ESG Snapshot: Issue 69

This week's highlights include:

• 'Rent-seeking parasite'. Climate Change Authority Chair Matt Kean has provided a blunt appraisal of the nuclear industry to Senate Estimates.
• Renewables assessment changes. Queensland Premier David Crisafulli says legislation on assessing renewable energy projects must be amended.
• Investment mandates. The mandates for the National Reconstruction Fund, NAIF, the CEFC and ARENA, should refer to adaptation, says a new report.
• The good oil. Nufarm has acquired a CSIRO-developed technology that will make it easier to produce biofuels without compromising food security.
• PFAS. A new Senate committee inquiry into PFAS will hold its first hearing this week.
• Forest values. The Victorian government has instigated a new inquiry into state forests, which will examine climate change risks to their values.

ESG Snapshot - powered by the Business Council for Sustainable Development Australia and curated by Earthed.

Health experts, and representatives of CSIRO and government agencies will appear before a hearing in Canberra this week convened by a Senate committee inquiry into PFAS.

"If you want to talk about what will drive up the cost of electricity, it's nuclear," Climate Change Authority Chair Matt Kean has told Senate Estimates.

"Nuclear will drive up the cost of electricity for millions of families and businesses across the country," Kean said, in his first appearance before federal Estimates.

"The CSIRO GenCost report, AEMO, the Australian Energy Regulator —all of these bodies have very clearly said that nuclear is the most expensive form of electricity," he said. 

"There is no bigger rent-seeking parasite than the nuclear industry," he told Estimates.

"I know you're trying to get your grabs up on Sky at the moment," Kean added when Nationals Senator Ross Cadell spoke about nuclear energy cost modelling.

Consultation opportunity - sustainability reporting. ASIC has released a draft regulatory guide on Australia's new sustainability reporting regime.

The draft regulatory guide includes guidance on who must prepare a sustainability report, how the regime will interact with existing legal obligations, and how ASIC will administer the sustainability reporting requirements.

Comments are due by 19 December.

The Clean Energy Regulator has released a recording of a Sydney forum on the Safeguard Mechanism.

The Investor Group on Climate Change has released a guide on Investor Expectations for Corporate Just Transition Planning, as well as a research report on Activating Private Investment in Adaptation that was co-written with ERM Energetics.

The adaptation research paper says the National Adaptation Plan should be legislated and on par with the Net Zero Australia plan.

The paper recommends that the mandates of all specialist investment vehicles, including the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation, Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, Regional Investment Corporation, Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and ARENA, should expressly include adaptation and resilience.

Assistant Climate Change and Energy Minister Josh Wilson will lead Australia's COP29 delegation in the first week of the talks. Minister Bowen will lead the delegation in the second week.

"A COP with a less than ideal outcome is not a good thing," Minister Bowen told the IGCC conference last week. "So we will be arguing for strong language on ambition."  

ARENA has announced that an additional $100 million in funding will be available under the Driving the Nation program to support transitioning heavy vehicles to electric.

ARENA is separately providing $28.6 million in funding to two projects with $19.6 million committed to Linfox and $9 million to Toll.

Linfox will deploy 26 battery electric trucks and charging infrastructure across three distribution centres in Queensland, South Australia and Victoria.

Toll will roll out 28 battery electric trucks and required infrastructure at 10 customer and Toll-owned sites across Australia.

A CSIRO-developed technology to increase oil yield from plants, which will help advance the production and use of biofuels such as sustainable aviation fuel, has been acquired by ASX-listed Nufarm.  

The Biomass Oil Project aims to extend commercial oil production from just the seeds and fruits of plants, to encompass leaves and stems.   

"We were inspired to develop this technology in response to the world’s need for increased production of plant oil without impacting on food security," said CSIRO's Dr Thomas Dr Vanhercke. 

Open consultations:

• Carbon market infrastructure. The Clean Energy Regulator is seeking feedback on its proposed exchange trading model for ACCUs, and its proposed new units and certificates registry. Comments are due by 22 November.
• The National Health and Medical Research Council has released draft revised drinking water guidelines, which contain revised health-based limits for four types of PFAS. Comments are due by 22 November.
• The Carbon Leakage Review second consultation paper is now available with comments due by 3 December.
• Energy efficiency. DCCEEW is inviting views on a Regulation Impact Statement on a proposal to impose stricter GEMS energy efficiency requirements on distribution transformers. Comments are due by 6 December.
• PFAS. Submissions to a Senate select committee inquiry into PFAS are due by 19 December.

Award opportunity. Nominations are now being accepted for the 36th annual Banksia sustainability awards. Entries must be submitted by 6 December.

Premier David Crisafulli has issued charter letters to each of his ministers.

• Jarrod Bleijie, Minister for State, Development Infrastructure and Planning, is instructed to "amend laws to ensure renewable energy projects are impact assessable with approval processes consistent with other land uses like mining and agriculture".
  
  He must also explore opportunities for new industries across Queensland.
• David Janetzki, Minister for Energy, must facilitate private sector investment in new energy infrastructure while maintaining public ownership of existing assets.
  
  He must "prioritise the delivery of an energy system that is affordable, reliable and sustainable" and "progress early work on the Borumba Pumped Hydro project".
  
  Janetzki must also investigate other smaller pumped hydro schemes, and must work with industry to progress a code of conduct for renewable energy proponents.
  
  In addition, he must work to progress transmission infrastructure, like Copperstring.
  
