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[sarkasm] 26/9/2018 13:13

Climate risk reporting lacks financial impact analysis

The majority of companies are reporting information about climate-related risks and opportunities, but few disclose the financial impact of climate change on the company, according to an impact study by the task force on climate-related financial disclosures (TCFD)

26 Sep 2018
Pat Sweet
Pat Sweet

Reporter, Accountancy Daily, published by Croner-i Ltd
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Its status report provides an overview of the extent to which companies in their 2017 reports included information aligned with the core TCFD recommendations published in June 2017. The report also provides information to support preparers of disclosures in implementing the TCFD recommendations.

The TCFD surveyed disclosures of over 1,700 firms from diverse sectors with broad geographical representation. It found that the majority of the firms surveyed disclose information aligned with at least one of the TCFD recommended disclosures.

However, while many companies describe climate-related risks and opportunities, only a small number report on the likely financial impact of these.

A minority of companies disclose forward-looking climate targets or the resilience of their strategies under different climate-related scenarios, including a 2°C or lower scenario, which is a key area of focus for the task force.

The study also revealed that disclosures vary widely across industries. For example, more non-financial companies reported their climate-related metrics and target than did financial companies. However, financial companies were more likely to disclose how they had embedded climate risk into overall risk management.

Disclosures are often made in sustainability reports or spread across financial filings, annual and sustainability reports, the research found.

The TCFD, which was established by the Financial Stability Board (FSB), said it was encouraged that a majority of companies were making disclosures aligned with one or more of its recommendations, given the limited amount of time available to organisations to take these onboard.

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England and FSB chair, said: ‘Today’s announcement shows that climate-disclosure is becoming mainstream.

‘The TCFD’s status report based on companies’ 2017 financial filings, demonstrates the practical, decision-useful nature of the recommendations.

‘As preparers, financial institutions and investors “learn by doing”, a virtuous cycle will be created where more and better information creates the imperatives for others to adopt the TCFD and for everyone to up their game on the quality of information they provide.’

In the report, the TCFD says that over the next nine months, the task force will continue to promote and monitor adoption of its recommendations and will prepare a second status report for the FSB in mid-2019.

The report stated: ‘The task force believes the success of its recommendations depends on continued, widespread adoption by companies in the financial and non-financial sectors.

‘Through widespread adoption, climate-related risks and opportunities will become a natural part of companies’ risk management and strategic planning processes.

‘As this occurs, companies’ and investors’ understanding of the financial implications associated with climate change will grow, information will become more useful for decision making, and risks and opportunities will be more accurately priced, allowing for the more efficient allocation of capital.’

The TCFD announced that the number of firms supporting its recommendations has grown to over 500, with market capitalisations of over $7.9 trillion, and including financial firms responsible for assets of nearly $100 trillion. This compares with 100 firms when the recommendations were launched in June 2017.

Report by Pat Sweet

[ariane] 21/8/2018 20:27

Thick sea ice in the coldest areas of the Arctic is breaking apart for the first time on record

Waters off north coast of Greenland thought to be last hit by climate change
But, scientists have found that the old, thick ice in this area has broken apart
Sea ice here broke apart twice this year, which has never been recorded before

By Cheyenne Macdonald For Dailymail.com

Published: 19:40 BST, 21 August 2018 | Updated: 19:42 BST, 21 August 2018

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A patch of frozen water off the north coast of Greenland once known as ‘the last ice area’ has begun to break apart for the first time on record.

This area of the Arctic is home to the oldest and thickest ice in the region, which has until now withstood the effects of climate change.

While the break-up of sea ice in this part of the Arctic has never been documented in the past, experts say it’s happened twice this year alone as a result of warm winds and hotter temperatures, according to The Guardian.

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A patch of frozen water off the north coast of Greenland once known as ‘the last ice area’ has begun to break apart for the first time. File photo
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A patch of frozen water off the north coast of Greenland once known as ‘the last ice area’ has begun to break apart for the first time. File photo

The waters off the north coast of Greenland are situated in some of the coldest parts of the Arctic, and it’s long been assumed that they would be among the last to experience the melting effects seen in other areas.
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After a period of unusual warmth this past February and at the beginning of August, however, it now appears that may not be the case, The Guardian reports.

