2020 Review: Earth Looked Like Hell From Space This Year

Gizmodo -Brian Kahn

Smoke drifts thousands of miles off Australia’s coast in early January. Image NOAA/CIRA

Year In Review On their own, each of the numerous weather calamities that befell the world in 2020 would be a crisis. But hurricane, floods, and wildfires intersected with the pandemic in ways that tested emergency response systems in ways they haven’t before. Piling the climate crisis on top of a public health crisis not only put evacuees in danger of contracting covid-19 while simultaneously losing everything they owned, it also strained disaster response resources and almost certainly contributed to ongoing disaster fatigue already plaguing first responders. This year will leave indelible scars on the landscape for years or even decades to come. The impacts will linger even longer in the atmosphere, where carbon dioxide released from fires will stay for a century or more. To be sure, the human toll of the weather disasters that befell us this year is very real, but the best way to truly grasp the monumental scope of what’s happening to the planet is from space. As we prepare to bid good riddance to 2020, these are the moments that stood out for the damage they’ve done to society and the biosphere.

From January to December, the story of 2020 is one of fire.

We rung in the New Year with Australia ablaze amid a record-setting fire season.

The satellite image above shows smoke streaming off the continent thousands of miles out to sea. At one point, it encircled the entire Southern Hemisphere.

The list of maladies tied to the fires and smoke is long.

They include more than 3 billion animals dead, an area as large as Washington state burned, smoke-stained snow in New Zealand, the most toxic air on Earth in Sydney, a $1.5-billion medical bill, and double the annual average of Australia’s carbon pollution pumped into the atmosphere.

About the only positive—if you can even call it that—to come of the bushfire was a whole new style of fundraising to help those in need tailor-made for the digital age.

Scientists have suggested Australia’s previous climate is no more as the continent rapidly warms, and the bushfire season from hell was a flammable showcase of what the future holds.

On their own, each of the numerous weather calamities that befell the world in 2020 would be a crisis.

But hurricane, floods, and wildfires intersected with the pandemic in ways that tested emergency response systems in ways they haven’t before.

Piling the climate crisis on top of a public health crisis not only put evacuees in danger of contracting covid-19 while simultaneously losing everything they owned, it also strained disaster response resources and almost certainly contributed to ongoing disaster fatigue already plaguing first responders.

Pyrocumulus cloud forming over the August Complex Fire in California on Sept. 9. Image: Pierre Markuse/Flickr

This year will leave indelible scars on the landscape for years or even decades to come. The impacts will linger even longer in the atmosphere, where carbon dioxide released from fires will stay for a century or more.

To be sure, the human toll of the weather disasters that befell us this year is very real, but the best way to truly grasp the monumental scope of what’s happening to the planet is from space. As we prepare to bid good riddance to 2020, these are the moments that stood out for the damage they’ve done to society and the biosphere.

IMAGES
Earth Looked Like Hell From Space This Year	Australia Firestorm
Siberia and the Arctic Burn, Too	West Coast Wildfires
Too Many Hurricanes	A Derecho Crushes the Midwest
Big ‘berg	Big Snow

Links

• (AU) Heat Is The 'Silent Killer' Of Australia's Bushfire Season And Experts Say Climate Change Is The Root Cause
• Climate Change: 2020 Set To Be One Of The Three Warmest Years On Record
• Born In The Ice Age, Humankind Now Faces The Age Of Fire – And Australia Is On The Frontline
• (AU) Australia Endures Hottest Spring Ever, With Temperatures More Than 2C Above Average
• Gizmodo Year In Review
• (AU) 2020 Climate Year in Review - Legal Insights
• Lethal Heating Bushfire Posts

(AU) 2020 Climate Year in Review: Legal Insights

Maddocks - Michael Winram | Samantha Murphy


Bushfires

2020 was a year of extreme weather events, with many people bringing in the New Year under a blanket of smoke caused by the devastating bushfires burning across the East Coast.

In New South Wales alone, the 2019-20 summer bushfire season impacted over 5 million hectares of land, including a third of the State’s national parks and State forests.

The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements, set up in response to the bushfires, heard significant evidence on the impacts of climate change, including the projected increase in climate-driven natural disasters. The Commission’s report recommended:

• the implementation of a National Disaster Risk Information Services Capability with integrated climate and disaster risk scenarios
• increased data sharing on climate risks between the Commonwealth and State and Territory Governments
• the production of national climate projections to inform future natural disaster risk assessment.
  
