Properties Could Become Harder To Insure And Prices Could Fall As Climate Change Takes Hold, Experts Warn

Domain - Kate Burke

Houses at Collaroy Beach took the brunt of the June 2016 storm. Photo: Peter Rae

Weighing up the risks of rising sea levels will become a key factor for house hunters as it becomes harder to insure property in the face of climate change, experts say.
Homeowners are currently being left in the dark about the risks of flooding and rising water levels, Karl Mallon, science and systems director at Climate Risk, warned on ABC’s Four Corners on Monday night.
“At the moment you get more consumer protection buying a bottle of shampoo than you get buying a house,” he said.  “No-one is telling homeowners what they really need to know.”

The Insurance Council of Australia believes insurance for properties vulnerable to rising sea levels and other climate change risks will become more expensive and harder to get. Photo: Sarah Keayes

Dr Mallon runs a software company that builds statistical models that assess the risk that rising sea levels pose to infrastructure. It is one of several companies now modelling these risks in the real estate market.
He thinks homeowners in areas under threat from rising sea levels could start finding it harder to sell as buyers become more aware of the effects of climate change.

At the moment you get more consumer protection buying a bottle of shampoo than you get buying a house.
Karl Mallon, Climate Risk

“If you own a home in one of those areas and you try to sell it, you may find that the buyer is saying, ‘Well, I’m not going to be able to insure it’. Or, ‘It’s going to be very expensive’. Or, ‘I don’t want to buy a house that’s going to decline in value'”, Dr Mallon said.

Kayakers float down Pittwater Road, Narrabeen, during the storm in June 2016. Photo: James Alcock

Just getting a mortgage could prove difficult if banks decided they did not want high-risk properties on their lending books, he said.
Even if only the most conservative predictions for sea level rises are correct, the Insurance Council of Australia agreed that vulnerable properties would become more expensive and harder to insure.
Some properties exposed to more frequent and severe flooding were already “far more expensive” to insure, Karl Sullivan, general manager of policy risk and disaster, told Four Corners.

Dr Karl Mallon thinks property buyers need to start factoring climate-change risk into their decision-making process. Photo: supplied

“If those scenarios are going to get worse, then you will find that insurance prices will rise to match them,” he said on the program.
A string of houses on Sydney’s northern beaches made headlines back in 2016, after being partially washed away in violent storms that battered the New South Wales coastline.
Waterfront land in Collaroy was washed away, a swimming pool was swept onto the beach and several multimillion-dollar homes where left hanging on the edge of sand cliffs.
Some residents were left battling their insurers for cover for their damaged properties. They were far from the first homeowners to be surprised by how their cover changed depending on whether the water came from the sky, the sea or a nearby lake.
When thousands of Brisbane policyholders were left uncovered after the 2011 floods, the federal government put pressure on the insurance industry to develop a standard flood clause, and broaden access to flood policies to all households or face government intervention on the issue.
While more than 90 per cent of new home insurance policies now include cover for flooding, neither ‘actions of the sea’ or the effects of gradual sea level rises are covered under the standard definition.
With tens of thousands of homes located within 110 metres of soft, erodible shorelines and flooding events in Australia expected to increase 300-fold off the back of rising sea levels, this is set to become an increasing issue.
But it’s not just property owners with beachfront properties who should be concerned. Low-lying inland areas and properties near rivers or estuaries could also be at risk. Dr Mallon noted that the low-lying streets of Woolloomooloo in Sydney also faced flooding risk.
“[What a lot of people] probably don’t realise, and no one’s telling them, is that there are coastal inundation risks,” Dr Mallon said. “These properties could be flooded. And, they’re not covered by standard insurance, so most standard insurance will exclude actions of the sea.”
Better thought needed to be put into the planning and mitigation process to ensure we never arrive at a situation where something becomes uninsurable, Mr Sullivan said.
“Insurance is very much the canary in the coal mine; you don’t want that price signal to be the first indication that you’ve got a problem,” he said.
“We know well in advance where these problems will occur and so we have got the luxury of time to start thinking about how to deal with it now.”

