Infrastructure New Zealand’s Post

Thinking a greener future is costly? The fingerprints of climate change are already all over this budget https://ab.co/4alJpOt This ABC Online article outlines the significant impact of climate change on Australia's federal budget and the government's response. Key points include: Rising Costs: Billions are spent on disaster recovery and preparedness, with costs set to increase as climate change worsens. Economic Shift: The budget prioritises moving away from fossil fuels, investing in renewable energy, critical minerals, and green hydrogen. Revenue Challenges: Reliance on fossil fuel profits is unsustainable, necessitating new revenue sources as the world aims for net-zero emissions. Policy Needs: Calls for carbon pricing and ending fossil fuel subsidies to reduce emissions effectively. Investment Oversight: Independent agencies like ARENA will manage renewable energy projects to ensure efficient use of funds. The budget's emphasis on disaster recovery and preparedness aligns closely with the goals of Landcare NSW, which focuses on natural resource management and community resilience. With increased funding in these areas, there are likely to be more opportunities for Landcare NSW to enable the community to leverage government funds for disaster preparedness initiatives. Additionally, the government's investment sustainable agriculture presents potential funding opportunities that Landcare NSW can tap into to further its mission.

Thinking a greener future is costly? The fingerprints of climate change are already all over this budget https://ab.co/4alJpOt This ABC Online article outlines the significant impact of climate change on Australia's federal budget and the government's response. Key points include: Rising Costs: Billions are spent on disaster recovery and preparedness, with costs set to increase as climate change worsens. Economic Shift: The budget prioritises moving away from fossil fuels, investing in renewable energy, critical minerals, and green hydrogen. Revenue Challenges: Reliance on fossil fuel profits is unsustainable, necessitating new revenue sources as the world aims for net-zero emissions. Policy Needs: Calls for carbon pricing and ending fossil fuel subsidies to reduce emissions effectively. Investment Oversight: Independent agencies like ARENA will manage renewable energy projects to ensure efficient use of funds. The budget's emphasis on disaster recovery and preparedness aligns closely with the goals of Landcare NSW, which focuses on natural resource management and community resilience. With increased funding in these areas, there are likely to be more opportunities for Landcare NSW to enable the community to leverage government funds for disaster preparedness initiatives. Additionally, the government's investment sustainable agriculture presents potential funding opportunities that Landcare NSW can tap into to further its mission.

Thinking a greener future is costly? The fingerprints of climate change are already all over this budget https://ab.co/4alJpOt This ABC Online article outlines the significant impact of climate change on Australia's federal budget and the government's response. Key points include: Rising Costs: Billions are spent on disaster recovery and preparedness, with costs set to increase as climate change worsens. Economic Shift: The budget prioritises moving away from fossil fuels, investing in renewable energy, critical minerals, and green hydrogen. Revenue Challenges: Reliance on fossil fuel profits is unsustainable, necessitating new revenue sources as the world aims for net-zero emissions. Policy Needs: Calls for carbon pricing and ending fossil fuel subsidies to reduce emissions effectively. Investment Oversight: Independent agencies like ARENA will manage renewable energy projects to ensure efficient use of funds. The budget's emphasis on disaster recovery and preparedness aligns closely with the goals of Landcare NSW, which focuses on natural resource management and community resilience. With increased funding in these areas, there are likely to be more opportunities for Landcare NSW to enable the community to leverage government funds for disaster preparedness initiatives. Additionally, the government's investment sustainable agriculture presents potential funding opportunities that Landcare NSW can tap into to further its mission.

