Business and Climate Change MAE233

MAE233 Business and Climate Change Trimester 1 2025

Assessment Task 2 Assignment Group Report (Case study)

DUE DATE AND TIME: 12 May 2025, 8:00 PM

PERCENTAGE OF FINAL GRADE: 40%

WORD COUNT: 3000 (+10%)

Description

This assignment provides you with an opportunity to conduct a case study/analyse problems related to climate change issues in a business scenario. You will need to apply existing economic theories and techniques to develop consistent arguments with good reasoning in your responses to the prompts provided below.

Specific Requirements

Your assignment submission should start with a cover page containing the following information: full names and student IDs of the group members and the total word count. Please note that the following are excluded from the word count: cover page, footnotes, references, tables, figures and appendix (if any).

Following the cover page, please answer thethreequestions below. Note that all these questions are compulsory.

Learning Outcomes

Background

You are a group of ace climate change consultants. You have been hired by an ASX200 business to review the businesss commitments towards reducing emissions and meeting net-zero targets. To do this, you will be analysing the overall emissions scenario and progress towards net zero for the sector in which your business operates, benchmarking how your client compares to their peers in the same sector regarding climate action and proposing options for further action.

Step 1:You will need to choose a business enterprise (your client) that you will work on for this project. You can find a list of ASX200 companies here:https://www.asx200list.com/. You can choose any company you want from mining, energy or banking sectors. But before you finalise your choice, ensure that this company has publicly available data on their emissions or climate change targets that you can use in this assessment. Many Australian companies release their annual sustainability report each year and quite a few of them also publish climate disclosures. Before proceeding with choosing a company, you will want to check if this information is available.

Question 1 [15 marks]

Sectoral Report and Climate Change Risks:Your client wants to understand the overall climate change and emission reduction targets for the industry/economic sector in which they operate. To do this, you will critically analyse and summarise to your client the following information:

1. [7 marks]What is the role of their industry sector in contributing to emissions and industry-specific targets for meeting Australias national emission reduction commitments?

You can find the classification of industry sectors based on Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) codes here:https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/classifications/australian-and-new-zealand-standard-industrial-classification-anzsic/2006-revision-2-0/division-definitions

To help you get started, you can find information on emissions by sector from the Australian government here:https://www.greenhouseaccounts.climatechange.gov.au/

Australias NDC documents and other resources can help you gather information on sector-specific targets.

1. [8 marks]What are the most criticalphysical risksandtransition risksthat the clients industry sector faces due to climate change? Identify at least 2 of each, providing your reasoning on why you have chosen these as the most critical risk factors. Be as specific as possible in identifying these risks in the Australian context. Provide your client with specific, quantitative information on these risks rather than broad, sweeping statements.

IPCC provides guidance on the concept of risk in this document:https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2021/02/Risk-guidance-FINAL_15Feb2021.pdf.

You may also find this speech by Guy Debelle, RBAs Deputy Governor useful in your research:https://www.rba.gov.au/speeches/2021/sp-dg-2021-10-14.html

Question 2 [10 marks]

Benchmarking your clients climate performance:How does your clients climate change action compare to their peers and competitors in the same sector? To do this, summarize for your client:

1. [3 marks]How do they compare with their competitors in terms of emission reduction targets? Be specific in how you define targets, what metrics are you using to compare across companies, and how are you defining competitors?
2. [4 marks]How do they compare in terms of actual emissions, and emissions reduction, relative to their competitors? Again, be specific in terms of the metrics you use for comparison, and how you are defining emissions and emission reductions across companies.

• [3 marks]Identify at least one business/operational area where your client is doing well in terms of emission reductions and at least one business/operational area where there is scope for improvement. Please ensure you provide sound reasoning/evidence on how and why you choose these areas to highlight.

To help you get started, you might find this resource useful:https://www.climateworkscentre.org/net-zero-momentum-tracker/

Question 3 [15 marks]

Evaluating adaptation/mitigation options:Your client wants to understand the costs and benefits of a proposed climate change adaptation or an emission mitigation strategy they want to pursue. For this:

1. [7 marks]What are the opportunities presented by climate change adaptation/emission mitigation policies for your clients industry sector in Australia? These could be specific laws, regulations, or other policy measures that incentivize businesses in this industry sector to engage in climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Such opportunities could be state-level or at the national level. If no such policies exist in Australia, are there examples from elsewhere in the world that could be useful to emulate in Australia? Describe at least two actual or potential policies/regulations. For each policy/regulation identified, answer the following
   1. Identify the type of government intervention this policy/regulation falls under
   2. Portray how the policy/regulation works graphically. You can use a marginal damage/marginal abatement cost function plot and/or a plot of marginal private cost (MPC), marginal social cost (MSC), marginal private benefit (MPB), and marginal social benefit (MSB)

(Hint: Material from Lecture 6 will be a helpful starting point)