  

COVID-19 pandemic

The economic cost of the COVID-19 fallout has provided an uncomfortably real comparison of the projected impacts of climate change in a report published by Deloitte Access Economics titled A New Choice Australia’s Climate for Growth.

The report finds that by 2055, unchecked climate change will result in annual impacts on Australia’s economy equal to the impact of coronavirus on the 2020 economy. By 2070, this will have increased further, equating to $3.4 trillion and over 880,000 jobs being wiped from Australia’s economy in a single year.

Internationally, the 26^th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, emissions reductions in early 2020 resulting from coronavirus lockdowns were short-lived, with the World Meteorological Organisation’s United in Science 2020 report finding that by early June, daily emissions from the burning of fossil fuels had returned to around 5% below 2019 levels. It also reports a continued rise in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and that the last five years is shaping up to the be the warmest five-year period on record.

Back home, the Nation’s strong response to the COVID-19 pandemic set a new tone for the governance of other major risks, including climate change.

In becoming the last of Australia’s States and Territories to adopt a target of net zero emissions by 2050, the Northern Territory Minister for Climate Change highlighted how COVID-19 had demonstrated the importance of working together as a community, and with experts, to keep our communities safe and that the response to climate change should be no different.

Lastly, COVID-19 and the bushfires also featured in the Explanatory Memorandum to the Climate Change (National Framework for Adaption and Mitigation) Bill 2020 (Climate Change Bill), introduced by Independent MP, Zali Steggall. If passed, the Act would:

• set a Commonwealth target for net zero emissions by 2050, to be reached through five-yearly emissions budgets and emissions reduction plans
• establish an independent Climate Change Commission to provide advice, and monitor and report on progress under the Act
• require five-yearly national adaptation plans in response to climate change risks identified by the Commission.
  
  

Renewable energy

Renewable technologies featured in the economic recovery from COVID-19, with the Commonwealth Government announcing its Technology Investment Roadmap and First Low Emissions Technology Statement, to target government investments into new, low emissions technologies.

The environmental assessments of some renewable energy projects were also fast-tracked through the NSW Government’s Planning System Acceleration Program, including the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro expansion and the Western Sydney Green Gas Trial, which will trial the use of electrolysis to convert excess solar and wind power into hydrogen gas for storage.

These developments come amid good news from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) on the security of electricity supply in the National Electricity Market, while transitioning to a greater reliance on renewable energy.

In its Renewable Integration Study – Stage 1 Report, the AEMO concluded that in the next five years, the proportion of wind and solar energy operating in the National Electricity Market at any one time could increase to up to 50-60% of total generation, while maintaining system security. This percentage increases to up to 75% if the recommendations in the study are adopted.

The NSW’s Government’s Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap and Electricity Infrastructure Investment Act 2020 build further on this transition, with a focus on:

• investing in pumped hydro energy storage
• establishing new network infrastructure to support key ‘Renewable Energy Zones’
• monitoring forecasted electricity supply in NSW against long-term energy security targets.
  
  

Climate change litigation

The courts continued to provide an avenue for the public, and particularly young people, to challenge the scope of existing legal structures and raise awareness of the impacts of climate change.

►Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action Inc v Environment Protection Authority

The Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action commenced civil enforcement proceedings in the NSW Land and Environment Court alleging that the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) failed to perform its statutory duty to develop guidelines and policies to ensure the protection of the environment.

In an interim judgment handed down in November, the Court granted leave to the Applicant to adduce expert evidence on greenhouse gas emissions, climate change impacts and the adequacy of current EPA policies to address these.

According to the Applicant, this marks the first time an Australian court has ruled on whether climate evidence can be heard in a case alleging the Government's failure to perform their statutory duty.

►Sharma & Ors v Minister for the Environment

A group of school students, representing children from around Australia and globally, commenced a class action in the Federal Court seeking an injunction preventing the Commonwealth Government from approving an extension to the Vickery coal mine under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth).

The students argue that the Federal Minister for the Environment has a duty to exercise her powers under the Act with reasonable care so as to not cause harm to children and approving a project that will materially contribute to climate change is in breach of this duty.

The matter is set down for hearing in March 2021.