The drifting ice has now opened up the biggest gap from the coast ever recorded.

‘Almost all of the ice to the north of Greenland is quite shattered and broken up and therefore more mobile,’ Ruth Mottram of the Danish Meteorological Institute told The Guardian.

On social media, other scientists have said the recent phenomenon is 'scary,' with one animation shared by researcher Leif Toudal showing how the ice has moved.
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Arctic sea ice extent now sits at around 5.7 million square kilometers (2.2 million square miles), according to NSIDC. The sea ice is shown above, with the yellow line representing the median ice edge from 1981-2010
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Arctic sea ice extent now sits at around 5.7 million square kilometers (2.2 million square miles), according to NSIDC. The sea ice is shown above, with the yellow line representing the median ice edge from 1981-2010

It’s just the latest in a worrying trend as Arctic sea ice continues to dwindle as a result of the changing climate.

Sea ice extent declined rapidly at the beginning of the summer, and while it isn’t expected to set a new record minimum this coming September, experts estimate it will still be among the lowest in 40 years of keeping track.

‘Through the first two weeks of August, ice extent declined at approximately 65,000 square kilometers (25,100 square miles) per day, slightly faster than the 1981 to 2010 average of 57,000 square kilometers (22,000 square miles) per day,’ according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center.

The pace has finally begun to slow after weeks of above-average activity.
Video playing bottom right...
Sea ice extent declined rapidly at the beginning of the summer, and while it isn’t expected to set a new record minimum this coming September, experts estimate it will still be among the lowest in 40 years of keeping track. The 2018 levels are shown as the blue line above
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Sea ice extent declined rapidly at the beginning of the summer, and while it isn’t expected to set a new record minimum this coming September, experts estimate it will still be among the lowest in 40 years of keeping track. The 2018 levels are shown as the blue line above
WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF LOWER SEA ICE LEVELS?

The amount of Arctic sea ice peaks around March as winter comes to a close.

NASA recently announced that the maximum amount of sea ice this year was low, following three other record-low measurements taken in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

This can lead to a number of negative effects that impact climate, weather patterns, plant and animal life and indigenous human communities.
The amount of sea ice in the Arctic is declining, and this has dangerous consequences, NASA says
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The amount of sea ice in the Arctic is declining, and this has dangerous consequences, NASA says

Additionally, the disappearing ice can alter shipping routes and affect coastal erosion and ocean circulation.

NASA researcher Claire Parkinson said: 'The Arctic sea ice cover continues to be in a decreasing trend and this is connected to the ongoing warming of the Arctic.

'It's a two-way street: the warming means less ice is going to form and more ice is going to melt, but, also, because there's less ice, less of the sun's incident solar radiation is reflected off, and this contributes to the warming.'

Arctic sea ice extent sits at 5.7 million square kilometers (2.2 million square miles) as of August 15, according to NSIDC.

This puts it lower than the average, but still above the record minimum, the experts explain.

The current extent is ‘1.58 million square kilometers (610,000 square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 average, but 868,000 square kilometers (335,000 square miles) above the record low at this time of year recorded in 2012,’ according to NSIDC.

The scientists say the 2018 minimum extent will likely sit between the fourth and ninth lowest on record.

[ariane] 23/5/2018 08:49

POSSIBLE WATER SHORTAGES UK

[sarkasm] 12/4/2018 14:01

News
Climate change is slowing down the Atlantic Ocean

By Associated Press

April 11, 2018 | 3:37pm
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Climate change is slowing down the Atlantic Ocean
The Bahamas as seen from space. NASA
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WASHINGTON — Global warming is likely slowing the main Atlantic Ocean circulation, which has plunged to its weakest level on record, according to a new study.

The slowdown in the circulation — a crucial part of Earth’s climate — had been predicted by computer models, but researchers said they can now observe it. It could make for more extreme weather across the Northern Hemisphere, especially Europe, and could increase sea level rise along the US East Coast, they said.

The slowdown also raises the prospect of a complete circulation shutdown, which would be a dangerous “tipping point,” according to a study in Wednesday’s journal Nature.