Links

• Damaged beachfront homes will affect market
• Waterfront homes ‘at risk’ 
• Insurance premiums to rise for disasters
• While Politicians Question The Reality Of Climate Change, Farmers And Businesses Act 
• Shareholders Target QBE Over Climate Change 'Failure'
• None Of Our Insurers Are Keeping Pace With Climate Change
• Climate Change Driving More Risks Than Ever Before
• Insurers Paid Out $50bn For Natural Disaster Claims In 2016
• Australia Faces Rising Perils From Climate Change, Earthquakes: Munich Re Report

Women Key To Fight Against Climate Change

Deutsche Welle

Growing up in a South African township, Ndivile Mokoena realized early that women, children and society's poorest are hit hardest by environmental issues. Now she works for gender equality and climate justice globally.


A film by Stefan Möhl

Women are more likely to die as a consequence of drought, flooding or heat waves. And — as long as political and economic power lies with men — they will continue to find it more difficult adapt to dramatic changes in their environment resulting from climate change, says climate and gender activist, Ndivile Mokoena.
Mokoena works for GenderCC, an organization that promotes gender equality in climate protection worldwide. The South African engages internationally and in her home country to get women involved in climate policy and projects.
In Johannesburg, Mokoena helps educate women in urban farming practises, which she hopes will not only help them adapt to climate change but will also increase their independence.

GenderCC Project goal
Empowering women and integrating gender as well as social aspects into urban climate policies in several pilot cities around the world.
Climate Impact
An equal society has better prospects of protecting their environment. By integrating social issues such as poverty alleviation and gender equality into urban climate policy, cities are presented with an opportunity to enhance their response to climate issues.
Project countries
South Africa, Indonesia and India.

Links

• Gender into Urban Climate Change Initiative
• Climate change hits women harder
• In Vietnam, life in the shadow of climate change
• Change your ways, save the environment
• You won't stop climate change on your own — demand action!

When Environmental Crises Hit Homes, Women Suffer The Most

Inter Press Service News Agency - Victor Tsang* | Shari Nijman*

This article is part of a series of stories and op-eds launched by Inter Press Service on the occasion of this year’s International Women’s Day on March 8. 

Women from the Mishing community in Dhemaji district are shocked by the siltation caused by the floods. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS

NAIROBI, Kenya - When Mandelena became a mother, she was only 16. During the prolonged dry season in Gwor County, South Sudan, her community saw crops failing and cattle dying. Children stopped going to school because of hunger and women and girls had to walk up to five hours every day to collect water.
When resources for families further dwindled as the drought prolonged, young girls were married off for a dowry as soon as they reached puberty. Mandelena’s situation was no different. Indirectly, the course of her life had been forever changed by the environmental crisis that crippled her country.

All hands on deck
While environmental changes affect everyone, due to existing gender inequalities, women often bear the bulk of the burden. In patriarchal societies, cultural, legal and political restrictions often undermine women’s adaptability and resilience to climate change.
When cyclones and floods, droughts and extreme heat rip through the social fabric, communities need all hands on deck to deal with the repercussions. Lack of access to land and financial credit make it especially hard for women to bounce back from the onslaught.
When the effects of climate change don’t present themselves as emergencies that grab our attention on the evening news, but rather as slow-onset changes in landscapes and livelihoods, the most severe social consequences are for women and girls first.
• Being in charge of domestic fuel and water provision, women and girls have to walk farther to find these threatened resources. More and more unpaid hours are spent, which could otherwise have been spent on remunerative tasks or in school.
• Every year, indoor air pollution kills 4.3 million people, most of them women and children, because three billion people rely on inefficient cooking technology, such as wood, charcoal or animal waste.
The struggles of women and girls are only part of the picture, as gender equality concerns both men and women. In Mandelena’s community in South Sudan, cattle raiding is common and intimately linked with men’s needs to pay a good dowry for a young bride. This practice is upheld even as resources are becoming scarcer.
The result is a culture of violence, including sexual violence, to the backdrop of climate change and environmental degradation, which intensifies hunger, reduces water availability and kills cattle.

