy over the past decade totalled $35 billion, with Queensland copping the majority share at $18 billion.

“We can’t do this alone,” the group of concerned councils said.

“We need more support from the federal government to further reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and invest in clean industries that create regional jobs, unlock business investment and spur technological innovation.”

Noosa Shire Councillor Brian Stockwell called on both the Morrison and Palaszczuk governments to listen to the urgent fears and present danger for local communities.

The tourist hot spot is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and storm damage while the warming climate has also increased the fire risk with the popular Sunshine Coast resort area the first of hundreds engulfed in flames during the previous summer.

“The one we’re experiencing already is our early summers and springs are much hotter and much drier,” he told the NCA NewsWire.

Brian Stockwell is keen to see have governments take action against climate change. Source: News Regional Media

“We were the first to have a catastrophic fire event in the 2019/20 season, but it also carries across to us having an ageing population and it’s predicted deaths from extreme heat and climate change will exceed what we experienced last year from COVID by 2100.

“These are significant issues and local governments can address them through practical measures right now.”

Mr Stockwell said the federal government had failed to offer a meaningful response to the present threat with a “business as usual approach to dealing with the fossil fuel industry and ignoring the need to convert our economy to a green economy”.

“We saw the debacle of gas being a preferred option identified by the federal government whereas it‘s really clear that new solar power on large farms are far more cost effective at the moment compared to new coal fired electricity.”

Communities across Australia have clearly had enough of the growing cost of extreme weather disasters, Climate Council researcher Dr Simon Bradshaw said.

“All types of extreme weather events — storms, coastal erosion, flooding, bushfires, heatwaves and drought — are influenced by climate change,” he said.

“Australian communities are already paying the price, with the past twelve months seeing a devastating run of extreme weather disasters.”

“Extreme weather has cost our national economy at least $35 billion over the past decade. And it's going to get worse — by 2038, the price tag of climate impacts could climb to $100 billion a year.”

Links

• 'Exhausted' councils sign joint plea for urgent federal help to cover disaster clean-up costs
• (NSW) South Coast mayors, councillors, call for more climate change action
• Giving community tools to take climate action
• Our 'tree-change' and 'sea-change' dreams are under threat as scientists warn about building homes in 'risky areas'
• The Hunter can do more to establish green cities to help adapt to climate change and reduce the heat-island effect 
• Less than half of the government's bushfire recovery funds have been allocated, new research shows
• Qld cops $18bn bill due to extreme weather

(AU) 4 Assumptions About Gender That Distort How We Think About Climate Change [And 3 Ways To Do Better]

The Conversation -  Jacqueline Lau | Pip Cohen | Sarah Lawless

WorldFish/Mike Lusmore, CC BY-ND

Authors Jacqueline Lau is Research fellow, James Cook University Pip Cohen is Research Leader of Small-scale Fisheries at WorldFish, CGIAR, and Adjunct Research Fellow at ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University Sarah Lawless is a PhD Candidate, James Cook University

Gender influences how people experience and respond to climate change. This is particularly evident in developing nations where women and men adapt to climatic shocks differently.

Women work harder and longer, in poorer conditions, while men are more likely to migrate to find work that’s often insecure and unreliable.

In an article published today in Nature Climate Change, we reviewed the literature on climate change and gender in low and middle-income countries from the last six years. And we discovered many unhelpful assumptions still plaguing climate change policy and research.

These assumptions hinder the pursuit of gender equality. They do this by misdiagnosing the causes of inequality and propping up ineffective strategies that seem like good ideas.

Assumption 1: Gender equality is a women’s issue

In many climate change policies and projects, gender equality is assumed to be a women’s issue.

For example, a 2015 analysis looked at the United Nations’ REDD+ schemes (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) in six countries. It found most projects defined gender equality as women’s participation in pilot projects.

But in many cases, this participation amounted to women simply being passive recipients of information, rather than having an active role in decisions about the design and implementation of initiatives.

In many climate change policies and projects, gender equality is assumed to be a women’s issue. Finn Thilsted/Flickr

In the 1980s, targeting women was a key strategy of development organisations to achieve economic development and poverty alleviation. But this often played out as development “being done” for women, regardless of their actual needs and aspirations.

At worst, it co-opted women into labour markets, such as the shea butter industry, where they received low wages and had their labour exploited by more powerful actors in the value chain.

Assumption 2: Women and men are homogeneous groups

Within genders, there are many differences. For example, the circumstances of older widows are likely to be vastly different to those of a young, unmarried woman. Likewise, the needs of men may vary depending on their ethnicity or economic status.