►Waratah Coal Pty Ltd v Youth Verdict Ltd & Ors

An objection to applications made by Waratah Coal for a mining lease and environmental authority for the proposed Galilee Coal Project is before the Queensland Land Court, based on the grounds that the grant of the applications would be incompatible with the objectors’ human rights, in violation of the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld).

In a judgment handed down in September, Waratah Coal failed to have the objection struck out for lack of jurisdiction, with the Court finding that it was required to comply with the relevant provision of the Act when carrying out its functions in assessing and providing a recommendation on the applications to the decision maker.

►Kathleen O’Donnell v Commonwealth of Australia & Ors

A 23-year-old law student, a holder of and investor in Exchange-traded Australian Government Bonds, has brought a class action against the Commonwealth Government in the Federal Court alleging that the Commonwealth engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct and breached its public duties in failing to disclose how climate change would impact on the value of those Bonds.

►Mark McVeigh v Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Ltd

REST superannuation fund settled Federal Court proceedings commenced by one of its members alleging that REST failed to adequately manage, and disclose to its members, climate change risk in its investments.

In announcing the settlement, REST acknowledged that “Climate change is a material, direct and current financial risk to the superannuation fund across many risk categories” and agreed “to continue to develop its management processes for dealing with the financial risks of climate change on behalf of its members”, including by reporting in line with the recommendations set by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.

The year ahead

The continuation of current government policies into 2021 will likely see a continued investment in renewable energies, while looking ahead in the medium term to mitigate the impacts of extreme weather events already being experienced in Australia.

Climate change litigation in Australia will also continue to see interesting developments around the peripheral areas of existing laws and the extent to which these can be used to impact on the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.

As the world emerges from COVID-19, public discourse may shift back to climate change, with a renewed focus on mitigating future economic disasters.

However, these aspirations are likely to be constrained by current economic realities, with many industries still struggling to get back on their feet.

The Climate Change Bill provides a timely opportunity to establish a framework for policy development to plan for emissions reductions and climate change adaptation, without any immediate cost to the economy.

While it is currently unknown whether the Bill will garner the necessary support in Parliament, 2020 has been a year of surprises, and has taught us that, when it comes to keeping our communities safe, all options are on the table.

Links

• (AU) 'Kick Them Into Action': Fire Group Takes EPA To Court Over Climate
• Class action to stop planned coal mine extension filed by climate action-focused Australian teenagers
• (AU) Youth Activists Challenge Clive Palmer's Waratah Coal Mine Saying It Impacts Their Human Rights 
• Law student sues Australia over climate risk in government bonds
• (AU) Rest Super Fund Commits To Net-Zero Emission Investments After Brisbane Man Sues 
• Climate Change Litigation Databases
• 2020 Review: Earth Looked Like Hell From Space This Year
• Lethal Heating Legal Posts

A Year (Like No Other) In Review: A Snapshot Of The World Bank Group’s Climate Work In 2020

World Bank

Photos: World Bank Group

2020 dramatically raised the stakes for climate action.

Climate impacts did not stop and the impacts on human wellbeing were increasingly visible.

Despite a brief dip in emissions because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of this drop will be negligible on limiting dangerous climate change unless countries prioritize green recoveries.

A greener, safer, and more inclusive recovery can not only help countries meet short term needs – jobs, economic growth – but also help them with other vital objectives, including decarbonization and resilience.

Even with COVID-19 lending, the World Bank Group surpassed its climate finance target for FY20, allocating nearly $21.4 billion to climate-related investments.

Here is a snapshot of 10 efforts the Bank Group advanced in climate action in this unprecedented year.

1. Setting an Ambitious 35% Finance Target to Support Countries’ Climate Action.

The Bank Group announced an ambitious target for 35% of its financing to have climate co-benefits, on average, over the next five years. It replaces an earlier target of reaching 28% by 2020, which was in place over the last 5 years. The World Bank – IBRD and IDA – will also seek to ensure that 50% of this financing supports adaptation and resilience.

2. Reflecting on the Bank Group’s First Climate Change Action Plan.

2020 marked the end of the Bank Group’s First 5-year Climate Change Action Plan. In total, over the duration of the Action Plan, the Bank Group has delivered over $83 billion in climate finance. 

Early lessons were also drawn from the experience of the past 5 years that are fundamental to our ongoing efforts to help clients address climate change while also helping countries recover sustainably from the pandemic.

