Climate and finance

 

Climate risks are financial risks. The Paris Climate Agreement means ‘business as usual’ is no longer an option. Australian regulators have confirmed climate change is a financial risk. Barristers’ advice puts directors on notice for not considering the risks. Government officials must act with care and diligence. These are the new realities for investors and financiers.

But climate change risks are not being taken seriously. That’s where we step in.

EJA exposed serious flaws in plans for a government subsidy to support Adani’s Carmichael project – a proposal for the world’s largest new coal mine. The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) considered lending $1 billion in taxpayers’ money to a coal railway to service Adani’s mine. EJA exposed NAIF board members’ conflicts of interest, raised serious questions about NAIF’s Risk Appetite Statement and its Anti-Money Laundering policy and advised that NAIF’s officials would breach their duties if the loan proceeds.

EJA’s research has revealed the legal framework governing the operation of Australia’s Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC) contains Constitutional, political and legal roadblocks that would preclude loans and payments for projects like Adani’s Carmichael coal mine. Read our report and analysis.

EJA is the only legal practice in the world to file court proceedings against a bank over climate risk disclosure. In July 2017 we lodged the case in the Federal Court of Australia against the largest public company in Australia, the Commonwealth Bank. The case was brought by long-term shareholders alleging the bank failed to adequately disclose climate related risks in its annual report.

A report by EJA, Fracking the Northern Territory, examined the NT Government’s recent decision to lift its popular moratorium on hydraulic fracturing following a scientific inquiry into the impacts of fracking. In July 2018 EJA, on behalf of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), has requested that the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) remove an exemption that allows Jemena’s Northern Gas Pipeline to not comply with National Gas Rules. The exemption means consumers could be out of pocket more than $2.5 billion over 15 years when buying fracked Northern Territory gas funnelled through Jemena’s pipeline.

Adani: Legal analysis and correspondence on behalf of clients

Adani: Legal analysis and correspondence on behalf of clients

February 3, 2021

Stopping AGL’s gas import terminal to protect Westernport Bay

October 30, 2020

Adani’s overseas breaches

September 30, 2020

Human rights and climate justice

August 28, 2020

Summer legal experience on the Torres Strait

March 31, 2020

A protest sign being held up in the air that reads 'Wake Up' with an image of the earth burning

Updates to Victoria’s climate change response

March 31, 2020

Law students apart of the climate justice law clinic

Growing the next wave of climate justice lawyers

November 29, 2019

Australian govt releases climate risk guidelines following landmark court cases

December 21, 2018

NT’s deal with gas company to cost consumers $2.7 billion and enable fracking

December 10, 2018

Climate and finance: news and media

January 20, 2021

UN Human Rights Council Members Urge Australia to Adopt Stronger Climate Measures Now to Protect Human Rights

December 3, 2020

Lawyers for north-Queensland teenagers ask State Bank of India to halt billion dollar loan as Australian government reviews Adani/Bravus coal mine approval 

October 22, 2020

Qld teenagers present critical new evidence to revoke approval of Adani coal mine  

September 7, 2020

Suitable Scrutiny: QLD environment law must be fixed so that there can be proper scrutiny of Adani Minings suitable operator status

September 1, 2020

Environmental lawyers warn Bayswater coal ash dump expansion cannot proceed until coal ash inquiry is complete, as hearings begin  

August 12, 2020

‘Unfair and unprecedented’: public denied scrutiny of controversial gas plan as planning minister ignores government guidelines