In Australia, for instance, women and men on low incomes (often single parents) are likely to be most vulnerable to rising energy prices.

But we found climate change projects and policies often gloss over these differences, missing opportunities to increase resilience.

This was shown in a 2019 analysis of 155 policy documents on agri-food policies to build climate change resilience in Tanzania and Uganda. It found many characterised women as marginalised and vulnerable, while men were largely ignored.

In Mali, older and younger women and men had different farming strategies and goals, and so very different needs for climate information. The information provided by Mali’s Agrometeorological Advisory Program was only really useful for around 15% of men.

Women fish retailers negotiate fish prices with wholesalers in Shakshouk village, Fayoum, Egypt. Sara Fouad

Assumption 3: Women are innately caring and connected to the environment

As with economic development in the 1970s, climate change work continues to position women as innately caring and more “in touch” with their environment through domestic work, such as water collection and firewood gathering.

This assumption is also present in Australia — eco-friendly products are more often marketed at women and women are believed to be at the forefront of climate change action.

Buying into this assumption means women get saddled with responsibility to act as saviours of their environments, families and communities. In the process, women’s labour gets doubled or tripled in the name of climate adaptation or mitigation.

For example, in Burkina Faso in West Africa, a REDD+ program connected women with global markets for non-timber forestry products to enhance gender equality. But women’s desire to be involved in the programme was taken as a given, and women had little voice in negotiating the terms of their labour.

Women are often depicted as connected to the environment through domestic labour. ILRI/Georgina Smith

Assumption 4: Gender equality is a numbers game

If women take part in a forum or activity in numbers equal to or greater than men, climate projects and policies often consider this an adequate proxy for gender equality.

In India, UN REDD+ projects aimed to have an equal number of women and men in decision-making groups. But the women had little to no influence in the decision-making process, couldn’t sway opinions and were dissatisfied with decisions and accountability within the group.

While reaching equal numbers of women and men in decision-making groups is indeed an important step, it is not enough.

Numbers don’t automatically translate to equal benefit or empowerment. Strategies are needed to ensure women and men can engage in ways that support their rights, voice and influence.

Composting at a farm near Rupa Lake, Nepal, as part of the Climate Smart Villages initiative. CIAT:CCAFS/N. Palmer

Moving beyond assumptions: three ways forward

Gender assumptions in climate change work have long been critiqued in development studies, an interdisciplinary field that examines the tools, practices and outcomes of development.

So, with these assumptions laid bare, we suggest three ways forward for anyone engaging in climate mitigation and adaptation strategies and associated research.

First, be specific and precise about gender equality. What does an organisation, project or a policy seek to achieve in terms of reach, benefit or empowerment? Each has different measures and goals.

Second, conduct, critique and communicate data that separate gender and gender research. This is a critical first step for research, evaluation and communication.

Finally, understand, question and shift the more intractable barriers to gender equality. These include the gender norms that manifest in material differences in tenure and inheritance rights, livelihood opportunities, education, health care and access to material and credit resources.

To do this better, climate change programs and institutions need to direct more resources towards gender equality, longer time lines and better gender training and capacity.

As the world braces for more climate change impacts, working towards gender equality requires serious and informed commitment at all levels: from global leadership to organisations and communities at the forefront of change.

Links

• Australia is lagging on climate action and inequality, but the pandemic offers a chance to do better
• Climate conferences are male, pale and stale – it's time to bring in women
• Misogyny, male rage and the words men use to describe Greta Thunberg
• Climate change and migration in Bangladesh – one woman's perspective
• We’ve made progress to curb global emissions. But it’s a fraction of what’s needed
• How 18th-century weather diaries shed light on the effects of an Icelandic volcanic eruption on Scotland
• Scientist at work: Tracking the epic journeys of migratory birds in northwest Mexico
• NZ’s Climate Change Commission needs to account for the huge potential health benefits of reducing emissions

Carbon Needs To Be Much Pricier To Limit Climate Change: Report

Al Jazeera - News Agencies

Carbon prices must climb 600 percent to deter industries from emitting gases that cause global warming: Wood Mackenzie.

Policymakers could combine techniques such as carbon, capture and storage (CCS) and direct air capture with other measures to help reduce carbon emissions, according to energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie [File: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images via Bloomberg]

A significant rise in carbon pricing is needed to achieve the goal of limiting the rise in global temperatures to within 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), according to a report by consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

 Global average temperatures are currently 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.16 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Limiting the rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) would not be possible without rapid and sustained action, the consultancy said on Thursday.

