Yarra Climate Action Now!

As part of a national day of action, where around 32 protests were held outside the offices of Federal MPs in every state and territory, Yarra Climate Action Now and friends gathered outside the office of Lindsay Tanner, Member for Melbourne and Finance Minister.

The message was clear, we want a climate change policy from the Federal Government that doesn't lock in failure and catastrophic climate change. We want the Federal Government to listen to the scientists and the community, not the powerful polluter lobbies.

What's at stake is no less than the survival of humanity. For more information on why the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is worse than nothing, see the post below.

For coverage of the protest see the second half of this article (please note, the article gets the name of our spokesperson wrong, and the name of our group wrong - you've got to love lazy journalists).

Below are a few photos:

Co-author of Climate Code Red, David Spratt addresses the crowd.

(c) Yarra Climate Action Now


The Climate Emergency Service band performs.

(c) Yarra Climate Action Now


A protester lets Lindsay Tanner know he'll be held accountable over the Labor Party's inadequate and anti-scientific climate change policies.

(c) Yarra Climate Action Now

A summary of all the protests around Australia is available here.

To see a video of the protest the day after these protests at Hazelwood Power Station, click here.

This Friday, 27 March will see around 30 actions all over Australia at MP offices. They will be happening to protest the Rudd Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).

Come along to one (or two!) of them, if we don’t fight for a safe climate future, we won’t get one! Details of actions at the bottom of this post.

Yarra Climate Action Now will be attending the action at Member for Melbourne Lindsay Tanner's office, Friday 27 March, 12pm, 280 King St, Melbourne.

The Rudd Government's CPRS is a sick joke, written at the behest of the fossil fuel and dirty industry lobbies at the Australian people's expense.

It will:
- lock in inadequate and unscientific emissions reduction targets of 5-15% by 2020 on 2000 levels
- undermine international negotiations on an emissions agreement by showing Australia is not willing to pull its weight
- give pollution property rights to polluters, opening the Australian taxpayer up to potential compensation claims in the future when we have a government that will actually take climate change seriously
- result in a massive transfer of wealth from all of us to already rich, polluting companies, through free permits and other "compensation" giveaways
- disenfranchise voluntary action to reduce emissions by households and communities.

According to Guy Pearse in the latest Quarterly Essay, the giveaways to big business in the CPRS add up to a:

• $455 one-off payment per Australian household to prop up the value of coal fired power stations for their mostly government and foreign owners.
• $93 one-off payment per Australian household to the coal-mining industry
• $500 per year per Australian household between now and 2020 (and beyond) to buy free permits for Australia's worst polluting industries.

The scheme is designed to maintain business as usual and transfer wealth, while giving the appearance of action. It will not stop fossil fuels from being dug up and burnt, despite the urgent need to keep the coal, gas and oil in the ground. We need to urgently transition to a zero emissions economy, and the CPRS does nothing to begin that transition, in fact it probably sabotages this. We have to take a stand against a policy that puts the interests of big polluters above those of all Australian's and future generations.


Confirmed actions on 27 March include:

VICTORIA
* Office of Lindsay Tanner, Member for Melbourne, 280 King St, Melbourme at 12pm.

* Office of Kelvin Thompson, Member for Wills, 3 Munro Street, Coburg at 10am. Info Ellen on ellenmroberts at yahoo.com.au

* Office of Martin Ferguson, Member for Batman at 8am, 159 High Street, Preston. Info: Carol on caride at bigpond.com.au

* Office of Jenny Macklin, Member for Jaga Jaga at 10am, 149 Burgundy Street, Heidelberg. Info: Bridgit on bbattova3 at bigpond.com.au

* Office of Peter Costello, Member for Higgins at 10am, 1343 Malvern Road Malvern, contact Sue on 0411885126

* Office of Nicola Roxon, Member for Gellibrand at 10am, 1 Thomas Holmes Street Maribyrnong. Info: Shaun westsax at westnet.com.au

