Category Archives: The Mitigation Battle

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27 May 2015, Renew Economy, Garnaut: Cost of stranded assets already bigger than cost of climate action. This is one carbon budget that Australia has already blown. Economist and climate change advisor Professor Ross Garnaut has delivered a withering critique of Australia’s economic policies and investment patterns, saying the cost of misguided over-investment in the recent mining boom would likely outweigh the cost of climate action over the next few decades. Read More here See Prof. Ross Garnaut’s full submission here

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27 May 2015, Politico, ExxonMobil CEO mocks renewable energy in shareholder speech: The CEO of one of the world’s largest oil companies downplayed the effects of climate change at his company’s annual meeting Wednesday, telling shareholders his firm hadn’t invested in renewable energy because “We choose not to lose money on purpose.” “Mankind has this enormous capacity to deal with adversity,” ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson told the meeting, pointing to technologies that can combat inclement weather “that may or may not be induced by climate change.” Read more here  
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22 May FastFT: Axa to ditch coal investments by the end of 2015. Axa, one of the world’s largest insurers, has become the first global financial institution to shun investments in coal companies. The French group, which has more than $1trn in assets under management, will sell EUR500m of coal assets between now and the end of the year, its chief executive, Henri de Castries, said at a business and climate change conference in Paris on Friday, reports Pilita Clark, environment correspondent. It will also invest EUR3bn in renewable energy between now and 2020. The move makes the French group by far the biggest recruit to an international fossil fuel divestment campaign that aims to stigmatise the use of coal, oil and gas because of their impact on the climate. Read More here

 
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Here’s how the states can dodge Canberra’s renewable roadblock. Labor and the Coalition government have now agreed to cut the federal renewable energy target (RET) from 41,000 gigawatt hours in 2020, to 33,000 GWh – a reduction of almost 20%. This agreement has been hailed as restoring stability to the industry, after a year plagued with uncertainty and featuring two reviews. However, this is still a significant cut, particularly as the target is a significant part of Australia’s policy response to climate change. Meanwhile, Victoria has committed to restoring its own renewable energy target, the VRET, following other states in developing renewable energy policy. However a clause the federal legislation prevents schemes similar to the federal RET. How can the states get around this and support their industries? Read More here