Browsing: <a href="/tag/international">International</a> <i class="grey">•</i> <a href="/tag/interest-group-actions">Interest group actions</a>

To make a fair contribution to global efforts, Australia must cut emissions by at least 27%, and it can't achieve cuts of that scale solely through domestic action, according to a report commissioned by WWF.

Global investors with more than $3 trillion under management have asked 45 companies - including BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, BP and Xstrata - to explain how they are planning for an 80% reduction in fossil fuel emissions by 2050.

• $77bn Future Fund knocks back carbon disclosure call
  
• NSW House passes bill to revamp coastal protection law
  
• New Zealand committee splits on party lines on trading bill changes

Former Liberal leader John Hewson and ex-ACTU president Sharan Burrows are among those behind a new global campaign that says super funds are largely 'dodgers, stallers, tricksters and pleasers' on climate change, with Hewson accusing funds of hypocrisy for backing corporate transparency through the Carbon Disclosure Project but evading scrutiny of their own actions.

Australian and international investor groups have demanded that oil and gas companies demonstrate that they are effectively controlling fugitive methane emissions, and they want intensive gas users to exert pressure as well.

ASX100 companies match their European counterparts on board level engagement on climate change, but lag well behind in setting emissions reduction targets, according to a Carbon Disclosure Project report released today.

Growing investor nervousness about carbon exposure is driving Standard & Poor's efforts to incorporate carbon risk analysis into all its credit ratings, with the roll-out beginning next year, says the agency's head of global carbon markets, Michael Wilkins.

Several loopholes must be closed to prevent the UN climate talks delivering a result that will make it all but impossible to deliver emission cuts that can avoid dangerous climate change, WWF says.

• WWF attacks BCA report
  
• Government canvasses 7 star minimum for gas water heaters
  
• Clark wins Greens support for NZ trading bill
  
• EPA Victoria to promote energy-efficient glass
  
• Defence to establish environment panel

Many bilateral investment agreements and free trade agreements give foreign investors broad powers to seek compensation for legislative changes – and these could prove a major global stumbling block to efforts to introduce climate change legislation, according to lawyer and academic Kate Miles.