  Janetzki, who is also Treasurer, must also create an Office of Social Impact and work with impact investors, philanthropists, corporates and others to co-design a roadmap for social enterprise and impact investing.
• Dale Last, Minister for Natural Resources and Mines, must establish a Resources Cabinet Committee to improve consultation with the sector, and encourage investment in resources.
  
  He must deliver $117.84 million funding "for on-ground land, soil, water and biodiversity programs, ensuring Natural Resource Management groups across Queensland have access".
• Primary Industries Minister Tony Perrett must "invest in industry-led best management practice programs to increase sustainability and support landholders to get the best outcome for their crops".
  
  He must also work with the Minister for Environment "to increase private protected areas in Queensland, rewarding stewardship and ensuring prime agricultural land is maintained".
• Environment Minister Andrew Powell must "grow Queensland's protected areas to ensure our state's rich ecological gifts and natural wonders are maintained and preserved.
  
  He must also work with the waste industry to explore opportunities for investment in cutting edge waste technologies.
  
  In addition he must "work toward a new South East Queensland Koala Conservation Strategy to succeed the 2020-2025 strategy, to halt the decline of this precious species". Powell must also protect the Great Barrier Reef "through genuine environmental action".
  
  He must also work with Treasurer and Energy Minister Janetzki "to progress Queensland toward net zero and reduce our emissions in a sustainable and practical manner".

The state government has released a report prepared by Queensland Hydro for the former government on the Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro project that it had proposed for a site near Mackay.

The new government, which is not proceeding with the project, said in its media release that the report demonstrates the project was neither financially viable, nor environmentally appropriate.

The report says the project would add between $14,479 million and $16,598 million to the Mackay region's gross regional product, between 2024 and 2054.

It also says the project was in the public interest and there were no impediments to its development.

The report says local opposition to the project "is not unified and centres on concerns for displaced landholders and changes to the area’s natural values. Many local and regional businesses are positive and seeking economic benefits."

Coexistence Queensland has released a Landholder guide: Negotiating onshore gas activity.

The guide provides landholders with practical information and tips for negotiating land access agreements with gas companies.

The Independent Planning Commission has granted planning approval to Canadian Solar's 250MW Gunning solar farm, and an associated 150 MW/ 600MWh battery.

The state government has instructed the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council to assess the values of the 1.8 million hectares of State forests in eastern Victoria, including biodiversity, social and economic values.

The review must also consider current and likely future threats to those values, including climate change.

The state government has released a Zero Emission Bus Plan to guide the shift from a diesel bus fleet to zero emissions buses. 

From mid-2025, new buses ordered for the public fleet will be required to be zero emission – with almost 690 zero emissions buses so far funded through the state government's $20 million ZEB trial and current contracts with bus operators. 

Fulton Hogan has lodged a development licence application for a reclaimed asphalt pavement processing plant at Lara that would process up to 75,000 tonnes of asphalt annually.

Veolia has lodged a development licence application with the EPA, for a waste and resource recovery facility in Hampton Park, that would receive and transfer up to 550,000 tonnes of material annually.

Open consultations:

• Water quality. The EPA is reviewing the state's Environment Protection (Water Quality) Policy, which dates from 2015. Comments are due by 9 December.
• Waste to resources. The EPA has launched a review of the state's Environment Protection (Waste to Resources) Policy, which dates from 2010. Comments are due by 20 December.

Federal Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Madeleine King has officially opened the Lynas Rare Earths processing plant in Kalgoorlie.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development has released a new publication called Reporting Matters, which evaluates trends in corporate sustainability reporting.

Key insights include an upward trend in the number of reports referencing key reporting frameworks and standards. This trend was particularly marked for nature, with the percentage of reports referencing TNFD increasing from 22% to 52%.

According to the newly-released 4th edition of the OECD's Climate Action Monitor, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) currently commit to a collective reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of only 14% by 2030.

This is well short of the estimated 43% global emission reduction needed to limit global warming to 1.5° Paris Agreement goal according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The report also highlights the recent slowdown in countries' climate policy action across the countries that produce nearly two thirds of total greenhouse gas emissions.

Based on a framework that tracks both the number of adopted national climate policies and their stringency, national climate mitigation action only expanded by 1% and 2% in 2022 and 2023 respectively, compared to an average of 10% per year between 2010-21. 

A new paper on Challenging the Systemic Under-Pricing of Climate Damages within the Global Financial System, with authors including Carbon Tracker's Mark Campanale, has been released.

"At the extreme end of the climate change complacency spectrum, the Australian Unisuper fund, advised by Mercer presented 4C warming as an “acceptable risk” to its superannuation fund members in a 2022 report," the paper says.

"Mercer advised the Australian pension fund HESTA that a trajectory towards 4°C of warming by 2100 would reduce the value of its portfolio by just 17%, compared to what it would have been in the absence of global warming," it says.

"Global investors continue to be misled by investment consultants that high levels of warming will see lower impacts to pension funds than a rapid clean energy transition," it says.

The Asian Development Bank has issued its first biodiversity and nature theme bond to finance a pool of eligible projects across Asia and the Pacific. The A$150 million, 10-year issue was purchased by Japan's Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, and arranged by Credit Agricole CIB. 

The ADB will soon launch its Environment Action Plan 2024–2030: Towards a Nature Positive Asia and the Pacific that will create a road map for its activities to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.

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