Key among this is that climate change considerations are integrated across the majority of Bank Group transactions, technical assistance and, importantly, investments, including in sectors, such as health and governance, that until recently had not prioritized climate actions.

3. Drafting a Sustainability Checklist to Help Policymakers Shape a Green Recovery.

The choices that governments make to restart their economic engine, including the long-term social, economic, and environmental co-benefits they seek to achieve through their stimulus investments, will be extraordinarily consequential in ensuring that they can build back stronger and better.

We also suggested that NDCs, national development strategies, and master plans or national adaptation plans deserve considerable attention in stimulus discussions. They often provide a window into the government’s vision for areas of future economic growth and technology transformation, both of which have clear linkages with job creation.

4. Planning How the Bank Can Support Countries Meet Long-Term Goals of Decarbonization

How can the World Bank help countries plan for and achieve long-term decarbonization through country programs, technical assistance, lending, and knowledge products?

Doing so requires the Bank to not only look 3–5 years ahead, roughly equivalent to typical election cycles, but look decades ahead, and then work with our clients to determine the near- and mid-term implications. It means supporting the implementation of economy-wide strategies as well as cross-sectoral initiatives, and not only focusing on single-sector initiatives, such as individual energy or transportation projects.

Coinciding with a need for a major, global economic recovery – triggered by the pandemic – this ‘whole of economy' approach to deliver better growth and a better climate could provide the sustainable and resilient foundation for countries as they build – or rebuild – their economies.

5. Developing 6 Universal Principles to Help Policymakers Plan for Adaptation (along with 26 actions, 12 toolboxes and 111 indicators)

Effective action on resilience and climate change adaptation can be a complex task—requiring coordinated efforts from the highest levels of government to individual households and firms. 

The Adaptation Principles offered a guide to effective climate change adaptation, containing hands-on guidance to the design, implementation and monitoring of national adaptation strategies.

It laid out six guiding principles:

• Ensuring resilient foundations through rapid and inclusive development; 
• Facilitating the adaptation of firms and people; 
• Adapting land use and protecting critical public assets and services; 
• Increasing people’s capacity to cope with and recover from shocks; 
• Anticipating and managing macroeconomic and fiscal risks; and 
• Ensuring effective implementation through prioritization and continuous monitoring.

6. Unlocking over $450 million in Emission Reductions Payment Agreements

The World Bank – as trustee of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility – has now signed landmark Emission Reductions Payment Agreements with governments in eight countries; Chile, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Indonesia, Mozambique, Vietnam.

These will deliver over $450 million to governments, Indigenous Peoples, local communities and other stakeholders for efforts to lower carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation through 2025. 

The total portfolio of programs is expected to result in 160 million tons of emission reductions which is the equivalent of taking 34.5 million cars off the road for a year.

7. Taking our Flagship Innovate4Climate Platform Virtual

The Bank’s flagship event on climate change action launched I4C Webinars for Climate Innovation and Blog Series to facilitate knowledge exchange on the latest findings, best practices, and opportunities to accelerate climate action.

In total, the webinar series hosted 18 sessions with over 3500 participants, covering topics from the role of carbon pricing in a sustainable recovery, and long-term strategies to transformative climate finance and innovation on climate adaptation.

In partnership with think tanks and private sector organizations, the blog series published 15 blog posts discuss topics aligned with I4C’s four content pillars - finance, markets, policy, and technology.

8. Engaging with Young Changemakers Through Connect4Climate

Youth will disproportionally face the consequences of climate change and are demanding urgent global action. 

Their stories, ideas and proposals can help shape a green and inclusive recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. With this in mind, Connect4Climate ran #Youth4ClimateLive, a series of virtual events to bring together a diverse group of youth at the forefront of creative climate action for intergenerational and interactive conversations with policy makers and climate experts.

Hosted monthly, the series focused on a wide variety of topics such as ​driving a sustainable recovery, nature-based solutions, and protecting the most vulnerable, with the goal of providing the global youth community with a space to exchange their views and solutions and help drive climate ambition in the lead-up to Pre-COP26 and COP26.

9. Identifying Seven Lessons from the Climate Investment Funds’ for How Climate Finance Can Support COVID-19 Recoveries

The CIFs have an extensive track record in delivering transformative climate finance which it brings to supporting countries as they limit the health, economic, and social damages wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over one million people have lost their lives. Businesses are struggling to survive the global recession that has ensued, and people are losing jobs and livelihoods, leading to increased hunger and poverty. The CIFs extensive implementation experience across a range of sectors offers important lessons for how climate-related investments can support COVID-19 recoveries.