The Paris climate agreement, adopted by almost 200 nations in 2015, set a goal of limiting warming to “well below” a rise of two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times while “pursuing efforts” for the tougher 1.5 degree Celsius goal (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

“To be on a 1.5-degree pathway, carbon support prices will need to reach $160 per tonne of carbon dioxide by 2030,” said Wood Mackenzie’s Asia Pacific head of markets and transitions Prakash Sharma.

As of the end of last year, the global average carbon price across various regimes stood at $22 per tonne of carbon dioxide, he said.

The industrialised world has been spewing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases faster than they can be contained for centuries.

To rein in temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) – as pledged by countries in the Paris Agreement – governments have been trying to cut emissions through what is known as carbon pricing, an approach that imposes a tax on carbon dioxide emitted or creates a market to trade permits to pollute.

While fossil fuel CO2 emissions dropped 7 percent last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the world must replicate similar declines every year throughout the 2020s and beyond or else face increasingly dire environmental consequences, according to an analysis published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Mixed picture

The price of carbon permits has recently climbed to a record in Europe amid speculative buying and efforts by policymakers to lower emissions but Asian nations have lagged behind.

Japan is considering revising its carbon tax, which is one of the lowest in the world. In China, online carbon trading is set to begin by the end of June.

[Bloomberg]

Governments around the world need carbon policies that focus on hard-to-abate industries, for instance, by facilitating low-carbon hydrogen production, Wood Mackenzie said.

Industries such as heavy industry and transport are considered hard to abate because of the cost and upheaval of transitioning to electrification.

Policymakers could also combine techniques such as carbon, capture and storage (CCS) and direct air capture with other measures to help reduce carbon emissions, the consultancy said.

To limit the rise of global average temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius, $50 trillion is the minimum capital expenditure needed, said Wood Mackenzie’s Americas head of markets and transitions David Brown.

Of that, “$27 trillion will come from new power capacity, energy storage, electrolysers and CCS deployments through to 2050, while $23 trillion is required to cover associated infrastructure, battery metals and hydrocarbons,” he said.

Links

• US oil lobbying group mulls throwing weight behind carbon pricing
• Race for EV batteries pits conservationists against green energy
• Climate and cooperation: Biden’s trade goals differ from Trump’s
• Global CO2 pollution returns to pre-COVID levels: IEA
• In extreme Texas cold, Green New Deal turns into hot potato
• US energy body to examine climate change threat to power grid
• US, Canada pledge to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050
• ‘Mutual suicide’: US issues stark warning on climate change

(AU) Troubling Detail In Aussie Weather Data

NEWS.com.au - Benedict Brook

Australia has gone through its coolest and wettest summer for years, but a graph released by the weather bureau has revealed a concerning detail.

This summer was our wettest for five years and the coolest in a decade, due mostly to La Nina shaking up Australia’s climate.

Scientific evidence and popular opinion on climate change are at odds. Sorting fact from fiction.

That’s according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) which released it’s summer climate review today.

It’s undoubtedly good news for a country that has been ravaged by drought and bushfires.

But a small detail in the flurry of data released by the BOM is sobering, climate watchers, have said.

After the dry and scorching summer weather of 2019/20, the hallmark of which was huge bushfires, this year’s season was remarkable for how wet and non-scorching it was.

Since 1900, there have only been three years that have seen a wetter December than the one last year. Overall, rainfall across the continent during this summer was the highest since 2016-17.

In New South Wales, that rain was 29 per cent above the long term average (measured between 1961 and 1990) and the wettest since 2011/12, making it the soggiest state.

Queensland saw 8 per cent more rainfall but, rarely across Australia this summer, it also saw below average moisture in some areas around the Capricornia, Wide Bay and Burnett regions.

All this rain has largely been fuelled by the La Nina climate driver which bubbled up in the Pacific and pushed warmer water towards eastern Australia.

The mercury also took a dive. This summer was the coolest since 2011/12.

Melbourne had its chilliest summer since 2004/05 with Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra seeing the coldest such season for a decade.

Chart shows troubling trend

The BOM has helpfully published a chart that details how each summer’s overall temperatures performed against the average, as measured from 1961-1990. You can have a look at this below.

BOM analysis of summer temperatures anomalies above and below the long term average. Picture: BOM

Red bars are summers where the difference between the actual temperature and the average temperature, known as the anomaly, is higher. Essentially, hotter than average summers.

The blue bars are the opposite: summers where it was cooler than average.

