Yarra Climate Action Now!: March 2010

Monday, March 29, 2010

Environment Victoria shows the way.

Are You In? from Environment Victoria on Vimeo.

Environment Victoria are moving to a position of political activism in this year of climatically critical State and Federal elections. This solid responsible environmental NGO known for its careful policy recommendations is pushing to mobilize all Victorians – 5 million people to become actively involved in safeguarding our environment. It’s about each one of us taking actions to help the environment in our own special way. Actions that are meaningful to us as individuals—and remarkably powerful when they are multiplied by 5 million. A number of campaigns are specified on the Environment Victoria website any or all of which deserve the endorsement of YCAN's supporters. YCAN endorses and is directly involved with other climate change and environment groups in the Replace Hazelwood campaign. It's now or never. We either do what we can now to promote the necessary changes to stabilize and reduce greenhouse gas emissions or become complicit in the extreme degradation-of, perhaps the destruction of our collective future. Go to the EV website, sign up as a backer and get as many of your friends and family as possible to do the same.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Climate Summit targets the replacement of Hazelwood Power Station

The Climate Action Summit took place in Canberra last weekend. Prior to the summit the Climate Action Centre prepared a climate action reader, Talk Climate, for the Summit. In this election year with the stakes higher than ever, it is a particularly thought provoking read. Included in the reader is a piece penned by Damien Lawson from the Climate Action Centre and Taegen Edwards from Yarra Climate Action Now dealing with the upcoming campaign currently to be driven by a coalition of Victorian climate action and environmental groups to replace Hazelwood power station with a mix of less polluting or non polluting electricity generating capacity.

Hazelwood is of course Victoria's oldest, least efficient, largest and dirtiest, brown coal fired, power generating facility. Hazelwood was due to be closed in 2005. Unfortunately, and against the advice of a raft of environmental groups, the State Government decided to extend the operating license of this obsolete facility until 2031. Alone it is responsible for 15% of Victorian annual green house gas pollution and 3% of the Australian total.

The summit reaffirmed the climate movement's opposition to the government's trading scheme and set out key policy goals for clean renewable energy, green jobs and the need for an immediate carbon levy. The coal industry was made a key target. Among the agreed goals of the summit was the replacement of Hazelwood, with clean energy by 2012.

As Yarra Climate Action Now is one of the groups supporting this campaign you can expect to hear much more about this as the year passes. Watch this space.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

A History lesson fit to weep over

Melbourne's favorite tabloid daily news paper has reported an announcement from the Victorian Environment Minister as follows:

"A long term and sustained action program designed to limit the greenhouse effect and adapt to future climate change has been announced by the Victorian Government. … The government's proposed program covers five main areas:
1. Research to provide more detailed and reliable information about the effects of the
Greenhouse effect on Victoria.
2. Limitation of greenhouse gas emissions, particularly by reducing dependence on fossil fuels
such as brown coal and improving the efficiency with which we use them.
3. Public information and education to increase community awareness and change people's
behavior.
4. Long term planning to cope with future climatic change.
5. Development of a coordinated national approach.'

It further reports that the Victorian Labor Government will aim to achieve 20% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the next fifteen years and that:
– it seeks to replace brown coal fired electricity generation with gas powered generating plants.
– it will develop major programs to reduce energy consumption via increased efficiency.
– it will promote increased use of clean renewable power sources for energy generation.
– it will put in place major programs of reforestation and resource conservation via recycling.

How does that sound? Not enough perhaps but a pretty big step forward relative to the spin and inaction of recent times?

Of course there is a catch. Things are never quite what they seem in the warming world. Incredible as it seems the Sun News Pictorial reported these announcements in June 1989. twenty one years ago! The Environment Minister was not Gavin Jennings but 'Snappy Tom Roper' and the State Premier was John Cain. Cain was quoted as saying "…Global environmental problems can no longer be ignored or dismissed as too hard or too big to tackle. That is the resounding message of the past year or so."
What happened? We have made no progress in the last two decades in fact Victorian greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 20% in that time. Think how much better placed we would be now if our politicians had taken action then consistent with their announcements.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Politician rebranding video

A video about our weekly rebranding sessions, pressuring the Labor Party and the Brumby Government to get our of the pocket of the coal industry an start doing something real about the climate crisis - such as transitioning Victoria out of coal and to renewable energy.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Videos from the Transition Decade launch

Below are two videos. One is a collection of highlights from the speakers at the Transition Decade (T10) launch on 14 Feb at Melbourne Town Hall, and the other is an explanation of T10, the "why?" and the "what?".

The Transition Decade - Launch Highlights from Transition Decade on Vimeo.

The Transition Decade - A Shared Campaign from Transition Decade on Vimeo.

Yarra Climate Action Now!