Avoiding meat and dairy products is the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact on the planet, according to the scientists behind the most comprehensive analysis to date of the damage farming does to the planet.

1. Our generational challenge… Just over a week ago the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) launched its first report on the target of limiting global temperature rise to 5˚C. This is timely. Extreme weather around the world, when warming has reached at only 1°C, highlights the dangers.

Big Oil has repeatedly lied about the impact of burning fossil fuels on our environment. In a repeat of tactics that delayed tobacco regulation for decades, the major oil companies have hidden evidence and paid for junk science by climate deniers. As a result of inaction, millions of people have suffered from air pollution, toxic waste and climate change, particularly those who are vulnerable and living in impoverished communities.

Last week I was part of a panel at the Responsible Investment New Zealand Conference 2018 discussing investor responses to a changing climate. It was great to see this as a topic for discussion. I believe that investor-led action, and holding the companies we invest in to account, is critical to tackling climate change.

The financial sector, and institutional investors in particular, have an important role in the fight against climate change. Not only does it pose a major risk to economic growth; climate change threatens the homes and livelihoods of millions of people. The onus is on all of us – governments, business, communities and society – to work together to understand the impacts of climate change and take appropriate action.

An international report has stressed the need for changes never seen before, in all aspects of our society, to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial averages.

The difference between 1.5°C and 2.0°C would change the impact of sea level rise, the survival of our coastal ecosystems and the availability of food and water resources, was also highlighted in the report.

One of the findings included the need to make deep reductions in methane and black carbon, both by 35 percent or more by 2050, compared to 2010 emissions.

The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was prepared following the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015.

OPINION: As an investor, it's not relevant whether you believe the science of climate change stacks up.

The weight of evidence is compelling, but set that aside. The world has changed, your investments are already starting to price in climate change.

Carbon credits are now currency in today's economy and therefore a company's carbon footprint is starting to become as important as its profits, for assessing a share's value.

High carbon companies will be forced to reorganise their activities, or they will be sold down by investors.

Those positioning their investment portfolios to recognise this should win, whether global warming actually happens or not.

While directly not concerning responsible investment, this issue clearly has implications for what we invest in (Jonathan Neal).

Brexit; the crushing of democracy by billionaires; the next financial crash; a rogue US president: none of them keeps me awake at night. This is not because I don’t care – I care very much. It’s only because I have a bigger question on my mind. Where is all the food going to come from?

By the middle of this century there will be two or three billion more people on Earth. Any one of the issues I am about to list could help precipitate mass starvation. And this is before you consider how they might interact.

Until recently the battle to avert catastrophic climate change – floods, droughts, famine, mass migrations – seemed to be lost. But with the tipping point just years away, the tide is finally turning, thanks to innovations ranging from cheap renewables to lab-grown meat and electric airplanes

Pressure has mounted on foundations linked to the University of Auckland to pull their money from fossil fuel companies, with 240 university staff signing an open letter backing the shift.

The letter - signed by prominent faculty members including Dame Anne Salmond, Professor Jane Kelsey, Dr Niki Harre and Professor Peter Adams - comes two weeks after 13 students staged a 12-hour sit-in at Vice-Chancellor Stuart McCutcheon's wing in the university's historic clock tower.

Church Leaders and Churches Climate Network joins those galvanizing for Climate action and laments US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

5th June 2017 F.
The Churches Climate Network in New Zealand profoundly laments the withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement for climate stabilization.
The US decision shows the forces of economic self interest clashing with tide of long term transitions to an economy aligned with the planet. ‘The Paris Agreement brought about global recognition of human interdependence with the biosphere and churches are taking action for the transition’ says Rev. Dr Betsan Martin, Convenor of the Churches Climate Network.