* Office of Steve Gibbons, Member for Bendigo at 10.30am, Cnr Williamson and Myers St, Bendigo. Info Dean dc at masg.org.au

* Office of Senator Jacinta Collins, 1013 Whitehorse Rd, Box Hill, 10.30am, info Carol, ci at the.inter.net.au

* Office of Sophie Mirabella, Member for Indi, 117 Murphy St, Wangaratta, 9am

* Office of Richard Marles, Member for Corio, 12 noon, 17A Yarra St, Geelong. Contact: Mitch 0448 997 415 bukitmouth at hotmail.com

* Office of Michael Danby, Member for Melbourne Ports, 12pm, 117 Fitzroy St, St.Kilda West, info David, david.robinson at y7mail.com

* Office of Simon Crean, Member for Hotham, 10am, 401 Clayton Road, Clayton. Info Imogen imogen.jackson at gmail.com


SOUTH AUSTRALIA
*4pm-5.30pm Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices, 100 King William St, Adelaide, info Gemma gemma.weedall at student.adelaide.edu.au


AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
*8am Federal Department of Climate Change, 2 Constitution Ave, Canberra, info Leigh, 0421 282 825


NEW SOUTH WALES
* Office of Anthony Albanese, Member for Grayndler at 9am, 334a Marrickville Rd, Marrickville. Info Climate Action Newtown

* Office of Tanya Plibersek, Member for Sydney – 12.09pm [As the international meeting in Copenhagen will be in December 2009], 422 Crown St, Surry Hills. Contact Climate Change Balmain-Rozelle, ccbrmail at aapt.net.au

* Office of Maxine McKew, Member for Bennelong, 10am, 230 Victoria Rd, Gladesville, info Jo info at climatechangerg.org.

* Office of Peter Garrett, Member for Kingsford Smith, 11am, Level 6, 806-812 Anzac Pde, Maroubra, info Scarlet scarlet.wilcock at gmail.com

* Office of Julie Owen, Member for Parramatta, 11am, Suite 8, The Octagon, 110 George St, Parramatta, info 0425 265 169.

*Office of Bob Debus, Member for Macquarie, 10am, 98 Bathurst St, Katoomba, info 0400 302 279
AND his other electorate office:
10.30am, 3/217 Howick St, Bathurst, info Judy, judygreg.walker at gmail.com

* Office of Sharon Bird, Member for Cunningham, Shop 501, Globe Lane, Wollongong - more details to come.

* Office of Senator Michael Forshaw, 4pm, Suite 2, Level 1, 33-35 Belmont St, Sutherland, info Jon, jon at doig.net

* Labor Party Headquarters – 3pm, 377 Sussex St Sydney NSW 2000. Contact Friends of the Earth Sydney - 0402 564 862

* Office of Greg Combet, Member for Charlton and Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change, 8:30am, 324 Main Road, Cardiff, following a footpath march down from Cardiff Station from about 8.15 am (Newcastle train arrives 8.12am). Organised by Climate Action Newcastle (CAN), Lake Macquarie Climate Action (LMCA) and Rising Tide. Info Zoe 0425316496 or zoetiarerogers at gmail.com

* Office of Sharon Grierson, Member for Newcastle, 10am, 427 Hunter St, Newcastle. Organised by members of the Newcastle University Student Association. Info simon.cunich - at - gmail.com


QUEENSLAND
* Office of Kevin Rudd, Member for Griffith, 1pm, 630 Wynnum Road Morningside. Info: Dominic, dominicale at optusnet.com.au or 0436 638 772.


WESTERN AUSTRALIA
* Office of Stephen Smith, 8.30am, 953a Beaufort St, Ingelwood info, www.safeclimate.org.au
Ph 0417 319 662.


NORTHERN TERRITORY
* Office of Damian Hale, Member for Solomon, 30 The Smith Street Mall, Darwin. Info Justin Justin at nonuk.es - more details to come.

