When we started The Sunrise Project in 2012, we established a small grants fund for local community groups working to solve the climate crisis. Named in memory of activist Peter Gray, the fund has since given 109 grants totalling over $600,000 to groups all over Australia. On the ten year anniversary of Peter Gray’s passing, … […]
By Justin Guay. First published on Green Tech Media. For just 5 percent of what the U.S. has spent on its COVID-19 recovery package, it could have bought out and retired every coal plant in the world. Instead, the U.S. coal industry is benefiting from recovery programs while the world continues to subsidise old, uneconomic coal plants … […]
Central Banks Should Not Prop Up Foundering Fossil Fuel Firms By Justin Guay. First published in Foreign Affairs. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed climate change from the headlines, but it has hardly arrested it. In the last month, the warming Indian Ocean has encouraged swarms of locusts to hop from East Africa to South Asia. … […]
We are very excited to welcome our new Chair, Claire Mallinson who brings to the Sunrise Project Board strong strategic and campaigning expertise, business acumen and governance experience. Claire has over three decades of senior leadership experience with non-government organisations, both in Australia and internationally, operating in the environment, human rights, disability and health research … […]
First published in China Dialogue by Yiting Wang and Alison Kirsch. The 2020s have already proven to be replete with unprecedented challenges – and we’re only a few months in. The coronavirus pandemic is underscoring the extent to which the world is unprepared for global-scale disasters. And yet the climate crisis looms as another international … […]
With images of protests across the US dominating headlines around the world, the outpouring of anger and global solidarity in response to the murder of George Floyd exposes the profound structural racism and injustice that simmers below the surface, not only in the US but in so many countries. In Australia we have our own … […]
When it comes to addressing the economic crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic how we spend the vast sums of public money being generated could forever alter the fossil fuel era. But all is not equal when it comes to marshaling resources to fight the crisis. Indeed, the world is increasingly being sorted into two camps … […]
In 2013, 3,000 insurance executives were polled to identify the most serious extreme risks facing the industry. By a large margin, they identified the world’s greatest threat as “a new, highly infectious and fatal” pandemic. In case you were wondering, an “invasion of non-peace-seeking aliens” was ranked lowest among 57 different risk factors. In 2008 … […]
The insurance industry’s shift away from coal, the biggest source of CO2 emissions, is accelerating. When we launched our 2019 coal insurance scorecard in early December, we were excited to see that since April 2017, 17 insurers had withdrawn from the coal sector. What used to be a European phenomenon had also ignited action among … […]
Today, after more than a year of increasing pressure from climate activists, investors, legislators, and thought leaders, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, in his highly-anticipated annual letter to CEOs and to clients, announced a sweeping new set of policies which aim to put climate change and sustainability at the centre of BlackRock’s business model. BlackRock is … […]
46% of reinsurance market and 37% of industry’s global assets covered by coal exit policies. The number of insurers withdrawing cover for coal has more than doubled in 2019 as the industry’s retreat from the sector accelerates and spreads beyond Europe, the Unfriend Coal campaign reveals today in its third annual scorecard on insurance, coal … […]
Currently, Australia’s coal-based electricity grid is one of the most polluting in the OECD, and environment groups – representing more than a million Australians – are calling for a plan to make a fast and fair shift to renewable energy. As the nation’s political leaders prepare to meet at COAG Energy Council meeting for the … […]
Calls for the financial system to wake up to the looming threat of climate change are growing louder by the day. Those calls have been coming most clearly from the Bank of England under Governor Mark Carney, who last week warned the treasury committee of global finance’s role in driving the climate crisis. The problem is … […]
From Unfriend Coal’s Blog The All Blacks are the world’s most successful rugby team and a symbol of New Zealand’s national pride. They are also the favourite with the bookies to win this year’s Rugby World Cup, which starts in Japan later this week. The All Blacks invited controversy in 2012 when they allowed US … […]
The growing risks associated with financing new coal projects have driven European and American institutional investors to seek returns up to 4 times greater than those for other sources of energy, according to a survey by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. Why it matters: The cost of capital is a key determinant of whether new coal plants … […]
