Recipes of the week
Recipe #1 - Cauliflower & Haloumi Fritters
(recipe via Fitness First)
Recipe #2 - Thai Green Coconut Noodle Soup
(recipe via HelloFresh)
Recipe #3 - Creamy, Comforting Gratin Dauphinois
(recipe via Broadsheet)
All recipes from past newsletters can be found here.
✊ Action of the week: Break up with your bank
Why change bank?
Over 85% of global carbon emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas.
To stop climate change, fossil fuels must stay in the ground.
We can't just keep adding renewables on top of the dirty stuff (which is what we've been doing for the past 200 years, even in the last decade). We have to stop ALL DEVELOPMENT of fossil fuel infrastructure, as recently confirmed by the International Energy Agency.
If your bank is one of the household names in Australia, they have been massively funding the climate crisis, by lending money to fossil fuel projects like coal mines, gas pipelines and oil drilling and the companies that build and expand them.
Stop giving these guys your money.
Changing banks is a powerful action you can take, to signal your bank that you do not support them in destroying the planet.
By switching bank, you can play a part in:
Stopping the expansion of new fossil projects
Accelerating Australia's exit from coal
Making money work for the climate instead of against it
In progress but too little, too slow
The big Australian banks are improving their policies on climate change and have made public pledges to champion the Paris agreement, and support the transition to a low-carbon economy:
Committing to a net zero by 2050 target → Commonwealth Bank, NAB ; Westpac and ANZ have pledged to set targets in the short term
Committing to exiting coal by 2030 → Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ and NAB
Joining the RE100 initiative and committing to source 100% of their electricity needs from renewables by a set date → All 4 big banks
However, the same banks are still lending money to the fossil fuel industry, or underwriting projects from large fossil fuel companies in Australia and overseas. Together the big four have loaned more than $35.5B to the fossil fuel industry since 2016.
More information:
Marketforces: How Australia's big banks are undermining the Paris agreement; Reneweconomy: Australia’s big four banks drag heels on fossil fuel finance: new report; Rainforest Action Network: Banking on climate chaos 2021 (the report mentioned ☝️)
Photo: Ran.org
How to choose a more virtuous bank?
Marketforces has created a table that makes it easy to see which bank in Australia have or do not have a record for funding fossil fuels since 2016. Sustainable and ethical banking alternatives include: Bank Australia, Beyond Bank, Bendigo Bank, Suncorp Bank.
I've joined Bank Australia . They are a certified B-corporation, are customer-owned, and only invest on projects and companies that create positive social and environmental change.
They also provide a clean energy home loan, available for buyers of new homes that meet a high standard of energy efficiency, or owners planning sustainable upgrades.
Their app isn't the fastest or most user-friendly, but knowing that my money is not invested in any fossil fuels projects is a large enough benefit for me.
One to watch is Manyana, a new app that sets out to help people use their money as a force for good. You can pre-signup and be notified when they launch!
How to make the switch?
You can do it !
It's surprisingly easy to make the switch.
Step 1 - Open an account at your new bank
Step 2 - Transfer all your direct credits (salary) and debits (utility bills, childcare fees, your Netflix account etc) . It's a good time to do an audit of all your subscriptions and cancel the ones you don't need. I made a spreadsheet for that, I can share for inspiration if needed.
Step 3 - Transfer all remaining funds from your old account(s) into the new one(s).
Step 4 - (Very important!) TELL YOUR BANK YOU’RE LEAVING and WHY. I wrote a letter to Commbank, inspired from a template by Kimberly Nicholas who writes one of my favourite climate newsletters, We can fix it.
Step 5 - TELL EVERYONE ELSE - Share on social media, and tell your friends, family and colleagues to encourage them to do the same. Individual action matters most when used as a tool to affect changing larger systems.
Or, if you want to get creative, there’s also the option of jamming top banking executives’ calendars with invitations to break up with high polluting fossil fuel projects.
Climate News
Are you in denial? To accept the facts about climate science without changing the way we live is also to deny reality (via The Gardian)
One billion children, nearly half the children in the world, live in “extremely high risk” countries - a new report by Unicef finds. (via Unicef). As Greta Thunberg says, this is the world being left to us by adults (NY Times)
On the same week of the IPCC report release, a climate activist began an 8 year prison sentence because she fought for a better future. (via Democracy Now)
🥵 Climate Impacts
Keep in mind: Compartmentalising this crisis is part of how we cope as humans. It’s called
climate banality
.
🔥 A heatwave is baking Italy and Spain and fueling wildfires (AP News)
🐌 In fact, it’s so hot that snails cooked alive in their shells (Huffpost)
💧 For the first time, a drought forced U.S. governement to declare water shortage and restrict water use (NY Times)
🔥 Smoke from wildfires in Siberia has reached the north pole for the first time in recorded history (The Guardian). Those fires in have released CO2 equivalent to Germany’s annual emissions (The Times)
🙌 Good news
Some companies are offering extra days off for employees who don’t fly for their holidays (Telegraph)
A judge in Alaska blocked construction permits for an expansive oil drilling project (NY Times)