Holistic approach to a sustainable world
More than ever, the world is realizing that the sustainable development goals we set for ourselves aren’t standalone targets but rather a holistic approach to a more inclusive world. We need to recognize the key role women play in taking care of our communities, as they bear the brunt of environmental changes.
When we empower women – by supporting equal access to land, agricultural extension services, financial inclusion and education – we give them the tools to become true custodians of our biodiversity.
Some of the world’s most passionate environmentalists have shown the world that women could be powerful guardians of our planet and agents of change. We can capitalize on their knowledge and experiences.
As we increasingly become aware of the existential climate risks and repercussions of environmental degradation, governments and the private sector are pledging to take action in order to ensure a livable future for all, it is time to consider the role that women are already playing in the sustainable future of our world.
Who will lead our green revolution? Who will take the green jobs? And where will the science and innovations that facilitate our sustainable future come from?
If we want to make a real difference in our future, we have to empower every woman and man to be custodians of our earth. Because the legacy of our environment is the legacy of Mandelena’s daughters as much as her sons.

*Victor Tsang is UN Environment gender expert
*Shari Nijman, UN Environment communication officer

Links

• Press for Progress: Women’s Equality & Political Participation
• Promoting Green Growth to Meet Global Aspirations for Gender Equality
• Everyone Stands to Gain When More Women take Top Positions in Businesses
• #MeToo in the Global Workplace: Time to Connect the Dots
• Fear and Uncertainty Grip Rohingya Women in India
• In Latin America “Me Too” Doesn’t Always Mean the Same Thing
• DRC: A Crisis the World Can No Longer Afford to Ignore
• Rural Women Are Essential to the Struggle Against Hunger
• The Silent Victims of Domestic Violence in Georgia
• Rise of Feminism & the Renewed Battle for Women’s Rights
• A Long Way Still to Achieving Gender Equality: International Women’s Day

Revealed: The Extent Of Job-Swapping Between Public Servants And Fossil Fuel Lobbyists

The Conversation - Adam Lucas

A building full of revolving doors? Ben McCarthy/Wikimedia Commons

Last month Australia slipped further down the rankings in the international corruption index. Among a wide range of factors cited by Transparency International was Australia’s “inappropriate industry lobbying in large-scale projects such as mining”, as well as “revolving doors and a culture of mateship”.
As several high-profile cases have recently revealed, the close ties that continue to exist between senior politicians, former political staffers, and the big end of town have had a real and lasting impact on the perception of political transparency in Australia.
Two examples from 2016 and 2017 clearly illustrate the extent to which such relationships can have a toxic effect on democracy.
During last year’s Queensland election campaign, the ABC revealed that Cameron Milner, former Queensland secretary of the ALP and chief of staff to federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, had been the main lobbyist and go-between for Indian mining giant Adani.
Earlier in the year, it was reported that former federal trade minister Andrew Robb walked straight out of his ministerial position in July 2016 to take up a lucrative position as a “high-level consultant” for Chinese-owned company Landbridge. This was the same firm that Robb had publicly defended when it controversially acquired a 99-year lease for the Port of Darwin in 2015.
The cases of Milner and Robb not only suggest that such influence-peddling is politically bipartisan in nature, but that it can happen both during and after the relevant parties have left their positions in the public sector.

Revolving door or golden escalator?
Much has been made in recent weeks of the provisions contained in the federal parliamentary code of conduct. Among other things, the code bans former ministers from lobbying the federal government for 18 months after leaving office. But given the fact that no current or former minister has been deemed to be non-compliant (including Robb), one could be forgiven for concluding that the code is simply a cover for business as usual.
Several prominent public figures and NGOs, including The Australia Institute and urban planner Julie Walton, have argued that the mining, energy, property and gaming industries enjoy favourable treatment in exchange for their generous political donations, or at least are perceived to. There’s also widespread public acceptance that the resources industry was instrumental in removing Kevin Rudd from the prime ministership in 2010.
What is less well known is the extent to which big business has sought to bend the will of the body politic by directly influencing the formation of government policy.
This is not just done through lobbying. All of these industries have been proactive in courting individuals who hold public office in relevant portfolios as potential allies and future employees. Some are employed as lobbyists, some as advisors, some as consultants, and others as board members and company directors. This allows these industries to shape tax and regulatory regimes in their favour, and to drive major government and private sector investments in their own infrastructure.
The phenomenon we seek to highlight has previously been referred to as the “revolving door” between the political and corporate realms. But although there is ample evidence for these kinds of arrangements, on closer inspection they look more like a golden escalator. The financial rewards on offer in the private sector can dwarf anything received by senior politicians and public servants while in office.
For evidence of this dynamic, we need only to look to former resource ministers Martin Ferguson and Ian Macfarlane. Ferguson took up a position as a non-executive director of British Gas just weeks after leaving federal politics in September 2013, having already become chair of an advisory board for Australia’s oil and gas peak body, APPEA in October. Macfarlane, meanwhile, was appointed chief executive of the Queensland Resources Council only four months after leaving federal politics.