Building on this track record and lessons learned the CIFs has positioned itself at the frontier of climate action through the development of new investment programs in the areas of integration of renewable energy into power systems, including energy storage, accelerating the coal transition, climate-smart urbanization, natural capital, and decarbonized industry.

These will play a key role in supporting developing countries in ensuring a green and resilient recovery.

10. Mainstreaming Climate in the Private Sector in Emerging Markets

In fiscal year 2020, the IFC committed $3.3 billion dollars for its own account for climate related projects - almost a third of its total investments. 

IFC also mobilized $3.5 billion from other investors. IFC also helped develop and strengthen climate finance standards, for example by leading the Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Heads group to promote greater consistency in climate reporting.

Other notable accomplishments include:

• Uzbekistan became the first country outside of Africa to join the Scaling Solar program, aiming to build a 100-megawatt utility scale solar plant and generate one of the lowest energy tariffs in the region;
• IFC worked to accelerate the adoption of sustainable public transport solutions – including electric buses and tramways - in cities such as Cali, Colombia; Lviv, Ukraine; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Casablanca, Morocco;
• By year end, IFC’s internationally-recognized green building certification system, EDGE, had certified over 16 million square meters of floor area around the globe; and
• IFC anchored green bond issuances in new markets, including investing $200 million in the Standard Bank of South Africa Limited's green bond, the largest of its kind in Africa, with the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3.7 million tons over a five-year period.

This comes on top of IFC’s own green bond issuance program which marked this year its tenth anniversary, reaching more than $10.4 billion.

Links

• World Bank - Climate Change
• World Bank Climate on Twitter
• Sustainable Development Series - Building a Balanced Future
• Adaptation Principles : A Guide for Designing Strategies for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience
• Webinars For Climate Innovation Series
• Innovate4Climate Blog Series
• Youth4climate Live Series
• 2020 Review: Earth Looked Like Hell From Space This Year
• (AU) 2020 Climate Year in Review: Legal Insights

(AU) Climate Of Change Puts Business And Coalition At Odds

Sydney Morning Herald -  Nick O'Malley | Mike Foley

The energy analyst Tim Buckley keeps a working folder on his computer in which he tracks announcements made by major financial institutions that are no longer insuring, lending to, or investing in, companies that are heavily engaged in coal.

In 2018 Buckley, who works for the pro-renewables Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, noted 31 major outfits abandoned coal.

In 2019 the list was a third larger again, with 46 major outfits dumping coal.

This year Buckley noted 68 exclusions and calculated that the number of announcements per week had more than doubled from 0.6 to 1.4.

The community has increasingly come to view a “net-zero” future as “the only safe future” and companies and investors are now responding to that. Credit: Glenn Hunt

The trickle had become a steady flow by mid-year and by year’s end a flood, says Buckley, with governments themselves following the path away from fossil-fuel heavy investments trodden first by investors.

Last Friday, Boris Johnson, who is busy making common ground with US President-elect Joe Biden over climate, announced Britain would not support any new international projects in oil, natural gas or thermal coal - which is burned to generate electricity.

At the global Climate Ambition Summit hosted by Britain, France and the United Nations the following day (from which Australia was excluded from speaking) Pakistan announced it would build no new coal power plants.

Energy analyst Tim Buckley has charted the number of financial institutions who no longer back companies involved in the coal industry.

On Monday another of South Korea’s top four banks, Woori, announced it would cease lending to coal interests and begin to “retrieve” capital already invested in coal as loans expired or came up for renewal.

Also on Monday Canada’s Scotiabank became the fifth and last major bank in that country to announce it would no longer fund drilling in the Arctic, prompting Buckley to note that coal exclusion is increasingly extending to other fossil fuels.

“They used to carve off coal and throw it under the bus,” he says of the institutions. “It’s more common now to see oil and gas get chucked under too.″⁣

Anna Skarbek is a former investment banker who is now executive director of the non-profit climate change advisory ClimateWorks Australia.

Skarbek says she has detected a shift in culture and perspective from Australian boardrooms this year.

Where once the Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance issues (ESG refers to how companies or investors measure the social and sustainability impact of investments) may once have been seen as fringe, they are now viewed as critical.