Such a shutdown was the premise of the scientifically inaccurate 2004 disaster movie “The Day After Tomorrow.” Study authors said a collapse is at least decades away but would be a catastrophe.

“We know somewhere out there is a tipping point where this current system is likely to break down,” said study co-author Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “We still don’t know how far away or close to this tipping point we might be. … This is uncharted territory.”

Some other scientists are skeptical, citing a scarcity of data.

The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, called AMOC, is a key conveyor belt for ocean water and air, creating weather. Warm salty water moves north from the tropics along the Gulf Stream off the US East Coast to the North Atlantic, where it cools, sinks and heads south. The faster it moves, the more water is turned over from warm surface to cool depths.

“This overturning circulation redistributes heat on our planet,” said study lead author Levke Caesar, a physicist at the Potsdam Institute. “It brings heat from the tropics to the high latitudes.”

The Caesar study and another one published in the same issue of Nature by a different team indicate that the Atlantic’s circulation is the weakest it’s been in about 1,500 years. And the slowdown is intensifying.

Since the middle of the 20th century, the speed at which the ocean moves water in the AMOC has dropped 15 percent, the study found, using cold subpolar water temperatures as an indirect measurement. And it has plummeted in recent years, the study concluded.

The Gulf Stream, the warm water current where hurricanes can power up, historically veers away from the United States around the Carolinas or Virginia. The Gulf Stream now hugs closer to coast around New York, and there’s a significantly warmer bulge around Maine related to the circulation slowdown, Rahmstorf and Caesar said. The northern US Atlantic coastal waters have warmed faster than most parts of the ocean in recent decades, researchers said.

Scientists blame global warming in a couple of ways.

Warmer water lessens the amount of cooling and makes it harder for the water to sink and turn over. Ice sheets and glaciers in Greenland are melting and the fresh water is pouring into the area where the water turns over, making it less salty, less dense and therefore less likely to sink. There’s also more rain and snow in northern areas and more evaporation in southern areas, altering the flow, Rahmstorf said.

“It’s a slow change at the moment, but we’re changing it,” Caesar said. “One danger is in the unknown of what will happen. We should expect changes.”

Rahmstorf and Caesar looked at an established cold patch — about 2 million square miles, or the size of India and Mexico combined — as the indirect measurements for the speed of the AMOC, calling it a fingerprint of the ocean circulation.

It’s clear that the circulation is weakening, said Colorado State hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach, who wasn’t part of the studies. Decades ago, that would have meant weaker Atlantic hurricane activity, but that hasn’t been happening and it could mean there is a difference in weakening in winter and summer, he said.

Andreas Schmittner at Oregon State University, who also wasn’t part of the studies, said the Potsdam group’s analysis makes sense, adding that as the world emits more greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels, we can expect it to slow further.

But MIT’s Carl Wunsch said that the paper’s “assertions of weakening are conceivable, but unsupported by any data.”

And Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research said his recent work faults regular cycles in the atmosphere more than the ocean. He said the Potsdam study doesn’t explain year to year variability, while atmospheric cycles do.

Rahmstorf said his study averages data over a decade at a time to render year-to-year changes less meaningful. The work shows that it is ocean circulation that drives the changes in atmosphere, not the other way around, he said.

[sarkasm] 12/4/2018 09:51

Heavy rain storms prompt weather alerts
Thorsten Krienke / CC BY-SA 2.0 You'll need a brolly if you're out and about in the Alpes-Maritimes, Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Var today

Three departments in south of France on alert for heavy rain and floods

Three departments in the south of France are on heightened alert for rain and floods on Thursday.

The Alpes-Maritimes, Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Var remain on orange weather warnings - the second-highest alert level issued by Meteo France.

The national forecaster said that heavy rain was set continue throughout the day and into the evening. It warned of long and severe storms in the southeast, while storms in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques would be concentrated along the Basque coast.

The clouds in the southeast will be driven by strong easterly winds in Provence, where gusts of up to 70kph are expected.

Local storms are also predicted from the Charente to the Belgian border, and could reach Burgundy and Brittany by the evening. Meteo France said that repeated thundery rain showers are forecast from the Massif Central to the Alps in the afternoon.