Current and past resource industry employment of former staffers of Ian Macfarlane (Federal Minister for Resources and Energy, Sep 2013 - Sep 2015), Martin Ferguson (Federal Minister for Resources and Energy, Nov 2007 - Mar 2013) and Campbell Newman (Queensland Premier, Mar 2012 - Feb 2015) over the past decade, and employment for Macfarlane and Ferguson since leaving office. Corporate entities are shown in purple, staffers in green, and politicians in orange. LARGE IMAGE

The ‘service elevator’
There is another strategy that has also been used to great effect by the fossil fuel and mining industries in recent years. It is also used by powerful corporations in other economic sectors such as agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, gaming, and construction.
The industries in question either hire former ministerial staffers and policy analysts with relevant knowledge and expertise to advise them, or they encourage their own former staffers to take on positions as government advisers while maintaining close links with them. When acting as staffers, these individuals are free to operate outside of public scrutiny and regulatory reach. This allows them to move seamlessly between the offices of powerful political figures and some of Australia’s largest resource companies and industry bodies.
We have compiled a database of more than 180 individuals who have moved between positions in the fossil fuel and/or mining industries and senior positions in government, or vice versa, over the past decade. This includes senior political staffers working for prime ministers and state premiers. We have also found examples of key ministers hiring individuals straight from the fossil fuel and mining industries, who then return to those industries straight after leaving government. This revolving door might be better dubbed a “service elevator”, ensuring that “delivery of the goods” happens away from public scrutiny.

Organisations highlighted in red have the most former public sector employees in their company. Mai Lam/The Conversation NY-BD-CC, CC BY-ND
LARGE IMAGE

Questions of influence
Australian governments clearly need to enact laws at the state and federal levels to prevent these kinds of activities.
We know that such legislation is not without precedent, and is therefore politically feasible. For example, in Ireland, the cooling-off period was recently set at one year, whereas in Canada it is two years and in the United States, five years.
But it is not just the rules around political lobbying that require reform. Many other areas of political activity are also in dire need of attention, including much stronger disclosure laws in relation to campaign financing and political party donations, and a significant increase in public funding for political parties, apportioned on the basis of electoral support.
Most significant, however, is the need for a federal anti-corruption body with independent investigative powers. While there has been resistance from the major political parties to the creation of a federal anti-corruption watchdog, it would appear that the tide is turning. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull recently countenanced such a move, as did Bill Shorten.
If our political leaders are not prepared to provide more transparency and accountability with respect to government decision-making, then we can only assume the resource extraction industries will continue to call the shots on Australia’s transport and energy policies.
Our collective failure to deal with these issues will ensure that the increasingly dire predictions about planetary boundaries being breached over the next few decades will indeed be realised.

Links

• Why businesses want the ear of government and are willing to pay for it
• Australia's lobbying laws are inadequate, but other countries are getting it right
• Corruption Perceptions Index 2017
• Codes of conduct in Australian and selected overseas parliaments
• The growing case for a federal anti-corruption agency
• Planetary boundaries
• How Corruption Affects Climate Change

Arctic Transformed Into Alien Landscape In Surreal Climate Change Photo

Inverse Science - Yasmin Tayag

The "browning" process has dramatically transformed the terrain.



