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Climate crisis

Yesterday

Experimental nanomaterial is released during a demonstration cloud seeding flight over Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.

The storm chasers trying to save the world from drought

Everyone agrees the planet needs more water. So why is cloud-seeding so controversial?

  • Jeremy Miller

September

King Charles III and Queen Camilla will visit Sydney and Canberra in October.

King Charles to spotlight climate change during Australian visit

King Charles, who has undergone cancer treatment, and Queen Camilla will visit Sydney and Canberra in October.

  • Andrew Tillett
A Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan. The company has become the latest to start walking back commitments to diversity and inclusion, as part of a backlash from ESG initiatives in the US.

Wall Street’s ESG backlash does little to dent Australia’s enthusiasm

Analysis from Jarden shows ASX-listed groups increased their mentions of environmental, social and governance commitments in the last earnings season.

  • Joshua Peach and Joanne Tran
Matt Kean after being named the new chair of the Climate Change Authority.

Matt Kean unveils plan to achieve net zero by 2050

The Climate Change Authority’s landmark report downplayed the Coalition’s nuclear ambitions and said wind and solar generation needs to move faster to ensure Australia’s net zero ambitions are not derailed.

  • Ronald Mizen and Angela Macdonald-Smith

August

Tesla founder Elon Musk.

Musk, Abbott just the tip of the iceberg of climate inaction

Readers’ letters on ‘climate claptrap’; Greens pushing to own mines; the urgency of power grid modernisation; the sad end of Black Caviar; and international student numbers.

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Wind farms produced much less electricity in the June quarter than is typical for the period.

Super funds look to take advantage of energy transition

The biggest question for the $3.9 trillion super sector is not whether to invest in the energy transition’s unlisted asset boom, but rather which opportunities are best.

  • Hannah Wootton
Glencore won’t cast its coal business aside after shareholder feedback.

Investors are developing a ‘dirty’ little secret

Glencore’s decision to keep its energy coal business is part of a broader push back against climate-related strategy shifts by big emitters. 

  • James Thomson

July

For Sinead Booth, a commerce degree was the quickest way to get through university and into the workforce.

This top exec reveals the secret to having it all

Sinead Booth is one of the 2024 BOSS Young Executives. She first gained business experience helping with the books as a teenager at her father’s refrigeration business.

  • Sally Patten
Renee Wootton was unsure if she would be able to complete her degree in aerospace engineering.

This exec wants more than a CEO role. She wants to be an astronaut

Renee Wootton is one of the 2024 BOSS Young Executives. She works in the fledgling sustainable aviation sector, but her real goal is to go to the International Space Station.

  • Sally Patten
CO2 put into the atmosphere this year will continue to warm the earth for 25 years.

The common sense path to net zero

Looking at the environmental crisis through the lens of financial frameworks, the core principles that drive good investment are also at play in climate change.

  • Kate Howitt and Gates Moss
Orica’s emissions reduction project at Kooragang Island will abate half a million tonnes a year of carbon dioxide equivalent, says German Morales, group president for Australia and the Pacific and sustainability.

Orica crowned Australia’s most sustainable company for Impact

The explosives manufacturer is recognised for completing the biggest emissions abatement project in the Australian chemicals sector as it takes out the 2024 Sustainability Leaders award.

  • Sally Patten
Dan Fitzgerald’s regenerative tech fund ReGen Ventures successfully raised $90 million in 2021/22.

Aussie tech’s climate crisis as start-ups face capital crunch

At least 100 Australian climate tech start-ups need to raise capital in the next nine months to avoid going bust, but say the bar for investment is sky-high.

  • Yolanda Redrup
HMC Capital managing director David Di Pilla has big plans for the company’s climate strategy.

HMC Capital chooses battery storage for first climate investment

David Di Pilla’s asset manager will pay up to $50 million for a controlling stake in StorEnergy, which is headed by a former Spark Infrastructure executive.

  • Kylar Loussikian
The money’s come out of reinsurance markets, but that’s been good for those left behind.

This super fund is cashing in on climate risk

Insurers love telling us how hard and expensive it is to get reinsurance, so it is good to see an Australian super fund - MLC super - making money from it.

  • Anthony Macdonald

June

Paul Keating, known for his biting insults, issued his statement calling Dutton a “charlatan” a day after the opposition leader made a strikingly personal attack on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Keating labels Dutton ‘a charlatan and climate change denialist’

The former prime minister accused the Coalition leader of seeking to “camouflage” his “long held climate denialism” in an industrial fantasy of nuclear energy.

  • Ronald Mizen
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Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

Labor’s $40b renewables bid attracts massive industry support

Energy Minister Chris Bowen will on Monday reveal the first auction for 6 gigawatts of renewable energy received bids from more than 100 projects covering more than 40 gigawatts of renewable energy production.

  • Ronald Mizen
Orica CEO Sanjeev Gandhi and chairman Malcolm Broomhead at Orica House in East Melbourne.

What do Nobel, Dulux and Australia’s first high-rise have in common?

From making bricks for the 1956 Olympics to paint, explosives and mining technology company Orica’s long history mirrors the Australian economy.

  • Patrick Durkin
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton would pull Australian out of the Paris Agreement if elected.

Peter Dutton’s climate move a ‘big mistake’: Labor MP

A pledge by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to dump Australia’s legally binding climate targets has been labelled a “big mistake”.

  • Updated
  • Tess Ikonomou
David Atkin says Australia should not “cherry pick” the sustainability reporting standards.

Australia is ‘cherry-picking’ sustainability reporting standards

It is one of few jurisdictions that has agreed to apply new reporting standards only partially, says former super fund chief David Atkin.

  • Sally Patten
Treasury’s Alex Heath says action, honesty and detail are key to avoiding greenwashing claims.

Honesty and action key to limiting ‘real’ greenwashing

The risk of regulatory crackdowns should not turn companies off making climate change commitments, provided they manage them well.

  • Hannah Wootton

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/climate-crisis-6g9x