Towards the northeast, morning cloud is expected to break up, allowing the sun to break through by the afternoon.

[sarkasm] 12/4/2018 09:33

Natural disasters in 2017 cost record $144 billion: Swiss Re
Natural disasters in 2017 cost record $144 billion: Swiss Re
Residents of Houston, Texas after Hurricane Harvey. Photo: AFP
AFP
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@thelocalswitzer
11 April 2018
09:14 CEST+02:00
The cost of natural disasters hit a record $144 billion (€117 billion) last year, a study from one of the world's top reinsurance firms, Swiss Re, said onTuesday.

A full $92 billion of those losses were caused by three hurricanes – Harvey, Irma and Maria – that battered the United States and the Caribbean, the report said.

The company's chief for catastrophes, Martin Bertogg, warned that insurers need to be prepared for more years that see multiple, severe hurricanes.

Read also: Switzerland at risk of potentially 'devastating' floods this spring

"This is important from a risk management perspective, as it will help insurers – and, ultimately society – be better prepared for similar magnitude events in the future," Bertogg said in a statement.

Swiss Re also described 2017 as "a record year for wildfires", with such blazes resulting in $14 billion worth of insurance losses, also a record.

The heaviest wildfire damage occurred in the United States and Canada, while Portugal also suffered "uncontrollable" forest fires caused by high temperatures and strong winds, the study said.

Multiple insurers reported severe financial losses linked to the string of significant natural disasters in 2017.

Overall, natural and man-made disasters triggered $337 billion in economic losses last year, double the 2016 mark, according to Swiss Re.

Experts say that the impact of weather disasters like hurricanes, storm surges, heatwaves and extreme rainfall is worsening, consistent with predictions about climate change.

[sarkasm] 05/4/2018 09:59

Greenland Ice Sheet is Melting at its Fastest Rate in 400 years
Sea ice is seen from NASA's Operation IceBridge research aircraft off the northwest coast on March 30, 2017 above Greenland. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The Greenland ice sheet is melting at its fastest rate in 400 years at a pace that has nearly doubled since the end of the 19th century, according to a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

VIDEO: Finding Out How Fast Greenland Is Melting

That could have major consequences for global sea level rise, according to online environmental magazine Yale Environment 360.

The Greenland ice sheet contains about 8 percent of the ice on earth, and if all of it were to melt in the coming centuries, global sea levels would rise by 20 feet.

The Washington Post notes that the melting is already impacting sea level rise.

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In recent years, as Arctic air and ocean temperatures have risen, Greenland has been losing more ice through melting on its surface and through iceberg breaks at its periphery. It’s currently contributing almost a millimeter annually to the rising of the oceans, more even than Antarctica.

And the research suggests that global warming is largely to blame.

[T]he study also noted that during past eras of warm seas or high blocking, melt wasn’t as extreme — suggesting that the steady global warming trend, representing a more than 2 degree Fahrenheit rise in Greenland since the preindustrial era, is the key to separating the present from past. — The Washington Post

When placed in the broader context of our planet's history, the findings are pretty alarming, says lead researcher Erich Osterberg, a Dartmouth glaciologist.

Quick Facts on Ice Sheets

“The last time it was as warm as now, we were getting much more radiation from the sun because of Earth’s orbit, and that was probably [7,000] or 8,000 years ago,” Osterberg told the Post.

Interactive: As Greenland Melts, Where’s the Water Going?
Meanwhile "Scientific American" notes that while icebergs get plenty of media coverage, more attention needs to be paid to surface melting when assessing Greenland's ice loss.

Much of the recent attention on Greenland’s ice loss has focused on icebergs breaking away from the ice sheet’s glaciers, eye-catching events that often draw media attention and capture the public’s imagination. But research suggests that melting from the surface of the ice sheet actually accounts for more than half of Greenland’s ice loss.

And with global warming becoming the norm, looking at the impact of greenhouse emissions will become crucial when making evaluations of sea level rise.

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“Essentially, the weather patterns that control these year-to-year changes become less and less important when you look over longer time scales," Osterberg told Scientific American. "Several decades into the future, the long-term warming trend from greenhouse gases — that’s going to dominate the signal.”