Thinking a greener future is costly? The fingerprints of climate change are already all over this budget https://ab.co/4alJpOt This ABC Online article outlines the significant impact of climate change on Australia's federal budget and the government's response. Key points include: Rising Costs: Billions are spent on disaster recovery and preparedness, with costs set to increase as climate change worsens. Economic Shift: The budget prioritises moving away from fossil fuels, investing in renewable energy, critical minerals, and green hydrogen. Revenue Challenges: Reliance on fossil fuel profits is unsustainable, necessitating new revenue sources as the world aims for net-zero emissions. Policy Needs: Calls for carbon pricing and ending fossil fuel subsidies to reduce emissions effectively. Investment Oversight: Independent agencies like ARENA will manage renewable energy projects to ensure efficient use of funds. The budget's emphasis on disaster recovery and preparedness aligns closely with the goals of Landcare NSW, which focuses on natural resource management and community resilience. With increased funding in these areas, there are likely to be more opportunities for Landcare NSW to enable the community to leverage government funds for disaster preparedness initiatives. Additionally, the government's investment sustainable agriculture presents potential funding opportunities that Landcare NSW can tap into to further its mission.

Thinking a greener future is costly? The fingerprints of climate change are already all over this budget https://ab.co/4alJpOt This ABC Online article outlines the significant impact of climate change on Australia's federal budget and the government's response. Key points include: Rising Costs: Billions are spent on disaster recovery and preparedness, with costs set to increase as climate change worsens. Economic Shift: The budget prioritises moving away from fossil fuels, investing in renewable energy, critical minerals, and green hydrogen. Revenue Challenges: Reliance on fossil fuel profits is unsustainable, necessitating new revenue sources as the world aims for net-zero emissions. Policy Needs: Calls for carbon pricing and ending fossil fuel subsidies to reduce emissions effectively. Investment Oversight: Independent agencies like ARENA will manage renewable energy projects to ensure efficient use of funds. The budget's emphasis on disaster recovery and preparedness aligns closely with the goals of Landcare NSW, which focuses on natural resource management and community resilience. With increased funding in these areas, there are likely to be more opportunities for Landcare NSW to enable the community to leverage government funds for disaster preparedness initiatives. Additionally, the government's investment sustainable agriculture presents potential funding opportunities that Landcare NSW can tap into to further its mission.

STV's Chris Haney, PE shares his thoughts about the #waterindustry. In his words, "Just 10 years ago, resilience was a brand-new buzzword for utility providers. Today, resilience is a broad-ranging umbrella term requiring a nuanced approach." Check out more about regulatory climate resilience strategies in the link below. https://lnkd.in/ebJvnpZf

Thinking a greener future is costly? The fingerprints of climate change are already all over this budget https://ab.co/4alJpOt This ABC Online article outlines the significant impact of climate change on Australia's federal budget and the government's response. Key points include: Rising Costs: Billions are spent on disaster recovery and preparedness, with costs set to increase as climate change worsens. Economic Shift: The budget prioritises moving away from fossil fuels, investing in renewable energy, critical minerals, and green hydrogen. Revenue Challenges: Reliance on fossil fuel profits is unsustainable, necessitating new revenue sources as the world aims for net-zero emissions. Policy Needs: Calls for carbon pricing and ending fossil fuel subsidies to reduce emissions effectively. Investment Oversight: Independent agencies like ARENA will manage renewable energy projects to ensure efficient use of funds. The budget's emphasis on disaster recovery and preparedness aligns closely with the goals of Landcare NSW, which focuses on natural resource management and community resilience. With increased funding in these areas, there are likely to be more opportunities for Landcare NSW to enable the community to leverage government funds for disaster preparedness initiatives. Additionally, the government's investment sustainable agriculture presents potential funding opportunities that Landcare NSW can tap into to further its mission.