If you look at the updated chart, which included this current summer, you’ll see a huge drop in that temperature anomaly from 2019 when the mercury was approaching 2C above average. In 2018, the anomaly was even higher, above 2C.

In 2020, that anomaly was far smaller. Temperatures were just 0.06C above the average. You can see that little spike below.

Our cool, cool summer was still warmer than usual. Picture: BOM

And that’s the big issue: on the coldest summer for a decade, aided by a strong La Nina, and with one of the coolest Decembers for more a century, the average summer temperature in Australia was still above the baseline.

If any summer was to finally see temperatures dip below average, it was the summer we’ve just had.

It didn’t happen. It was still warmer than it should be.

La Ninas drag up cold water in the western Pacific and push warmer water towards Australia. Picture: NOAA

La Ninas getting hotter

Associate Professor David Holmes from the Monash University Climate Change Communication Research Hub (MCCCRH) said it was a clear and troubling sign that even Australia’s cold summers were now actually quite warmer.

“La Nina summers are, on average, 0.36C cooler than average for all summers.

“But like all summers, La Nina summers have been warming,” he said.

“As the observations show, they have warmed by 1.1C since 1949 while all summers have warmed by 1.4C.”

Back in December, Monash University climate scientist Dr Ailie Gallant told news.com.au she was “in shock” at how hot Australia’s run up to summer was, despite it being a La Nina year.

November 2020 was the hottest Australia had ever seen.

“Typically late spring and early summer is when we have the strongest signal for La Nina episodes. They typically should be cooler than the years around them so to have the hottest November on the record, well I’m blown away by the whole situation. I’m actually in shock.”

Temperatures did indeed drop going into December. However, not by enough to stop the season being warmer than average.

This autumn is unlikely to be record breaking in terms of heat, but over the last few decades the season has been hotting up. Picture: Monash University

In Western Australia, there is another worrying sign about where our climate is headed.

A rare and potentially damaging climate phenomenon has caused temperatures to soar in the waters off the WA coast.

A type of maritime heatwave, dubbed a “Ningaloo Nino,” has been increasing in frequency.

The heating occurs during La Nina years when warmer water from the Pacific travels between northern Australia and the Indonesian archipelago and ends up joining with a current, called the Leeuwin Current. The warm water then travels down the entire coast of WA.

The UNESCO world heritage listed Ningaloo Reef, off the coast near Exmouth, can experience significant coral bleaching during these heatwaves. Some fisheries can wane and seagrasses often die.

A brief by the MCCCRH stated there was a “growing risk” of more marine heatwaves due to the rising overall temperature trend.

While bleaching had not been as bad this year as in 2011, the increase in temperatures means it’s becoming more of a common event.

“The observations show us that, over the past 40 years, waters around the Ningaloo Reef have warmed much faster than most other surrounding Australian waters in summer”, MCCCRH’s Prof Holmes.

“Climate projections suggest that more frequent and intense marine heatwaves can be expected in the future.”

Meteorologists say that it’s likely La Nina has now reached its peak and we could be back into the neutral phase of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) by May.

Until then, increased rain is still likely. But the long term forecast will see the mercury rise as we go trough March and April. The rain gauge will also only get emptier as we head into a neutral ENSO, possibly swinging to El Nino.

Links

• (AU) 2020 Annual Climate Statement - Bureau of Meteorology
• Bureau of Meteorology: Australia in summer 2020–21
• Bureau of Meteorology: La Niña weakens, but influence likely to continue into autumn
• Bureau of Meteorology: Australian Climate Influences
• Councils across NSW and Queensland join forces to demand climate action from Morrison Government
• Qld cops $18bn bill due to extreme weather disaster loss
• La Niña drives cooler temperatures, high rainfall during Australian summer
• Climate outlook for March to June 2021

(AU) Australia Marine Hotspots Found To Store 2bn Tonnes Of 'Blue Carbon'

EURONEWS - Maeve Campbell

The Great Barrier Reef has been found to be a 'blue carbon' hotspot. Copyright  Getty via Canva

Three World Heritage-listed marine sites in Australia store billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide, reports UNESCO.

The UN organisation has released its first global scientific assessment of ‘blue carbon’ ecosystems, which double as World Heritage sites. The research shows that preserving these environmental habitats could be “crucial” to fighting climate change due to the amount of carbon stored there.

The three sites mentioned are the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Shark Bay and the Ningaloo Coast in Western Australia.

Although the sites make up less than 1 per cent of the planet’s oceans, they house 15 per cent of blue carbon assets in their seagrass meadows, tidal marshes and mangroves.