Gone are the days when we could count on the Arctic landscape to be painted in shades of white. The permafrost beneath the snow and ice is no longer permanently frosty, and as it melts, write researchers in a new study, it’s muddying up the once-pristine terrain — quite literally. In a startling photo accompanying the study, an array of Arctic and sub-Arctic lakes seem to spew filth from within, making the landscape look like the surface of an alien world.
The paper, published in Limnology and Oceanography Letters on Friday, describes the visible effects the thawing permafrost has on the surface of the neighboring terrain, many feet above it. As climate change warms the Earth and coaxes the permafrost out of its continually frozen state, a process called “browning” occurs, the researchers write. During this process, organic carbon once trapped deep in the permafrost seeps upward into the region’s lakes and ponds, suffusing them with a filthy brown hue. Meanwhile, the way the permafrost cracks the landscape above it creates fissures that divide the surface into eerie polygonal shapes.
In the image below, supplied in a release by Quebec, Canada’s INRS (*Institut national de la recherche scientifique), the muddiness of the browning lakes sharply contrasts with the clear blue of the larger body of water alongside them, though even it too shows sinister brown tendrils curling up along its edges.
Here’s an aerial photo of Bylot Island, which lies off the northern side of Baffin Island in the Nunavut territory of Canada, southwest of Greenland:

Carbon seeping up from the thawing permafrost turns lakes and ponds brown.

Browning doesn’t just make the collection of lakes look like the sickly cells of an alien organism’s skin. The biggest downside of all that organic carbon seeping to the surface, INRS biologist Isabelle Laurion, Ph.D. and her co-authors write, is that this carbon is really good at absorbing sunlight, which drives up the temperature — and thus the rate of permafrost melt — even faster.
Laurion and colleagues determined this by analyzing the different types of dissolved organic matter in 253 ponds around the North Pole, which showed them that the waters affected by thawing permafrost contained much more terrestrial carbon and less algae (a key element to the food chain in these waters). “Our results demonstrate a strong terrestrial imprint on freshwater ecosystems in degrading ice-rich permafrost catchments, and the likely shift toward increasing dominance of land-derived organic carbon in waters with ongoing permafrost thaw,” they write.
In a paper published in Scientific Reports in 2015, researchers outlined the ecological effects of browning. In the lake they studied, over the course of 27 years, surface water temperatures increased by 2–3 degrees Celcius, the lakes became five times more transparent to UV light, and levels of zooplankton (near the bottom of the food chain) decreased.

Polygonal lakes created by melting permafrost on Alaska's North Slope. INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE, NASA/JPL-Caltech

But perhaps the worst effect of browning is that it creates conditions even more conducive to releasing even more carbon into the air — particularly in the form of the greenhouse gas methane — which will in turn speed up the climate change process by which the permafrost melts in the first place.
“Land-derived organic carbon is having a growing influence on Arctic and subarctic ponds, which carries over into the food web,” the authors said in a statement. “The browning of these systems leads to oxygen depletion and cooler water at the bottom of the ponds, which can have a major impact on the microbial activity responsible for the production and consumption of greenhouse gases, particularly the production of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.”
 
Links

• Scientists Estimate Permafrost Carbon Loop for First Time
• Thawing permafrost causing the 'browning' of northern lakes
• Increasing dominance of terrigenous organic matter in circumpolar freshwaters due to permafrost thaw
• Ecological consequences of long-term browning in lakes
• Arctic Warming: Scientists Alarmed By 'Crazy' Temperature Rises
• Alaska's Bering Sea Lost A Third Of Its Ice In Just 8 Days
• Arctic Climate Change Being Felt Farther South, Scientists Say
• Arctic Sea Ice Outlook At Worst Point In 125,000 Years
• Sea Level Warning As Greenland Darkens
• Why a Warming Arctic May Be Causing Colder U.S. Winters
• Arctic Stronghold Of World’s Seeds Flooded After Permafrost Melts
• More Than 90 Scientists Release Report That Arctic Is ‘Unravelling’
• Arctic Ice In Retreat
• Human-Caused Climate Change Causes Unprecedented Arctic Heatwave, Scientists Say
• 'The Arctic Is Unraveling,' Scientists Conclude After Latest Sobering Climate Report

Federal Government To Lend Money To Adani Business Associates

Fairfax - Nicole Hasham

An obscure government agency plans to indirectly support Adani’s controversial mega-coal mine by financing a business that will supply the project, it has emerged.
The Export Finance and Insurance Corporation, which provides loans to exporters, is also considering inquiries from other Adani suppliers, and held discussions with Adani representatives as recently as last month.