Skarbek says that either in conjunction with the response to the pandemic or in parallel, society has made it clear to business leaders that it draws certain lines and demands certain behaviours. Business leaders, she says, have heard.

ClimateWorks chief Anna Skarbek appearing at the Financial Review Energy and Climate Summit last month. Credit: Louie Douvis

According to Skarbek, corporate Australia was shocked by the Juukan Gorge incident in Western Australia, in which Rio Tinto proved incapable of measuring the monetary value of a sacred site and destroyed it for profit.

An act like that would now be unthinkable, she says. Similarly the community has increasingly come to view a “net-zero” future as “the only safe future” and companies and investors are now responding to that.

But the shift in corporate attitudes has not been reflected in federal government circles. Australia remains the only developed nation not to have committed to a mid-century net-zero emissions target, and some cabinet members are determined to push back against capital flight from fossil fuels.

This week in federal parliament an inquiry was launched to question banks and insurers over their plans to reduce support for new mines and coal-fired power plants due to global warming.

The inquiry will be led by climate change sceptic and Nationals MP George Christensen, who chairs the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth.

Resources Minister Keith Pitt backed the inquiry, arguing strong demand for international coal would continue and criticising the situation which had emerged where mining-related businesses like ports, engineering and mechanical can’t get “indemnity insurance because you might work in a coal mine for part of your work”.

However, chief executive of the Investor Group on Climate Change Emma Herd says it’s unlikely the government can reverse the trend of financial institutions phasing out support for high-emissions industries and climate-sensitive industries.

“The global financial sector’s appetite for both high-emitting and climate-sensitive industries is moving fast and it will impact those companies’ ability to access capital,” Herd says.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison with Resources Minister Keith Pitt in June. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“COVID-19 has accelerated the movement. Economic disruption has meant the finance sector, which previously took an incremental approach, is taking big steps out of industries with climate risks, because cheap monetary settings have created the opportunity to move quickly into new industries.”

Financial support for coal in particular has become a flashpoint in Canberra in recent months, particularly after ANZ’s October climate policy announcement.

It is directing its 100 biggest emitting customers in energy, transport, building, food and agriculture to work with it to develop a plan to “establish or strengthen low carbon transition plans”.

The National Party came out swinging. Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said “banks are not, and should not try to become, society’s moral compass” and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said a bank forcing industry to report their emissions was “sheer virtue signalling”.

Climate policy and the coal industry have become a proxy test for McCormack. Some in the party who are agitating for leadership change appear to set an impossible task to build new coal power plants and drop support for renewables.

Senator Matt Canavan and New England MP Barnaby Joyce promoted government support for coal when they toured the Hunter Valley in November. They also criticised the NSW government’s energy road map to dramatically boost renewable energy generation ahead of the planned rolling closures of coal plants starting with the Liddell power station.

But financial regulators have recognised companies need to get serious about climate risk to their investments.

In November Australia’s finance sector, including big insurance companies, major banks, and superannuation funds, endorsed a policy to deal with climate change and other sustainability issues.

Finance regulators the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority have endorsed the road map.

Herd says the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative (ASFI) road map showed the sector was “going to push hard into more sustainable industries”.

“ASFI is all about how to do the knitting of the finance sector. If the government says to the finance sector ‘stick to your knitting on climate change’, ASFI is the sector’s way of saying this is our knitting.”

Jacki Johnson, co-chair of AFSI says the road map was “seeking to re-orient capital – where capital is lent, what it insures and where it is invested”.

Outgoing executive board member at the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority Geoff Summerhayes said last month Australia’s financial system was already responding to threats from climate change.

“Financial regulators recognise the material risk presented by climate change for the finance sector, and are acting to support the industry as it addresses these risks and also the opportunities where they occur,” Summerhayes said.

