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.