The WSJ writes, efforts to address the cause of climate change have fallen short so far. That is leading to a big push to treat the symptoms. Gov’t and private money is pouring into plans to control flooding, address extreme heat, and shore up infrastructure to withstand more severe weather caused by climate change. Nearly all climate change spending so far has gone to prevention, including reducing fossil-fuel use and developing technologies to lower carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Those mitigation efforts haven’t been enough. Funds aimed at addressing the effects of climate change recently accounted for about 5% of the roughly $1.3 trillion spent annually on all climate efforts, according to a report from the Global Center on Adaptation and the Climate Policy Initiative. For private-sector investors, putting money into adaptation is a bet that mitigation won’t fully address climate change or will take longer than expected. The cost of adaptation is immense, particularly if mitigation efforts are delayed. The longer society waits to address climate change, the more it will spend to fend off the impact of hotter, wetter weather, researchers say. The money is part of a slew of climate tax credits, grants and loans mostly funded by the 2021 infrastructure law and 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The DOE, EPA and other offices are racing to award funds and show progress before November’s elections. It is difficult for investors to put money into adaptation because projects such as flood barriers, tidal gates and raising roads threatened by rising water levels often don’t offer attractive returns and are mainly jobs for governments, which have long funded flood-prevention projects. That is increasing the need for new programs, but many local and state agencies don’t have the money for these projects. Our Take 1: On the one hand, it's a positive that we're now recognizing there will be no energy transition or glorious march to net zero any time soon. Of course, it would have been far better to not have wasted trillions on non-solutions so far, with promises of trillions more in spending because of the inertia of gov't subsidies and mandates. Our Take 2: Adaptation was always a smarter way forward, given the lack of options. That said, we're not so naive as to think that today's public officials are qualified to efficiently implement cost-effective adaptation measures. We worry this will be another gorge fest of waste, opportunism and flat-out incompetence. If so, expect wasteful spending to get worse before it gets better. Our Take 3: We're now on track to spending enormous sums coming and going in the name of climate change. But effectively bankrupting ourselves implementing ill-considered adaptation measures is no more attractive than doing so on mitigation non-solutions like wind and solar. For the foreseeable future, climate change remains for big gov't the gift that keeps on giving. 🌍🌡️👀 #climatechange #globalwarming #adaptation

Published today in Public Health Communication Centre's The Briefing: "The recent storm in Tairāwhiti and Hawkes Bay left hundreds of homes damaged, many severely. The Minister for Emergency Management, Mark Mitchell, said it was “another tough blow for these communities who are still recovering from the impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle last year”. While many factors can increase the impact of storm events on communities, we know a warmer climate is our “new normal”, bringing with it more frequent and intense storms, floods, and other extreme weather events. Such events are now not single blows but rolling, compounding challenges. This means it is unlikely that many impacted communities will fully “recover” from the blows. Instead of speaking of recovery, we need to reduce our emissions and take integrated actions to reduce risk and adapt in the face of climate change. It is essential the Government does not aim to simply return communities to what was, but instead support communities to build resilience in the face of predicted climate change impacts. This is hard and complex work, undoubtedly, but the Government has a profoundly important leadership role in making it happen. It is evident that the current Government is failing to make the connection between their climate change policies and increasing negative impacts on communities and the country. The Government is promoting more mining for fossil fuels, weakening existing protection for wetlands (key to effective flood mitigation and carbon sequestration), focusing on large-scale roading projects while reducing spending on public transport, and continuing to delay action on reducing agricultural emissions. In the wake of damage to homes in East Coast communities, it must also be remembered that the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill proposes to reduce the rigour with which major housing (among other) developments are considered and approved. In his submission on the Bill, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Simon Upton, told the Select Committee: “If a housing development were to be applied for under this Bill, it could be approved without waiting to update the modelling thereby placing existing houses downstream at increased flood risk. If all you have to focus on are the benefits of development and the process is all about speed, risks are going to be missed and there are going to be disasters.” These incoherent policies in the face of climate change are deeply troubling as its impacts on the country come into stark relief." cc Christina Hood Richard Lauder Andrew E. Bernard Hickey

Delivering #InfrastructureResilience is crucial for asset owners, investors and communities. However, the current level of investment is significantly lower than what's required. So, how can we bridge the gap between the severity of the climate emergency and the actions being taken? Madeleine Rawlins, our global practice leader for #ClimateChange, explores the need to work together and advocate for a globally standardised approach with IG - Infrastructure Global. Discover insights on recognising global #ClimateResilience gaps and ensuring funding is targeted to places that need it most. 👇 https://mottm.ac/3XefG7g