Two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide are locked away in these marine ecosystems.

The areas are called ‘carbon sinks’, a term used to describe reservoirs of either vegetation or water which store carbon for an indefinite period of time. The Amazon rainforest is one of the largest carbon sinks, absorbing a quarter of the carbon taken up by forests around the world every year.

Carbon sinks help mitigate climate change by sequestering carbon which lowers the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.

"Found on the fringes of the world’s coastlines, blue carbon ecosystems play an important ecological role in nutrient and carbon cycling, as nurseries and habitats for a broad range of marine and terrestrial species, in shoreline protection, and in sustaining the livelihoods and well-being of local communities,” said Ernesto Ottone R., UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture in a statement.

Seagrass meadows, tidal marshes and mangroves are all part of marine ecosystems. Getty via Canva

Why is conserving UNESCO sites so important?

There are hundreds of World Heritage-listed sites all over the world, in almost every country. Some examples you may have heard of are the Vatican City, the Taj Mahal, Yellowstone National Park and Stone Henge.

They are regarded as needing to be safeguarded for future generations, due to their ‘Outstanding Universal Value’, either for education or science purposes or as part of a specific cultural history.

UNESCO World Heritage marine sites are particularly important as they act as the custodians of the largest blue carbon ecosystems in the world. They face challenges to their survival, including pollution, littering, and rising sea levels due to climate change.

"Because they store so much carbon, blue carbon ecosystems become sources of CO2 emissions when they are degraded or destroyed. Protection and restoration of these ecosystems present a unique opportunity to mitigate climate change,” says Professor and marine ecologist Carlos Manuel Duarte.

“By conserving blue carbon ecosystems, the large carbon stocks they have accumulated over millennia can be protected. As they are restored, they can regain their function as carbon sinks."

Blue carbon strategies are currently underway in countries all over the world, to conserve seagrass, saltmarsh and mangroves, as well as expanding on seaweed aquaculture.

The UN report suggests that a system of carbon credits could mean countries earn credits for restoration and conservation of damaged areas, thereby incentivising them to better protect their marine ecosystems.

Links

• Blue carbon - Wikipedia
• The Blue Carbon Initiative
• What is Blue Carbon? - National Ocean Service
• Blue carbon: how three Australian marine sites lock away 2bn tonnes of CO2
• The future of Blue Carbon science
• Blue carbon is not the silver bullet the Coalition wants it to be
• Blue carbon - University of Wollongong
• Could the cure for COVID-19 lie at the bottom of the ocean?
• Underwater museum is protecting marine life in the Mediterranean Sea
• This floating 'continent' is self-sustainable and cleans the ocean

Watch This Giant Iceberg Break Off From Antarctica

SPACE.com - Chelsea Gohd

The iceberg broke off from Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf on Feb. 26.

This giant iceberg broke off from Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf on Feb. 26, 2021.  (Image credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)

New radar images captured from space reveal a giant iceberg breaking off in Antarctica. 

The iceberg, called A-74, covers about 490 square miles (1,270 square kilometers), making it 1.5 times bigger than Greater Paris. It broke off from the northern region of Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf on Feb. 26, just a few months after a large crack formed in November 2020. 

The new images of the iceberg's big break were captured by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, an Earth-observing project made up of two orbiting satellites: Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B. 

"Although the calving of the new berg was expected and forecasted some weeks ago, watching such remote events unfold is still captivating," ESA scientist Mark Drinkwater said in an ESA statement about the event and how incredible it is to watch it all happen from space.

A map shows the Halley VI research station in relation to the north rift crack. (Image credit: British Antarctic Survey)

For years, glaciologists have monitored the cracks that have formed in the Brunt Ice Shelf, a large floating slab of ice 492 feet (150 meters) thick located on Antarctica's northern rim and the site of the British Antarctic Survey's (BAS) Halley Research Station. 

These scientists have been expecting a large "calving event" for at least a decade, according to the BAS. Ice calving, or iceberg or glacier calving, occurs when large pieces of ice break off of a glacier. The team working at the BAS Halley Research Station say that the station is unlikely to be affected by the recent calving event, according to the same BAS statement.

The Brunt Ice Shelf, which typically flows west at about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) per year, routinely experiences calving events. According to the BAS in the same statement, there is "no evidence that climate change has played a significant role" in this specific event. 


Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica gives birth to an iceberg the size of Malta.