You might relevant information to help you get started on this page:https://www.dcceew.gov.au/climate-change/strategies

1. [8 marks]Identify an appropriate climate change adaptation or an emission mitigation strategy that fits in with your clients business operations. (Note: This can be something that the company is already doing or something new that you identify. The proposed action can be linked to the policy incentives you have identified above, but this is not necessary). For this proposed action, you will provide your client with a road map of how to undertake an environmental cost-benefit analysis. Specifically, you need to summarize for your client:
   1. Provide a list of potential costs and benefits associated with the proposed action -- identify at least two of each.
   2. Identify at least two methods that you think will be appropriate to use to measure the environmental costs and benefits of the proposed action you have identified above. Provide a justification for your choice of methodology.
   3. For each method, provide your client with the following information about the methodology: What data will be needed? How will this data be collected for example, if it is a survey-based method, who should be surveyed, and what kind of questions should be asked?

Submission

YouaretosubmitaPDFcopyofyourassignmentintheindividualAssignmentDropboxinthe MAE233CloudDeakinunitsiteonorbeforetheduedate.

When uploading your assignment, name your document using the following syntax:

You must keep abackupcopyofevery assignment you submituntilthemarked assignmenthasbeen returnedtoyou.Intheunlikelyeventthatoneofyourassignmentsismisplaced,youwillneedto submityourbackupcopy.

Anyworkyousubmitmaybecheckedbyelectronicorothermeansforthepurposesofdetecting collusionand/orplagiarism.

Whenyou submit anassignmentthroughyourCloudDeakin unitsite,you willreceiveanemailto your Deakin email address confirming that it has been submitted. You should check that you can see your assignment in the Submissions view of the Assignment Dropbox folder after upload, and check for,andkeep,theemailreceiptforthesubmission.

Markingandfeedback

The marking rubric for this task is below and also available in the MAE233 CloudDeakin unit site - in the Assessment folder (under Assessment Resources).

Itisalwaysausefulexercisetofamiliariseyourselfwiththecriteriabeforecompletingany assessmenttask.Criteriaactasaboundaryaroundthetaskandhelpidentifywhatassessorsare lookingforspecificallyinyoursubmission.Thecriteriaaredrawnfromtheunitslearning outcomesensuringtheyalignwithappropriategraduateattribute/s.

Identifyingthestandardyouaimtoachieveisalsoausefulstrategyforsuccessandtothatend, familiarisingyourselfwiththedescriptorforthatstandardishighlyrecommended.

Students who submit their work by the due date will receive their marks and feedback on CloudDeakin15workingdaysafterthesubmissiondate.

Extensions

Extensionswillonlybegrantedforexceptionaland/orunavoidablecircumstancesoutsidethestudentscontrol.

Studentsseekinganextensionforanassignmentpriortotheduedateshouldapplydirectlytothe Unit Chair by completing theAssignment and Online Test Extension Application Form.Requests for extensions will not be considered after the due date. Applications forspecial considerationafter the duedatemustbesubmittedviaStudentConnect.

Latesubmission

Thefollowingmarkingpenaltieswillapplyifyousubmitanassessmenttaskaftertheduedate withoutanapprovedextension:5%willbedeductedfromavailablemarksforeachdayuptofive days,andworkthatissubmittedmorethanfivedaysaftertheduedatewillnotbemarkedandwill receive0%forthetask.

'Day'meansworkingdayforpapersubmissionsandcalendardayforelectronicsubmissions.TheUnit Chair may refuse to accept a late submission where it is unreasonable or impracticable to assess the taskaftertheduedate.

Calculation of the late penalty is as follows:this is based on the assignment being due on a Thursdayat 8:00pm

• 1daylate:5%
• 2dayslate:10%
• 3dayslate:15%
• 4dayslate:20%
• 5dayslate:25%

DropboxclosestheFriday,May12,2025,after8:00pmAESTtime.

Support

The Division ofStudent Life provides a range ofStudy Supportresources and services,available throughout the academic year, includingWriting MentorandMaths Mentoronline drop ins and the SmartThinking 24 hour writing feedback service atthis link. If you would prefer some more in depth andtailoredsupport,makeanappointmentonlinewithaLanguageandLearning Adviser.

Referencing

Any material used in this assignment that is not your original work must beacknowledged assuch andappropriatelyreferenced.PleaseprovideclearreferencesforanycitedsourcesusingtheHarvardreferencingstyle.Youcanfindinformationaboutplagiarismandotherstudysupport resources at the following website:http://www.deakin.edu.au/students/study-support.

Academicmisconduct

For information about academic misconduct, special consideration, extensions, and assessment feedback,pleaserefertothedocumentYourrightsandresponsibilitiesasastudentin this Unit in the first folder next to the Unit Guide in the Resources area of the CloudDeakin unit site.