Fossil fuel

• There, he will aim to strengthen relations with Pacific countries and reaffirm Australia’s place as a security partner of choice.
• They will ask Albanese to support a regional declaration for a phaseout of fossil fuels.
• Or we could see a better outcome, if Albanese signals Australia is at last ready to move away from fossil fuels.

A split in Aitutaki

• In fact, they called for industrialised countries to immediately cut greenhouse gas emissions in a joint statement in 1990.
• Pacific island nations suggested Australia’s national target – to cut emissions by 20% by 2005 – should be binding for all developed countries.

• Discussions in Aitutaki turned bitter and ran into overtime in the airport lounge.
• At the Kyoto negotiations, Australia sought and won its own clause, allowing it to actually increase emissions, and expand its fossil fuel industries.
• For his part, Howard dismissed concerns that climate change and sea-level rise could threaten island states as “exaggerated” and “apocalyptic”.

Could we see Australia repair the rift?

• At last year’s forum, he joined island leaders to declare a Pacific climate emergency.
• Australia is bidding to host the UN climate talks in 2026 in partnership with Pacific island countries, a move island leaders have formally welcomed.
• Pacific countries are also campaigning for a global Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty which would oversee the end of fossil fuel expansion.

• Support to tackle rising climate adaptation costs will be welcomed, but it won’t be enough for Pacific leaders.
• What they want to see is their regionally powerful neighbour actually stop adding fuel to the fire.

No stopping the global energy transition

• We need to be working on a just transition for workers and building up new industries.
• The International Energy Agency last week released its annual World Energy Outlook, which found global deployment of renewable energy technologies is rapidly overtaking fossil fuel projects, and demand for fossil fuels is likely to peak before 2030.
• Gas and coal aren’t the only valuable things underneath Australian dirt – we’ve got a wealth of critical minerals vital to the clean energy transition.
• Governments have no choice but to plan for the inevitable decline of fossil fuels and smooth the transition to clean energy industries such as battery manufacturing and green hydrogen and ammonia.

Wesley Morgan is a senior researcher with the Climate Council.

• Solo Brands, Inc. (NYSE: DTC) (“Solo Brands” or “the Company”) today announced its financial results for the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2023.
• Brand momentum is encouraging as we grow our retailer relationships,” said John Merris, Chief Executive Officer of Solo Brands.
• Solo Brands generates healthy EBITDA margins, has low financial leverage, a balanced omnichannel sales approach, and is capital-lite, leading to strong free cash flow.”
  Operating Results for the Three Months Ended September 30, 2023
  Net sales increased 8.0% to $110.3 million compared to $102.2 million in the third quarter of 2022.
• Adjusted EPS(1) was $0.28 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2023 compared to $0.15 for the third quarter of 2022.

• At its meeting last week, the US Federal Reserve kept its official interest rate on hold.
• Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock’s statement accompanying Tuesday’s hike in Australia’s cash rate makes it look as if we’re about to join that club.
• It makes it look as if this hike from 4.1% to 4.35% – a 12-year high – will be the last.

The RBA has taken our insurance

• The statement makes it look as if it wanted to take out insurance.
• While the bank still expects inflation to continue to fall, it says progress now looks “slower than earlier expected”.
• It isn’t that it thinks inflation won’t keep coming down; it’s that it wants to be sure it is.

Australian hikes hit harder than in the US

• The US, the UK, the EU, Canada and New Zealand all have higher official rates than Australia.
• Here’s why: almost all US home borrowers are on fixed rates, meaning their required mortgage payments don’t increase.

• And US fixed rates are nothing like Australian fixed rates.
• The typical term in the US is 30 years, rather than the two to three years common in Australia.
• This means that, as long as borrowers in the US don’t refinance or move homes, their payments are fixed for the entire term of their loans.
• After a year of less-high Australian rates, Australian consumers are buying 1.7% less.

‘Painful squeeze’

• She also noted others were benefiting from rising housing prices, substantial savings buffers and higher interest income.
• Bank calculations suggest one in 20 variable-rate borrowers are now going backwards – paying more for essential expenses and housing than they earn.

A frugal Christmas, before possible rate drops in 2024

• It is also looking like prices scarcely increased at all last month.
• The Melbourne Institute inflation gauge, which comes out ahead of the Bureau of Statistics gauge and broadly tracks it, fell 0.1% in October.
• It’s pointing to a frugal Christmas in which retailers are going to have to discount if they want to move goods, taking further pressure off inflation.
• Read more:
  Petrol is holding up inflation – the 7 graphs that show what's happening to prices and what it will mean for interest rates

Peter Martin is Economics Editor of The Conversation.

• Bowman Consulting Group Ltd. (Nasdaq: BWMN) (“Bowman” or the “Company”), a national engineering and infrastructure services firm supporting owners and developers of the built environment, today released financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023.
• “I am extremely pleased with our strong third quarter results,” said Gary Bowman, Chairman and CEO of Bowman.
• Introducing non-GAAP Adjusted Earnings per Share:
  In connection with the release of financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023, the Company introduced the new non-GAAP financial metric of adjusted earnings per share (“Adjusted EPS”).
• Bowman will host an earnings webcast to discuss the results of the quarter as follows:
  Hosts: Gary Bowman, Chairman and CEO and Bruce Labovitz, Chief Financial Officer
  1 Includes reclassification of Project Design Consultants and Anchor Engineering acquisitions as organic revenue.