Thanks to the declining costs of wind and solar energy, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico and other states have made plans to retire old coal plants early — paving the way for deeper penetration of clean energy. The big picture: At least 36 gigawatts (GW) of the country’s 260 GW of existing coal generation are forecast to closeby … […]
In the first four months of 2019, four major financial institutions headquartered in Asia have announced restrictions on the financing of new coal plants — a noteworthy shift within the region. Why it matters: Until recently, such restrictions came largely from Western financial institutions. But the majority of planned new coal plants are being built in just … […]
We have only 12 years left to save the planet from devastating climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned last October. With governments from Australia to the US missing in action, financial institutions have now emerged as unlikely allies of climate activists. In recent months banks and other financiers have pulled out of … […]
Generali’s recent announcement about its improved coal exclusion policy puts an end to insuring new coal plants and mines while turning away new coal clients with more than 30% of their energy production or revenues coming from coal. Generali follows Allianz, AXA and Zurich which all have announced restrictions on insuring coal. Now, Europe’s four … […]
Last March, then Treasurer Scott Morrison brandished a lump of coal in Parliament (a gift from the coal lobby group the Minerals Council of Australia) shouting, “this is coal; don’t be afraid, don’t be scared, it won’t hurt you.” The trouble for our new Prime Minister is that cheap stunts like that on behalf of … […]
With a new policy to stop insuring coal projects and companies, Swiss Re just issued a strong warning sign that the insurance industry doesn’t see a future for the coal sector. After AXA, Allianz, SCOR and Zurich, Swiss Re is the fifth large insurance company to stop or limit coverage for coal projects. As major … […]
The 2018 Beyond Coal and Gas Jamboree (BCAGJ) brought together more than 340 people from a communities across Australia who are committed to build a movement that will move Australia beyond polluting fossil fuels into a future that puts people and the planet first, powered by clean energy.
The Beyond Coal and Gas conference brings together over 350 people from grassroots communities across Australia and internationally, leading campaigns for the coal, gas and energy movements. These campaigners are fighting to protect their land, water and future, working from NSW’s Hunter Valley to SA’s Port Augusta, Qld’s Darling Downs to the NT’s Beetaloo Gas Basin. A key focus of the conference is the campaign to stop the controversial Adani coal mine.
Campaigners welcome decision, ask industry laggards to ditch coal as well Allianz, the world’s biggest insurance company by assets, announced today that it will no longer provide stand-alone insurance coverage for coal power plants or coal mines. The German insurer also announced that it will ban all companies planning to build more than 500 MW … […]
Global warming is here. Droughts, rising tides, supercharged storms, floods and bushfires threaten Australian families and their homes. Half of the Great Barrier Reef is dead. And this is just the beginning. In the face of all this, industry has failed to change tack and our governments have failed to show leadership. Every single day … […]
With the Queensland Premier being pushed to veto Adani’s $1 billion loan, one thing is for certain: this would not have happened without the incredible, unrelenting and passionate work of thousands of community members in Queensland who met with their local MPs, showed up outside their offices, formed human signs and made it clear to … […]
Our new scorecard was released today, finding that most insurers are still failing to take action on coal to prevent dangerous climate change. Leading insurance companies have pulled $20 billion out of investments in coal and a growing number are refusing to underwrite new coal projects, reveals a new scorecard on the industry from the Unfriend Coal … […]
You can’t drive a car or buy a house without insurance. Likewise, the coal industry can’t get their mines and power plants funded without insurance coverage.
Malcolm Turnbull has just declared war on the future. For a man who came to power with a vision for innovation, his public call for new coal power stations in Australia combines brazen hypocrisy with economic stupidity, built on a foundation of reckless irresponsibility. If there was any doubt that he stands for nothing but power for its own sake, let it be dispelled once and for all.
The Land Water Future campaign sparked a whirlwind of activity across New South Wales (NSW) which saw communities standing up to halt the rampant and unchecked expansion of coal and coal seam gas mining and exploration across the state. In 2014, 80% of NSW was under threat from coal and gas mining, with licences and … […]
Driven by the imperative of climate justice, The Sunrise Project scales social movements to drive the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy as fast as possible.
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We respectfully acknowledge the Indigenous peoples and local communities of the lands on which we live and work. We recognise the leadership of these communities in the struggle for climate justice and our responsibility to uplift their voices and histories.