In November 2020, a new chasm (or deep fissure) named the North Rift started quickly cutting across the ice shelf, moving about 16 feet (5 meters) per day, according to the same ESA statement. Finally, on Feb. 26, the crack spread apart, widening before the iceberg was completely free from the ice shelf. 

"Over the following weeks and months, the iceberg could be entrained in the swift south-westerly flowing coastal current, run aground or cause further damage by bumping into the southern Brunt Ice Shelf. So we will be carefully monitoring the situation using data provided by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission," Drinkwater added.
 
Links

• A Huge Iceberg That's Bigger Than New York City Broke Off Near A UK Base In Antarctica
• Huge Antarctic Iceberg Headed Towards South Georgia Breaks In Two
• World's Biggest Iceberg Captured By RAF Cameras
• Why Scientists Are So Worried About Antarctica's Doomsday Glacier
• Melting Antarctic Ice Will Raise Sea Level By 2.5 Metres – Even If Paris Climate Goals Are Met, Study Finds
• The Tipping Points At The Heart Of The Climate Crisis
• Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ Is Starting To Crack
• 28 Trillion Ton Ice Melt Spells Danger For Sea Level Rise, Climate Change
• Antarctica: 60% Of Ice Shelves At Risk Of Fracture, Research Suggests

(AU) Climate Change Could Put Insurance Out Of Reach For Many Australians

The Guardian - Royce Kurmelovs

The financial industry regulator says insurers may be able to pay future claims, but fewer people will be able to secure coverage

The insurance issue is making bushfire recovery around Cobargo harder, says Michael Brosnan of Social Justice Advocates of the Sapphire Coast. Photograph: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images
 

Millions of Australians could be left uninsured as the effects of climate change put increasing pressure on the financial system, the industry’s regulatory body has warned.

The Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (Apra) executive director Dr Sean Carmody told a Senate hearing on Tuesday the nation’s insurers and banks were taking steps to prepare for worsening bushfire seasons and more extreme weather events.

However, he said the resultant rising insurance premiums may put coverage out of reach for many people, threatening the stability of the wider economy.

"From our point of view in terms of thinking of the financial system as a whole, it’s not enough if insurers have the capacity to pay every claim, but there’s a shrinking number of people who can actually secure insurance,” Carmody told the hearing.

“You could extrapolate to a tiny pool where no one has an insurance policy but every claim can be paid. That might still mean there is no insolvency problem at an insurance level, but from a financial system point of view, that represents a failure.”

Carmody said the regulator had been regularly advising large financial institutions about the financial risks posed by climate change.

This advice went beyond the physical and “transitional” risks – that is actions by shareholder activists or protesters – but also to the possibility of future lawsuits where no action is taken now.

“Increasingly, there are court cases here and internationally that suggest if we do not think about and look at climate risk, there’s potential liabilities that arise there,” he said.

The total cost to the insurance industry from extreme weather and natural disasters between November 2019 and February 2020 alone stood in the range of $5bn.

With similar events likely to increase in frequency and extremity in the future, Carmody said Apra was investigating how it may impact the country’s biggest financial institutions over the next 30 years.

Pressed by the Labor senator Tim Ayres on whether climate change would eventually “overwhelm” even the best efforts at mitigation, Carmody agreed.

“The cost of insurance is trending up, which will translate to higher premiums in aggregate,” he said.

His comments follow evidence given by residents still struggling after the catastrophic bushfires of 2019-20.

Michael Brosnan, the chair of community group Social Justice Advocates of the Sapphire Coast, said the insurance issue was making it harder to mount an effective recovery in the area around Cobargo in New South Wales.

Brosnan said his organisation was aware of at least 63 people waiting for basic sanitation some 14 months after the bushfires tore through the region.

“Up until June or July last year, many of these people were driving to Rocky Hall and Wyndham for toilet, shower and internet,” Brosnan said.

Links

• Australia must prepare now for climate-related disasters or pay more later, insurance regulator says
• Insurance giant Suncorp to end coverage and finance for oil and gas industry
• Anti-Adani coalmine activists target insurance broker with virtual protest
• Climate crisis will make insurance unaffordable for people who need it most
• Most Australian chief executives believe climate crisis a threat to business
• If the bushfires won't force climate policy change, we need to circumvent Scott Morrison
• Scott Morrison in danger of becoming a 'climate change casualty', says Steve Bracks
• Suncorp and IAG temporarily stop selling insurance in fire-affected areas of Victoria and NSW
• 'A duty of care': Australian teenagers take their climate crisis plea to court
• Australia's summer the wettest in four years amid cooling La Niña