Old_Notes

Divestment from Fossil Fuels

roman June 29, 2015

Two major players have joined the divesters this fortnight:

Climate progress reports

At a business and climate change conference held this week in Paris, AXA — France’s largest insurer — announced that it would sell €500 million ($US559 million) in coal assets by the end of 2015, while increasing its “green investments” in things like renewable energy, green infrastructure, and green bonds to €3 billion ($US3.3 billion) by 2020.

During the announcement on Friday, AXA’s chief executive Henri de Castries spoke about the threat that climate change poses to the environment, and the responsibility of insurance companies to deal with those threats. Last year, AXA paid over €1 billion ($US1.1 billion) globally in weather-related insurance claims, citing climate change as a “core business issue” already driving an increase in weather-related risks.

From a report in the Business Spectator

The Climate Spectator notes

Norway’s giant Government Pension Fund Global is set to divest from companies that derive more than 30% of their revenue or operations from coal, with activists calling it the biggest step yet in the global fossil fuels divestment campaign.

However

Bloomberg said Australian coal mine operators BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Glencore were set to fall safely under the 30% threshold.

Details at “Norway’s giant fund to divest coal-reliant companies” by John Conroy at the Climate Spectator

Old_Notes

The next antinuclear coalition meeting will be on Tuesday 30th June 6pm start at Mad Mouse Alley, 58 Light Square (on the eastern end of the square, along the alley to the north of the People’s Choice Credit Union building). Mad Mouse is a DIY not-for-profit social centre. This time we will be joined by Adnyamathanha woman Jillian Marsh and Arabunna elder Uncle Kevin Buzzacott for an informal chat about the Royal Commissions process of engagement with aboriginal communities, and the impacts of the nuclear industry on traditional owners.

This will be followed by the meeting at 7.30pm, so people can come for the whole night or elect to come to either of the two sessions. It will look something like this:

6pm – 7.15 yarn with guest speakers

7.30 – 9 pm planning/strategy meeting

Some suggested agenda items for the meeting:

where are we at?

Greens roundtable report-back
report-backs from groups working on Royal Commission/nukes
- – capacity, focus and what each group is/has been doing (FOE, NOWPA, CCSA, Greens)
report-backs from individuals?
where is the Royal Commission at?
Royal Commission community meeting – strategic or not?
July
-waste dump

-Students of Sustainability

-submissions deadlines

Hope to see you all there. Tea, (instant) coffee, and beers available at Mad Mouse. Bring a snack to share if you want.

Nectaria

Old_Notes

The Pope weighs in on climate change

roman June 29, 2015

Last Thursday, Pope Francis issued an encyclical on our place in the environment.He had some interesting things to say on energy:

“We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels – especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser degree, gas — needs to be progressively replaced without delay.”

“There is an urgent need to develop policies so that, in the next few years, the emission of carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gases can be drastically reduced, for example, substituting for fossil fuels and developing sources of renewable energy. There is still a need to develop adequate storage technologies.”

There’s a nice article in RenewEconomy, “The Pope is an Energy wonk”

The encyclical itself is an interesting and poetic read, even in the english translation.

Climate, Old_Notes

Tony Abbott in denial

roman June 28, 2015

There’s a lovely summary of government energy policy on the RenewEconomy webiste:

Grahame Morris – a former chief of staff to Coalition prime minister John Howard, and a corporate lobbyist who is influential in the government of Tony Abbott – had, in the words of Q & A host Tony Jones, steam coming out of his ears at the idea that wind and solar could offer a future energy solution.

Flapping his arms about and pointing his finger, Morris exclaimed: “Look, not everyone wants a bloody big windmill in their backyard … nuclear power is clean … one of the problems with the third world with poverty is that they don’t have electricity. We have coal and we have uranium that can provide energy sources for those people. You are talking about poverty … that is the answer.”