Links

• The Role Of Business In Climate Change
• (AU) Climate Change Action Stymied By Australian Business Lobby, UK Think Tank Finds
• (AU) A Bit Rich: Business Groups Want Urgent Climate Action, After Resisting It For 30 Years
• (AU) Climate Crisis: Business, Farming And Environment Leaders Unite To Warn Australia 'Woefully Unprepared'
• (AU) Heavy Industry Co-Operates To Take On Climate Change Challenge
• It’s Been A Landmark Year For Investor Action On Climate Change
• (AU) The Case For Sustainable Communities: Three Big Ideas To Future-Proof Australia
• (AU) Getting Down To The Business Of Evolving Australia's Climate Policy
• (Videos) Tough Business Questions About The Climate Crisis
• (AU) Bushfire Preparations Stymied By Climate Change Deniers In Government, Says Small Business Lobby
• Business Lobby Groups Accused Of 'Undermining' Climate Change Policy
• Bob Carr pens global letter that highlights government's resistance to climate change
• Paris Agreement
• Lethal Heating: Business Posts

(USA) Children Are The Key To Addressing Climate Change And Improving Environmental Health

The Hill - Marianne Sullivan | Nsedu Obot Witherspoon | Kristie Trousdale

© Getty Images

Authors Marianne Sullivan is a professor at William Paterson University of New Jersey’s Department of Public Health Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, MPH, serves as the executive director for the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN) Kristie Trousdale, MPH, is the deputy director of the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN)

The outgoing (Trump) administration has been particularly hard on children.

Notable examples include the inhumane family separation policy at the U.S.-Mexico border and the largely uncontrolled COVID-19 outbreak and associated school closures which are having profound impacts on our children’s learning, socialization and mental health.

Less visibly, our children’s health has also been harmed by the current administration’s unprecedented actions to undermine environmental regulations and their enforcement. 

Over the last four years we have lost both time and ground protecting children from climate change, air and water pollution, toxic chemicals and other environmental threats.

The change in presidential administrations provides both hope and opportunity — to not only fix the Trump administration’s environmental backsliding — but to take decisive action to secure our children’s environments now and for the future. 

Children have increased vulnerability to many environmental health threats — and low-income children and children of color are most at risk. Therefore, it is important to prioritize both children’s health and environmental justice in our policy-making. 

Below, we offer some recommendations for what the incoming administration could do to secure our children’s health and their futures.

►First, the federal government and the states must rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. Children are extremely susceptible to climate change impacts like increased air pollution, natural disasters, rising heat index, and infectious disease. 

Nevertheless over the last four years, the administration gutted regulations that would decrease emissions of greenhouse gases. 

In February, the World Health Organization issued the stark warning that the world is “failing to provide children with a healthy life and a climate fit for their future.”

►Second, the administration should commit to improving the nation’s childcare and K-12 school infrastructure. 

A recent GAO report found 54 percent of the country’s school districts need more than one major facility upgrade and 36,000 public schools have HVAC systems that need work or replacement. The poor state of school infrastructure has been a challenge to safe re-opening during COVID-19. 

Further, childcare facilities need to be accessible, affordable, healthy, safe, and open for parents to return to work or to effectively work from home. Improving environmental conditions in the buildings where kids spend a significant amount of time will reduce respiratory infections, allergies, asthma exacerbations and improve learning.

►Third, the EPA should both improve enforcement of air and water pollution regulations and further tighten existing standards. 

Air pollution is linked to low birth weight, preterm delivery, respiratory illness, impaired lung function, and asthma exacerbations. 

In 2017, 62 percent of U.S. children lived in a county where one or more air pollutants exceeded federal standards. 

Ignoring recent science, the current administration has failed to strengthen standards for fine particles which have adverse effects on children’s brain development, and for ozone pollution, which is particularly dangerous for children since their lungs are still developing.

►Fourth, the EPA and HUD can do more to eliminate children’s lead exposure, from paint in older homes and schools, drinking water, soil, air, and consumer products. 

Hundreds of thousands of U.S. children still have elevated blood lead levels. Six years after the Flint crisis was uncovered, we do not have a national plan for rapidly replacing millions of remaining lead service lines — the primary source of lead in drinking water. 

The 2018 Federal Action Plan to Reduce Childhood Lead Exposure must be updated to include the regulatory updates, action steps, timelines, and budgetary requests to effectively eliminate childhood lead exposure.

►Fifth, the EPA should work swiftly to protect infants and children from hazardous chemicals, particularly those that can harm brain development, interfere with hormones or cause cancer. 

Bipartisan progress was made in 2016 with the passage of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act, intended to improve chemical regulation, with heightened consideration of risks to infants and children. 

The outgoing administration has weakened the law’s implementation, including provisions that protect vulnerable populations like children.

►Sixth, the EPA should strengthen its Office of Children’ Health Protection, a small office which lost expertise and funding in the last four years. 

