“Expert advice presented to the Australian Climate Roundtable and the Royal Commission into the National Natural Disaster Arrangements shows our country remains deeply unprepared for the current and future physical risks created by a warming planet. A recent study performed by engineering firm Sargent & Lundy found that opportunities for nuclear beyond the grid could dwarf the demand for grid generation with literally thousands of potential applications. The electricity generated by these SMRs is more than the total 2020 generation in any one country except for China, U.S, India, Russia, and Japan. On the expenditure side, while, as mentioned earlier, the salary bill was under control relative to earlier years, expenditure on salaries still went over budget by K180 million. The salary bill for MPs’ salaries increased by K8 million from K71 million to K79 million. There was a spike in the unclassified or ‘other’ portion of the salary bill, which increased from K16 million in 2020 to K73 million in 2021, raising questions of transparency and accountability.
Addressing Physical Climate Risks in Infrastructure Investment
Many utilities are evaluating siting new reactors at the site of retiring coal plants, which would provide the jobs and local economic stimulation needed to revitalize communities. This advanced technology will build on the strong foundation of nuclear energy today to help the U.S.—and the world—build a clean energy system of the future. “We are joining global partnerships and taking the lead in building resilient communities. Climate adaptation is about taking practical actions to help our environment, our communities, and our economy deal with the impacts of climate change that are already taking place.
- The large structural gap between revenue and expenditure existed before COVID-19, and closing it will not be easy.
- The initiative was launched at the UN Climate Action Summit in 2019, with support from the World Economic Forum, to develop consistent frameworks to integrate and accurately price physical climate risks in investment decisions.
- As part of the membership, CCRI will help the Australian government mitigate climate change impacts, reduce the country’s exposure, and channel more private capital towards building greater resilience across economies and communities.
- We therefore believe that climate adaptation — helping people, animals, and plants to survive despite rising climate volatility — should be an equally urgent priority.
Submission: Investors weigh in on NSW Gov Annual Climate Report
An INL analysis utilizing a Global Change Analysis Model predicted an even higher increase of nuclear generating capacity—more than 150%—in order to achieve economy-wide net-zero emissions by mid-century. A steady and efficiently managed water supply would also support more environmentally friendly agriculture such as hydro- and aquaponic food production. China’s Sananbio, for example, operates large indoor farms in Beijing that can produce about six tons of leafy greens daily using only 5,000 square meters of space. Small and strategically vulnerable countries such as Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore have become leaders in this kind of food production, and it could greatly benefit many other water-stressed geographies.
Rainwater harvesting projects now represent a 5% and growing share of the portfolio of Kingspan, a leading Irish construction company whose low-energy insulation systems are featured in Bloomberg’s London headquarters and Singapore’s Changi airport. The city of Sydney, which has suffered consistent droughts with dams falling to record low capacity, has commissioned Kingspan to audit all 48 of the city’s rainwater management systems. “Developing a national strategy and mobilising private sector capital will be critical.
Selected not-for-profits will deliver the coalition’s core programmes starting April 1
However, despite these promising indications, PNG is far from achieving a fiscal recovery. The basic budget problem that PNG faces is a structural gap between expenditure and revenue. As the next graph shows, expenditure now hovers above 20% of GDP, and revenue around 15% of GDP. Second, after two years of negative growth, revenue grew strongly, by 9.7% after inflation, or from 14.2% of GDP in 2020 to 14.9% in 2021. This is more than the target in the government’s ambitious plan to achieve a balanced budget in 2027, which requires 7% annual revenue growth. Unlock powerful dashboards and industry insights with IB+ Data Hub—your essential subscription for data-driven decision-making.
As we learned from Charles Darwin, those who adapt are the most likely to survive and thrive. “We look forward to working together in order to help deploy more efficiently the flow of funds for investment in infrastructure projects, enabling a transition to a more climate-resilient, low-carbon, sustainable economy,” Sanchez continued. Recent IPCC reports project that global nuclear energy capacity will need to double by 2050 to keep the climate temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Israeli firm Netafim (a $1 billion revenue company) has installed irrigation systems across more than 100 villages in India, using soil and plant data to direct measured doses of water to optimize yield while bringing down water consumption and fertilizer usage by 40%. Olam, one of the world’s largest agri-business producers of rice, cotton, cocoa beans, and coffee that operates in 60 countries, is committing to reduce wastewater in the 30% of its upstream farms and plantations that are in water-stressed regions.
The transportation and manufacturing sectors alone make up 45% of our greenhouse gas emissions, and advanced reactors can provide the high-temperature heat and carbon-free hydrogen production needed to decarbonize these heavy industrial processes. Nuclear generates more electricity with less land than other renewable energy sources. To generate the same amount of carbon-free power as 300 SMRs, wind would require over 13 million acres, and solar would require over 2.3 million acres. Similarly, Boklok produces flat-pack homes designed and built by resilientinvestment.org Skanska and sold at Ikea. The houses are primarily made of wood sustainably sourced from Scandinavia because of its relatively lower climate impact, and about 14,000 of them have been erected across Sweden, Finland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, generating $250 million in revenue for the adaptation-focused manufacturer.
The revenue increase in 2021 was largely driven by mining and petroleum taxes, reflecting higher commodity prices. Grants (foreign aid) also increased by 47%, indicating strong support from foreign governments and multilaterals during COVID-19, including the first budget support grant after two decades from Australia. The private sector-led coalition has since expanded to 131 members representing over US$28 trillion in assets, including institutional investors, banks, insurers, and the governments of Australia, the UK, Canada, Jamaica, and the state of California. “The need for cross-sector and public and private collaboration will be particularly acute as governments will be more fiscally challenged after deploying immediate economic relief in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. IPCC reports clearly state that the world must decarbonize beyond the electricity sector.
Astro Teller, director of the Google X Lab, suggests that we might also one day need “movable cities” to cope with climate effects. Its Vulcan construction system can deliver homes and structures up to 3,000 square ft that meet the requirements of the International Building Code (IBC) and are expected to last as long or longer than standard Concrete Masonry Unit (CMU), making them more resilient to extreme weather. They’re the first of their kind to be sold in the United States and the firm, currently valued at around $2 billion, is working with leading U.S. home-builder Lennar to construct a community of entirely 3D-printed homes in Austin. In both Mexico and the United States, ICON is also building entire communities of 3D-printed homes, barracks for those who serve, and a simulated Martian habitat for NASA. Our built environment is a major driver of climate change and must also be a key front in adaptation.
When governments, capital market investors, commercial lenders, and businesses from multinational corporations to small enterprises work together toward climate resilience, as well as mitigation, the result will be a stronger world economy. Here, we’ll explore projects in water and agriculture and in construction and real estate. Fundamentally, climate adaptation is about evolving organizational and institutional practices and infrastructures and technologies in places that most need them — which is everywhere that faces risks such as floods and rising sea levels, droughts, and heat waves.
Because of their fixed location, real estate assets — valued at $200 trillion worldwide — are uniquely vulnerable to natural disasters and resource shortages. For example, from the Netherlands to Denmark and the Maldives to Singapore, developers and localities are planning or building floating cities that can rise with the tides and desalinate and recycle water for hydroponic agriculture. The Australian government had joined the international Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment (CCRI) to improve climate resilience and build safer communities by integrating climate risk into investment decision-making. Modeling by climate experts consistently demonstrates that the most reliable, affordable low-carbon energy system requires an increase in nuclear generation globally alongside increases in wind, solar and battery storage. The insurance conglomerate SwissRe warns that a global temperature rise of 3.2°C by 2050 would wipe 18% from global GDP.
