Media release: NAB achieves carbon neutrality

National Australia Bank (NAB) is pleased to announce that it has fulfilled its commitment to become carbon neutral by September 2010. In so doing it has become one of Australia’s largest carbon neutral companies. NAB’s key operations in regions around the world have played a part in meeting this commitment.

Gavin Slater, Group Executive Group Business Services, said in 2007 NAB recognised the

importance of acting to address its impact on the environment, and that today NAB was proud to have reached the milestone of carbon neutrality.

“Today I want to especially acknowledge NAB’s employees who have been instrumental in delivering our carbon neutral program. It is as a result of the passion and dedication of our employees over the last three years, that we have been able to really bring to life NAB’s initiatives to address the impact of our operations on the environment,” Mr Slater added.

NAB’s process for achieving carbon neutrality has involved:

• Defining and measuring NAB’s carbon inventory or ‘footprint’;

• Reducing NAB’s greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency and demand

management;

• Avoiding greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing energy from renewable sources where

practicable;

• Offsetting remaining greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing quality accredited carbon

offsets; and

• Verifying and reporting on our progress, including by obtaining external assurance.

“NAB’s primary focus in achieving carbon neutrality has been on energy efficiency, particularly in Australia which is the Group’s most significant business region. Since 2006, NAB has delivered an efficiency program which has resulted in Australian savings of around 60,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per annum. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of about 13,500 cars,” Mr Slater said.

Initiatives that formed part of this efficiency program include environmental performance upgrades at 350 branches and business banking centres (including adjustments to heating, cooling and lighting), sustainable office refurbishments in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide, establishment of a tri-generation plant at NAB’s major Australian data centre (which uses gas as a cleaner source of generation and captures excess heat to power cooling and heating equipment), and increasing the number of low-emission vehicles in the business car fleet.

“NAB’s aim is to implement additional efficiencies in its operations by further reducing our use of

energy, as well as waste, water and paper usage. We are also keen to continue to grow our

renewable energy project finance portfolio and provide financial solutions to customers to support their uptake of solar hot water and solar power systems,” Mr Slater said.

For further information and details about NAB’s carbon neutrality, including how we have calculated our carbon inventory and the offsets we have purchased, please go to www.nabgroup.com.

A consensus for climate change action?

Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard has called for a 'community consensus for action' on climate change via a citizens' assembly before moving to establish a price on carbon. This announcement is part of the Prime Minister's election campaign for the federal elections due to be held in August 2010.

While it is agreeable to involve the public in the climate change debate, a citizens' assembly, consisting of a hundred or so randomly selected Australians, is unlikely to bring about workeable results based on well-researched facts. The climate change debate is already suffering greatly from misinformation and lobbying, and is likely to slope down further into depths beyond reach for a sensible solution to the problem.

And while taxes and a price on carbon are being discussed now, how much of this can we expect to be turned into a working mechanism after the elections are over? Is the emissions trading scheme still salvageable, or will we continue to talk and discuss in ever greater settings?

If you are an individual or business owner wanting to make a difference, taking voluntary action might be your best choice. One thing we can assume without doubt is that hoping for a consensus will probably never give us the solution we need. As in all areas of politics, there will always be voices to speak out against a climate change action policy. Why are we so willing to surrender to these voices, while out of context and concerning other issues they seem easy to override?

Hu says China committed to fighting climate change

Reuters (UK) reported yesterday that President Hu Jintao (China) was committed to fighting climate change, both at home and in cooperation with the rest of the world, but stopped short of offering any new policies. Britain, Sweden and other countries have accused China of obstructing December's Copenhagen climate summit, which ended with a non-binding accord that set a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius but was scant on details.

So while the finger pointing continues, I ask myself when Sweden, Britain & Co. last offered new climate change policies. Was China's obvious reluctance to agreeing to a binding agreement in Copenhagen really an obstruction for others or has it offered a way out for those who never really wanted to act but felt the pressure from the international community? Who these days is still really committed to fighting climate change?