The agency should also restore funding for children’s environmental health research that was cut by the outgoing administration.

The change in presidential administrations is an opportunity to put children’s environmental health and equity at the center of our approach to regulating pollution today and ensuring a habitable planet in the future. 

By protecting those who are most vulnerable to environmental threats, we will undoubtedly improve health and quality of life for all.

Links

• (AU) Tim Flannery: We Need To Talk To Our Kids About The Climate Crisis. But Courage Fails Me When I Look At My Son
• Children Of The Crisis
• Portuguese Children Sue 33 Countries Over Climate Change At European Court
• (AU) Australian Youth Feel Unprepared, Uneducated And Underappreciated On Climate Change: Report
• Meet The 8-Year-Old Climate Activist Cleaning Up India
• It’s Kids Vs. Parents In This Award-Nominated Climate Novel
• Lethal Heating: Children Posts

2020 Closes Hottest Decade On Record Due To Climate Change

Geo News

►	2020 has already shown near-record heat comparable to the previous record of 2016
►	Since the 1980s each decade has been warmer than the previous one

Smoke and steam billow from the Belchatow Power Station, Europe's largest coal-fired power plant, near Belchatow, Poland. — Reuters/File

As 2020 comes to an end, it leaves in its wake the warmest decade on record and one of the three hottest years ever measured, according to the United Nations weather agency.

Despite a cooling La Niña event, 2020 has been a year of exceptional heat that is now mature and impacting weather patterns in many parts of the world, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said Friday.

“Record warm years have usually coincided with a strong El Niño event, as was the case in 2016”, WMO chief Petteri Taalas said in a statement.

Tuvalu, an archipelago of nine atolls in the South Pacific Ocean, where the average height of the islands is less than 2 metres above sea level, is highly susceptible to the effects of global warming.

Boats are seen on the dried lake Poopo affected by climate change, in the Oruro Department, Bolivia. — Reuters/File

However, he noted, “we are now experiencing a La Nina, which has a cooling effect on global temperatures, but has not been sufficient to put a brake on this year’s heat”.

Tuvalu, an archipelago of nine atolls in the South Pacific Ocean, where the average height of the islands is less than 2 metres above sea level, is highly susceptible to the effects of global warming.

“Despite the current La Nina conditions, this year has already shown near-record heat comparable to the previous record of 2016”, said the top WMO official.

This year in top three

WMO has also documented the last six years as being the warmest.

In January, the UN agency will issue consolidated temperature figures for 2020, based on five global temperature datasets.

This will be incorporated into a final report on the State of the Climate in 2020, which will be issued in March and will include information on selected climate impacts.

To date, all five data sets for the first 10 months of 2020 has placed this year as the second warmest for the year, following 2016 and ahead of 2019.

WMO Provisional Report on the State of the Global Climate in 2020

Climate change continued its relentless march in 2020, which is on track to be one of the three warmest years on record. 2011-2020 will be the warmest decade on record, with the warmest six years all being since 2015, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

Based on monthly reports from the European Unions’ Copernicus Climate Change Service, the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and the Japan Meteorological Agency, November has been classified as either the warmest or second warmest on record.

The difference between the warmest three years is small and exact rankings for each data set could change once data for the entire year are available, according to WMO.

A dangerous trend

Ranking temperatures for individual years is less important than long-term trends, the UN weather agency explained.

Since the 1980s each decade has been warmer than the previous one. And because of record levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the trend is expected to persist.

A glacier along the east coast of Greenland is seen out the window of a Gulfstream jet. — Reuters/File

In particular, carbon dioxide is driving the planet to future warming because it remains in the atmosphere for many decades.

According to WMO’s Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update, there is a one-in-five chance that the average global temperature will temporarily exceed 1.5 °C by 2024.

Links

• Earth’s warming is closing in on a crucial limit, U.N. report says 
• 2020 closes a decade of exceptional heat
• WMO steps up action on La Niña
• Pace of climate change shown in new report has humanity on ‘suicidal’ path, U.N. leader warns
• Rapid Arctic meltdown in Siberia alarms scientists
• Planet-warming trend continues: 2020 closes hottest decade on record – UN weather agency
• 2020 on track to be one of three warmest years on record
• New climate predictions assess global temperatures in coming five years
• Earth just notched its warmest November, as 2020 closes in on record for hottest year
• Lethal Heating: Temperature Posts