The Adani Carmichael project has encountered strong public opposition. Photo: AAP

The revelations raise questions over whether the government is using back-door routes to prop up the Adani project, and will fuel debate over public funding for mining projects in Australia.
EFIC did not respond to Fairfax Media’s questions over what firms would receive or had applied for funding, the level of funding provided or the implications for the loans if the mine did not proceed.
The $16.5 billion project planned by the Indian mining giant would be Australia’s largest coal mine and would open coal reserves in Queensland’s Galilee Basin to further development.
But the proposal has struggled to secure private sector backing. Adani’s bid for a concessional loan of around $900 million under the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund to build a rail line servicing the mine, was also vetoed by the Queensland government, leaving the company to “look at other funding options”.

Labor leader Bill Shorten is under pressure to reveal what his party's policy is on the Adani coal mine, with the government saying he's playing both sides.

At a Senate estimates hearing late on Thursday night, Export Finance and Insurance Corporation general counsel John Hopkins confirmed the agency was supporting businesses supplying the Indian mining giant.
“We have helped support some SMEs [small to medium enterprises] who’ve been involved in the supply chain to Adani, so not directly to Adani itself but small [enterprises] who may have provided services to that entity,” he said.

Adani's application for a public loan to fund a rail line from the mine to its Abbot Point coal terminal was thwarted by the Queensland Labor government. Photo: Glenn Hunt

Asked by Labor senator Alex Gallacher to give an example of a business that might receive support, Mr Hopkins cited “a small SME providing mining services as a subcontractor to that project, and potentially a subcontractor to a subcontractor”.
“They would come to us seeking funds, they would show us that they have a contract to supply certain goods and services, they need working capital or they need a loan to help them provide those services and given that the end result would [mean] an export for Australia we are able to fund them,” he said.
One company supplying the Carmichael project is expected to receive funding, and several other Adani suppliers have made inquiries.
The corporation was founded with taxpayer money but is now self-funded. The government can direct EFIC to lend money if it is in the “national interest” and must reimburse the corporation for any losses. The organisation's national interest loan facility recently received a $3.8 billion funding boost for defence exports and it is unclear what funds would be available for Adani should it make an application.
Also at the estimates hearing, EFIC chief executive Swati Dave confirmed it had “fielded some inquiries from Adani representatives” in mid-February, when “two or three people from each side had a chat”.
Ms Dave did not detail the conversation, but said it broadly covered “what our function is”. Adani had not applied for finance, she said. Adani confirmed on Monday it did not intend to apply.

Adani opponents say the mine will add to global warming and worsen coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef. Photo: Gary Cranitch

In September last year Trade Minister Steve Ciobo instructed EFIC to start supporting onshore resource projects.
Tom Swann, researcher at progressive think-tank the Australia Institute, said providing financial help to Adani suppliers was “another way for the federal government to support the [Carmichael] project.” He called on Mr Ciobo to rule out government support for the mine, saying the world was promising action on climate change and the "last thing we should be doing is subsidising the world’s biggest new export thermal coal mine".
Mr Ciobo said EFIC “has not been asked to finance the Adani Carmichael coal project” but Adani was entitled to seek funding.
The agency’s commercial account provides finance up to about $150 million, and lending decisions are at EFIC’s discretion. Under its national interest account, finance is uncapped.
Federal Labor says it will only support the Carmichael mine if it stacks up financially. In February, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten reportedly told a Townsville crowd: "If they want to use EFIC or any other form of government funding body to get the money - no, no, no".

Links

• Shorten Says Talk About Adani Mine 'Dumbing Down Climate Debate'
• Bill Shorten Says There's A 'Role For Coal' And Adani Mine Just 'Another Project'
• Could A Future Labor Government Really Stop The Adani Mine?
• Labor Pushes For Federal Investigation Into Adani
• Adani Coalmine Won't Get Federal Rail Funding, Liberal Minister Says
• Big Surge In Opposition To Adani, New Polling Reveals
• Shorten Hails Cheap Wind And Solar, But Will He Stop Adani?
• Adani Parts Ways With Mining Services Company Downer Over Proposed Carmichael Mine
• Qld Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk Seeks To Veto Adani Loan
• Another Blow For Adani As Chinese Backers Pull Out
• NSW Coal Mines In The Pipeline Are 'Bigger Than Adani', Lock The Gate Says
• Queensland Election: How Adani Helped Undo The LNP's Push To Regain Power

While Politicians Question The Reality Of Climate Change, Farmers And Businesses Act

ABC Four Corners - Michael Brissenden

David Bruer has been growing vines and making wine at his Temple Bruer vineyard in the Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia since 1978. (Four Corners)

Four Corners: Weather Alert Program and Transcript

David Bruer has been growing vines and making wine at his Temple Bruer vineyard in the Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia since 1978.