* Office of Warren Snowdon, Member for Lingiari, 1pm, Unit 3, 12 Gregory Tce, Alice Springs. Info Ruth ruthapelt@yahoo.com. 2:30pm meeting with Warren Snowdon, info Mandy iainandmandy at octa4.net.au


For updates, how-to guides and further information go to http://stepitupaustralia.wordpress.com/

Last week, Copenhagen was the set for an extraordinary event. Several thousand scientists gathered for a climate change conference. This isn’t extraordinary in itself, but what made this conference different was that one of the purposes was to influence government policy.

While this doesn’t sound like much, it is almost unprecedented in the history of science. Scientists traditionally shy away from commenting on policy or calling on governments to act a certain way. They believe it is their job to state facts. However, they have become so concerned and disgusted with government failure to act on the climate emergency that they are now overtly engaging in politics.

The conference also updated the current climate science since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2007.

Key messages from the Conference: click here or see below

Media coverage from the conference on:
General messages
Sea level rise
Rainforests
Warming temperatures
Drought in Europe
Ocean acidification

All Scientific Papers and Abstracts available here


Key Messages from the Congress
12 March 2009

Copenhagen, Denmark: Following a successful International Scientific Congress Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions attended by more than 2,500 delegates from nearly 80 countries, preliminary messages from the findings were delivered by the Congress' Scientific Writing Team. The conclusions will be published into a full synthesis report June 2009. The conclusions were handed over to the Danish Prime Minister Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen today. The Danish Government will host the UN Climate Change Conference in December 2009 and will hand over the conclusions to the decision makers ahead of the Conference.

The six preliminary key messages are:

Key Message 1: Climatic Trends
Recent observations confirm that, given high rates of observed emissions, the worst-case IPCC scenario trajectories (or even worse) are being realised. For many key parameters, the climate system is already moving beyond the patterns of natural variability within which our society and economy have developed and thrived. These parameters include global mean surface temperature, sea-level rise, ocean and ice sheet dynamics, ocean acidification, and extreme climatic events. There is a significant risk that many of the trends will accelerate, leading to an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climatic shifts.

Key Message 2: Social disruption
The research community is providing much more information to support discussions on "dangerous climate change". Recent observations show that societies are highly vulnerable to even modest levels of climate change, with poor nations and communities particularly at risk. Temperature rises above 2C will be very difficult for contemporary societies to cope with, and will increase the level of climate disruption through the rest of the century.

Key Message 3: Long-Term Strategy
Rapid, sustained, and effective mitigation based on coordinated global and regional action is required to avoid "dangerous climate change" regardless of how it is defined. Weaker targets for 2020 increase the risk of crossing tipping points and make the task of meeting 2050 targets more difficult. Delay in initiating effective mitigation actions increases significantly the long-term social and economic costs of both adaptation and mitigation.

Key Message 4 - Equity Dimensions
Climate change is having, and will have, strongly differential effects on people within and between countries and regions, on this generation and future generations, and on human societies and the natural world. An effective, well-funded adaptation safety net is required for those people least capable of coping with climate change impacts, and a common but differentiated mitigation strategy is needed to protect the poor and most vulnerable.

Key Message 5: Inaction is Inexcusable
There is no excuse for inaction. We already have many tools and approaches ? economic, technological, behavioural, management ? to deal effectively with the climate change challenge. But they must be vigorously and widely implemented to achieve the societal transformation required to decarbonise economies. A wide range of benefits will flow from a concerted effort to alter our energy economy now, including sustainable energy job growth, reductions in the health and economic costs of climate change, and the restoration of ecosystems and revitalisation of ecosystem services.

Key Message 6: Meeting the Challenge
To achieve the societal transformation required to meet the climate change challenge, we must overcome a number of significant constraints and seize critical opportunities. These include reducing inertia in social and economic systems; building on a growing public desire for governments to act on climate change; removing implicit and explicit subsidies; reducing the influence of vested interests that increase emissions and reduce resilience; enabling the shifts from ineffective governance and weak institutions to innovative leadership in government, the private sector and civil society; and engaging society in the transition to norms and practices that foster sustainability.