<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Australian Financial Review March 29, 2019</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><b class="">Directors' climate liability exposure increasing 'exponentially'</b></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 14px;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" class=""><span style="text-decoration: underline; -webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class=""><a href="https://www.afr.com/ben-potter-j7gdk" class=""><b class="">Ben Potter</b></a><b class=""> </b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><i class="">Senior Reporter</i></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 238);" class=""><span style="text-decoration: underline; -webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><a href="https://www.afr.com/news/directors-climate-liability-exposure-increasing-exponentially-20190327-h1cuja" class="">https://www.afr.com/news/directors-climate-liability-exposure-increasing-exponentially-20190327-h1cuja</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><b class="">Excerpts</b></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">The exposure of individual company directors to the risk of </span><a href="https://www.afr.com/news/climate-litigation-could-become-like-tobacco-actions-martijn-wilder-20180405-h0yctd" class=""><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(15, 108, 201); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 108, 201);" class="">"climate change litigation"</span></a> is </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">increasing, probably exponentially, </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">a new legal opinion asserts.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(15, 108, 201); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 108, 201);" class=""><a href="http://https//cpd.org.au/2019/03/directors-duties-2019/" class="">Sydney SC Noel Hutley and barrister Sebastian Hartford Davis write</a></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""> that<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""> it is obvious that climate change is affecting the economy, </span></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">"and it is increasingly difficult in our view for directors of companies of scale to pretend that climate change will not intersect with the interests of their firms".</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">They conclude that there are now "significant and well publicised risks associated with climate change and global warming </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">that would be regarded by a court as foreseeable</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">", and that "it is apparent that regulators now expect much more from companies than cursory acknowledgement and disclosure of climate change risks.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""><b class="">Sectors most exposed are banking, insurance, asset and building ownership and management, energy, transport, agriculture, food<font size="4" class=""> and forestry.</font></b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""> The opinion is an update to their <a href="https://www.afr.com/business/legal/directors-ignore-climate-change-risks-at-their-own-peril-20161101-gsf6lv" class=""><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(15, 108, 201); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 108, 201);" class="">landmark October 2016 opinion</span></a> which found that directors who ignored climate risk now could be liable for breaching their duty of care in future.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class="">
<div dir="auto" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><b class="">“<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">We contend that traditional approaches to forest conservation and management will be inadequate ... in the 21st century. New approaches ... acknowledge that change is inevitable and sometimes irreversible, </span></b></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><b class="">and that maintenance of ecosystem services depends in part on novel ecosystems, i.e., species combinations with no analog in the past.”</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">Forest Ecology and Management 360 (2016) 80–96 </span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">Review and synthesis </span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><b class="">Achievable future conditions as a framework for guiding forest conservation and management </b></span></p></span></div><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">S.W. Golladay </span><span style="vertical-align: 6.5px; -webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(0, 128, 174);" class="">a</span><span style="vertical-align: 6.5px; -webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">,</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">, K.L. Martin </span><span style="vertical-align: 6.5px; -webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(0, 128, 174);" class="">b</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">, J.M. Vose </span><span style="vertical-align: 6.5px; -webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(0, 128, 174);" class="">b</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">, D.N. Wear </span><span style="vertical-align: 6.5px; -webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(0, 128, 174);" class="">b</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">, A.P. Covich </span><span style="vertical-align: 6.5px; -webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(0, 128, 174);" class="">c</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">, R.J. Hobbs </span><span style="vertical-align: 6.5px; -webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(0, 128, 174);" class="">d</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">, K.D. Klepzig </span><span style="vertical-align: 6.5px; -webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(0, 128, 174);" class="">e</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">, G.E. Likens </span><span style="vertical-align: 6.5px; -webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(0, 128, 174);" class="">f</span><span style="vertical-align: 6.5px; -webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">,</span><span style="vertical-align: 6.5px; -webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(0, 128, 174);" class="">g</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">, R.J. Naiman </span><span style="vertical-align: 6.5px; -webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(0, 128, 174);" class="">h</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">, A.W. Shearer </span><span style="vertical-align: 6.5px; -webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(0, 128, 174);" class="">i </span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="vertical-align: 4px; -webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">a </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">J.W. Jones Ecological Research Center, 3988 Jones Center Dr, Newton, GA 39819, USA<br class=""></span><span style="vertical-align: 4px; -webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">b </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">USDA Forest Service, Center for Integrated Forest Science and Synthesis, Research Triangle Park, Campus Box 8008, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA </span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="vertical-align: 4px; -webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">c </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">Odum School of Ecology, 140 E Green Str, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA<br class=""></span><span style="vertical-align: 4px; -webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">d </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">School of Plant Biology, 35 Stirling Hwy, University of Western Australia (M090), Crawley, WA 6009, Australia<br class=""></span><span style="vertical-align: 4px; -webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">e </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, 200 WT Weaver Blvd, Asheville, NC 28804, USA</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="vertical-align: 4px; -webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">f </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">Cary Institute of Ecosystem Sciences, 2801 Sharon Turnpike, PO Box AB, Millbrook, NY 12545, USA<br class=""></span><span style="vertical-align: 4px; -webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">g </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">Department of Ecology and Environmental Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA<br class=""></span><span style="vertical-align: 4px; -webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">h </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington and CENRM, University of Western Australia, 133 Wilson Lane, Friday Harbor, WA 98250, USA<br class=""></span><span style="vertical-align: 4px; -webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">i </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">School of Architecture – Center for Sustainable Development, The University of Texas at Austin, 310 Inner Campus Drive, B7500, Austin, TX 78712, USA </span></p><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><br class=""></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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