In his vineyard laboratory, weather records for every vintage for nearly 40 years are stacked in plastic folders.

David Bruer says they've brought their harvest forward by a month. (Four Corners)

They clearly show a steady increase in maximum temperatures over that time of about 1 degree. It might seem like a relatively small change but the impact has been dramatic.
Harvested fruit is turning up hotter. The sugar levels are higher and the vintage now has to be picked earlier.
"Thirty-four years ago we used to pick in the middle of March," he said.
"We're now picking in the middle of February."

Graziers, fruit growers on the front line of change
The world is getting warmer and from the farm gate to the boardroom Australian businesses are no longer waiting for the politicians to decide if climate change is real. They're acting now.
In fact wine — one of our most celebrated crops — happens to be one of the most sensitive to environmental changes.
Last year was the third hottest year ever recorded in Australia and this year, NASA announced the five hottest years on earth on record had occurred since 2010.
It's a conclusion drawn from painstaking, technically advanced research, but increasingly Australian farmers are watching their own simpler weather charts with growing concern.
Many are now too busy adapting to this new climate reality to wait for our political leadership to deliver effective policy responses.
Over the past few months, Four Corners has travelled across the country to gauge how Australians are adapting. Graziers, fruit growers and winemakers are among those feeling the impact.

Brown Brothers were climate sceptics, once

Brown Brothers moves part of its operation to Tasmania (ABC News)

About 800 kilometres to the east of Temple Bruer, Ross Brown from Brown Brothers Wines has an even longer weather record on file.
His family has been making wine in Milawa, Victoria, for almost 130 years.
Mr Brown says he used to be a climate change sceptic but his vintage charts are indicating things have changed.
In Milawa, Brown Brothers is also picking earlier and their records show temperatures are rising.
Some of the cool climate varieties his family always used to grow here — like pinot noir and sparkling whites — have now become too unreliable so the company has moved some of its operation to cooler country in Tasmania.
"We decided that we would do our planning in future on a two-degrees increase in our vineyard temperatures and that we would have less water available," Mr Brown said.
"Making a strategic decision has really changed the way we look at our vineyards."
But if average temperature rises go beyond two degrees then, he says, the options run out.
"We don't know where to go after Tasmania," he said.
Brown Brothers is a big operation. Their winemaking is on an industrial scale and the decision to adapt to the changing weather was driven by the company's board.

Corporate Australia has been warned
It's a shift being seen in boardrooms around the country. Corporate Australia has been warned. The changing climate is something they can no longer ignore.
Last November, Geoff Summerhayes, an executive member of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), told businesses climate change posed a material risk to the entire financial system.
His message was that boards and directors had a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to take it into account. He cited legal opinion that found company directors who failed to consider and disclose climate risk could be in breach of the Corporations Act.
"Climate change and society's responses to it are starting to affect the global economy," he said.

"Institutions that fail to adequately plan for this transition put their own futures in jeopardy, with subsequent consequences for their account holders, members or policy holders."

That's a view that's now been backed by Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe.
On February 16, he told a sitting of the Federal Parliament's economics committee that the Council of Financial Regulators - a body he chairs - had established a working group to look at issues about disclosure.
The RBA confirmed it believed investors needed to be given more information on climate risk.
It might seem a small move but it's seen as highly significant in the corporate world.
Former treasury economist Sam Hurley is a specialist in corporate climate risk. He says the moves by the regulators send a powerful message.
"The RBA and APRA, they're big institutions. They don't take steps lightly. They're not talking about climate on a whim," he said.
"They've studied the evidence, they've looked at what their counterparts are doing internationally, and they've looked at the trends and risks in Australia, and they've decided that now's the time to raise the bar."
For Australian business, business as usual is no longer an option.

Links

• Farmers For Climate Action
• Climate change - issues for farmers
• Australian farmers are adapting to climate change
• Climate change and agriculture
• Australia's Farmers Challenged by Climate Change