Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Mixed signals anyone? As debate rages over the Aussie government funding a new gas generator, businesses are being coerced to increase their disclosure of alleged climate risks.
ASIC targets fossil fuel companies over climate change
Michael Roddan
Senior companies reporter
Jun 1, 2021 – 4.45pmA $700 million oil and gas exploration group chaired by Future Fund guardian John Poynton and National COVID-19 Commission boss Nev Power was one of five fossil fuel firms warned by the corporate regulator they risked breaking the law because of non-disclosure of climate change risks.
The intervention by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in mid-2020 was among the regulator’s first forays into the market as it ramps up its regulation of climate-related disclosures for shareholders.
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The warnings were all triggered by complaints received by ASIC that alleged the companies’ operating reviews and directors’ reports failed to disclose risks posed to the businesses by climate change. While auditors do not audit directors’ reports in the annual reports, they are required to ensure any information in a director’s report is consistent with the audited operating and financial review.
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In his letters, ASIC senior manager Ben Phillips warned Strike Energy, Carnarvon Petroleum, Pancontinental, Whitebark and Leigh Creek that the companies’ 2019 annual reports were “inconsistent and out of step” with other energy companies “without any clearly discernible explanation as to why this might be the case”.
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Read more: https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/asic-targets-fossil-fuel-companies-over-climate-change-20210531-p57wq4
In my opinion this contradiction is straight out of Atlas Shrugged.
The Australian Government is utterly dependent on revenue from extractive industries, yet some government bodies appear to be doing everything in their power to kill the industries which pay their wages. Just losing coal exports would turn Australia’s comfortable current account surplus into a deficit.
Yet even as one half of the government seeks to prop up dispatchable power with subsides, the courts and regulators are attempting to throw absurd new obstacles in the path of companies delivering prosperity to the Australian people.
Much as I detest the possibility Australia would follow Biden’s path to high cost climate non-achievement, in some ways what the Aussie government is doing right now is even worse.
Imagine you were a fossil fuel investor, or even a renewable investor. What would your answer be, if someone asked whether Australia was offering a stable regulatory environment, to encourage job creating investment in the Australian economy?
Disclosing the risks of climate change will not be possible until someone—anyone—clearly and accurately defines the phrase “climate change”.
To wit, is “climate change”:
— the world getting hotter in summers, or colder in winters?
— the world suffering from flooding, or from droughts?
— the world suffering from too much CO2, or too little CO2 for optimum crop growth to feed humanity?
— the world suffering from too much cloud cover, or too little cloud cover?
— the world suffering from too much or too little atmospheric water vapor (the predominant greenhouse gas)?
— the world suffering from its oceans shifting very slightly in average pH (range of 8.2-8.1)?
— the world suffering from too many insects (pests), or too few insects (species extinction)?
— the world suffering from too many El Ninos, or too many La Ninas?
— the world suffering from too much wind (claimed increase in storms of all types) or too little wind (for windmill power farms to be reliable)?
— the world suffering from currently being in an interglacial period, as opposed to being in a glacial period?
— all of the above, or none of the above but something else?
I am a self funded retired Australian. I have no faith in our politicians and senior beaurocracy. There are no scientists amongst them, and they listen only to a few activists. Most major industry has been force to close, or is in the process of being closed. Despite booming exports and rocketing prices, coal is probably next, then aluminum. I am very disillusioned at the absolute ignorance of our ruling class.
I am very slowly moving assets off shore to fund my retirement.
The Ruling Class are caught up in the delusion.
It’s scary when the Ruling Class believes in something, like Catastrophic Human-caused Climate Change, that has not been shown to be real.
This shows just how powerful and influential propaganda and disinformation can be in forming public opinion. We are in trouble because scoundrels and delusional people are in charge of the information we receive.
It’s looking more like “Idiocracy” in the West as time goes on. Certainly in the United States. Joe Biden is the posterboy for Idiocracy.
Do the Chinese owned companies who are extracting come under the same ASIC rules?
I yearn for the day when some company has the gonads to “disclose” that its greatest climate-related risk is the one that stems from idiots in government who believe (or pretend) they can control the weather politically.
Imagine you were a carmaker, whose products rely on fuel to drive. What would your answer be, if someone insists on hiking the fuel tax? Car manufacturers have been carrying the can for so long. Previously, when it comes to cars, we think of exhaust, fuel consumption, and polluting the air environment. But nowadays, companies are increasingly aware of their social responsibility and are constantly improving their technology to reduce the environmental pollution caused by driving. Volkswagen Beetle is a typical example.
These complaints allege that the companies’ operating reviews and directors’ reports fail to disclose the risks posed to the business by climate change. While auditors do not audit the directors’ reports in annual reports, they must ensure that any information in the directors’ reports is consistent with the audited operating and financial reviews.