I cannot but wonder what goes on behind closed doors, both in individual countries and in international meetings. It might well be that a country's verbal committment to fighting climate change is all we can hope for at the moment, even though words are seldom followed by actions these days. I personally welcome China's announcement as it shows climate change is on the agenda, and is hopefully being taken seriously. What follows might write history or turn out to be yet another one of many empty promises. We can only wait and see.

Earth Hour 2010 official video - help spread the message!

Climate change action falls vicitim to political turmoil

Today the New York Times reported that carbon trading is losing momentum amid the uncertainty created by the failure of the Copenhagen summit and President Obama's political troubles in the United States. That's not even counting in general cuts on spending (still) due to the financial crisis. With investors acorss the world steering clear of carbon credit generating projects, it seems the well established European Union’s Emission Trading System is the only one most likely to survive. This comes as a big disappointment to those who hoped that the carbon market would quickly grow into a $2-trillion-a-year business.

While this is worrying in economical terms, it is even more worrying in terms of the environmental impact this trend will have. It is no secret that climate scepticism is on the rise everywhere, with political parties now taking clear side against those in favour of climate action. Gone are the times when one needed to tread carefully to not upset the general public. We only need to look at the Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott to understand that lobbying against climate change action is now being widely exploited as a tool to gain workers' votes with an aim to win elections. Climate change has once more been degraded to a mere PR instrument, but this time the cause is to fight climate change supporters rather than to fight the threat itself. Unfortunately, while we can all do out bit, we will not be able to limit the effects of climate change without the support of our leaders. This is not only a worrying but a life-threatening development.

Climate scepticism is on the rise

The number of climate change sceptics is rising, while climate change scientists are losing a 'PR-War' against sceptics with vested interests, the BBC reported within the last week.

This might have to do with the fact that Europe and America are experiencing the worst Winter of the Century, with snowfalls so heavy several cities have run out of salt to distribute on the roads. The trend that climate change is now less of an issue than it was two years ago is true and verifyable. We are no longer in the aftermath of Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth, but in the phase of slow recovery from a global financial crisis. People worry about their jobs more than about the environment.

At the same time there still seems to be a persistent preconception that tackling climate change requires money and sacrifices from everyone. If we are to wage a PR war against the scpetics, it might be worth focussing on the fact that living a more environmentally friendly life is actually most often the more economical alternative. I am saving heaps since I've started leaving the car at home and walking to the supermarket. I don't have to pay for fuel as often, and I make conscious choices about what to buy because I know I will have to carry it home. Buying less food means that close to nothing goes bad in my fridge and ends up in landfill uneaten. I am also noticing that I feel fitter and healthier because of the extra exercise I get, which saves on my gym costs.

Of course we are not talking about big business here. But to those who are sceptic about climate change because they fear it might demand greater sacrifices from them than they already had to make over the past year, I would like to say that many rational arguments can refute this assumption. Saving on fuel, electricity, and water costs is a logical conclusion of living a climate friendly life, not an extra burden.

International Year of Biodiversity 2010

The United Nations declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity. It is a celebration of life on earth and of the value of biodiversity for our lives. The world is invited to take action in 2010 to safeguard the variety of life on earth.

Why celebrate biodiversity?
You are an integral part of nature; your fate is tightly linked with biodiversity, the huge variety of other animals and plants, the places they live and their surrounding environments, all over the world.

You rely on this diversity of life to provide you with the food, fuel, medicine and other essentials you simply cannot live without. Yet this rich diversity is being lost at a greatly accelerated rate because of human activities. This impoverishes us all and weakens the ability of the living systems, on which we depend, to resist growing threats such as climate change.

The United Nations proclaimed 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity, and people all over the world are working to safeguard this irreplaceable natural wealth and reduce biodiversity loss. This is vital for current and future human wellbeing. We need to do more. Now is the time to act.

The International Year of Biodiversity is a unique opportunity to increase understanding of the vital role that biodiversity plays in sustaining life on Earth.

Visit the International Year of Biodiversity website to find out more!