Yarra Climate Action Now!

YCAN has a new website - http://ycan.org.au/

2010-09-15T09:42:00.002+10:00

Yarra Climate Action Now has graduated from a blog to a website!

This blog will no longer be active.

Go to http://ycan.org.au/ for all the latest climate action and news relevant to the inner-city.

Transition Town Yarra movie nights

2010-09-10T09:54:00.007+10:00

Transition Town Yarra, a local group working towards a self-sufficient and sustainable inner-city, is hosting free movie nights on the third Wednesday of this month and next in Fitzroy.

Details:
7-9pm
Kindness House - level 2, 288 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

Wednesday 15 September - Peak Oil - Imposed by Nature

Produced by Amund Prestegard, 'Peak Oil - Imposed by Nature' is an excellent introduction to the causes and consequences of the terminal decline of global oil production as we reach the global peak. In the documentary retired geologist Dr. Colin Campbell, founder of ASPO, the Association for the Study of Peak Oil, explains the aspects and consequences of oil discovery, the production increase and the subsequent decline on a local as well as on a world scale.

Wednesday 20 October - Film about food

To get in touch please see the Transition Town Yarra facebook page or email transitiontown.yarra@gmail.com.

How much proof do the global warming deniers need?

2010-08-31T17:53:00.002+10:00

"When you stare out over the wave of Weather of Mass Destruction we are unleashing, who looks crazy – the protesters, or the people who have yet to join them?"

Originally published in the UK Independent, by Johann Hari

Thank God man-made global warming was proven to be a hoax. Just imagine what the world might have looked like now if those conspiring scientists had been telling the truth. No doubt Nasa would be telling us that this year is now the hottest since humans began keeping records. The weather satellites would show that even when heat from the sun significantly dipped earlier this year, the world still got hotter. Russia's vast forests would be burning to the ground in the fiercest drought they have ever seen, turning the air black in Moscow, killing 15,000 people, and forcing foreign embassies to evacuate. Because warm air holds more water vapour, the world's storms would be hugely increasing in intensity and violence – drowning one fifth of Pakistan, and causing giant mudslides in China.

The world's ice sheets would be sloughing off massive melting chunks four times the size of Manhattan. The cost of bread would be soaring across the world as heat shrivelled the wheat crops. The increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would be fizzing into the oceans, making them more acidic and so killing 40 per cent of the phytoplankton that make up the irreplaceable base of the oceanic food chain. The denialists would be conceding at last that everything the climate scientists said would happen – with their pesky graphs and studies and computers – came to pass.

This is all happening today, except for that final stubborn step. It's hard to pin any one event on man-made global warming: there were occasional freak weather events before we started altering the atmosphere, and on their own, any of these events could be just another example. But they are, cumulatively, part of a plain pattern where extreme weather is occurring "with greater frequency and in many cases with greater intensity" as the temperature soars, as the US National Climatic Data Centre puts it. This is exactly what climate scientists have been warning us man-made global warming will look like, to the letter. Ashen-faced, they add that all this is coming after less than one degree of global warming since the Industrial Revolution. We are revving up for as much as five degrees more this century.

Yet as the evidence of global warming becomes ever clearer...

To continue reading click here.

Friday Video

2010-08-27T11:30:00.004+10:00

Brought to you by the young people at The Inquiry TV and SYN FM Radio

Green vote surge in Federal Election

2010-08-22T16:59:00.008+10:00

While we still don't know who will be our Prime Minister, one thing is clear - the Greens have been the big winners in this election.

Adam Bandt, Sarah Hanson-Young, Bob Brown and Richard Di Natale. Photo: AAP

Here in the seat of Melbourne, Adam Bandt won his party's first ever lower house seat (in a general election) with a massive 13% increase in the Green primary vote (to a total of 36%) and a 10% swing from Labor to Greens two-party-preferred. Nationally the Greens gained about 11.5% of the primary vote, an increase of almost 4% from last election, by far the biggest gain for any party.

It also seems like the Greens will win 5 or 6 senate spots, meaning they may win one in every state. In Victoria Richard Di Natale has been elected to the Senate with a full quota of votes. The Greens will hold the balance of power in the Senate.

Both Labor and the Greens said that climate change was the biggest issue in the seat of Melbourne.

In The Age, losing Labor candidate Cath Bowtell said, "...clearly they [voters of Melbourne] want us to work faster on reducing carbon emissions and moving to a cleaner-energy economy.''

This result doesn't bode well for inner-city State MPs, who are facing an election in three months. The Brumby Government will have to vastly improved its climate policies if it doesn't want to lose seats to the Greens.

We hope this result encourages some soul-searching in the Labor Party. With both big parties offering no leadership to tackle the climate crisis, more and more people will keep turning to the Greens. We hope all parties heed the signs at this election and greatly improve their climate policies.

Yarra Climate Action Now is proud to have been a part of the Vote Climate campaign in the seat of Melbourne. Our work helped make a difference in this seat and helped the party with the best climate policies win! Well done to everyone involved.

Costs of the climate crisis multiply in lives and dollars

2010-08-14T16:32:00.004+10:00

Two excellent articles in today's Age describe the increase in natural disasters caused by global warming, and the economic cost of last year's bushfires.

The calamities are upon us as the world warms

THEY are the extreme weather events that climate scientists have been warning about - the simultaneous catastrophes of flooding in Pakistan, wildfires in Russia and landslides in China.

Many scientists say these events are all unprecedented and that such disasters, taken together, are proof of climate change. They warn that widespread and devastating flooding will become more frequent and could be considered normal by the middle of the century.

Almost 14 million people have been affected by the torrential rains in Pakistan, and more than 1600 have died, making it a greater humanitarian disaster than the south Asian tsunami and recent earthquakes in Kashmir and Haiti combined, the United Nations says.
Advertisement: Story continues below

In Russia, firefighters and soldiers were battling to stop wildfires from engulfing key nuclear sites while Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took to the air in a water-bombing plane to join the effort. Morgues in Moscow are overflowing as officials estimate 5000 have died in the worst heatwave in 130 years.

To continue reading click here.

Climate change will cost us all

You don't have to be Lord Stern to see how the costs of climate change are already compounding and spiralling, out of control.

Some costs are relatively benign - such as the devaluation of waterfront properties in Byron Bay as sea levels rise - a process starting in earnest whether estate agents like it or not.

Other costs are terrible, such as the conservative $4.4 billion figure put on last year's Black Saturday fires by the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, including insurance claims of $1.2 billion (property and vehicles), $1.1 billion spent by the Victorian Bushfires Reconstruction and Recovery Authority, $658 million in destroyed timber, 173 lives lost worth $645 million according to established formulae (not counting injuries) and about $593 million spent on firefighting (not counting volunteers).

Climate change features minimally in the Commission's final report, handed down a fortnight ago. That is interesting in itself, because when he announced the inquiry the Premier, John Brumby, said everything would be on the table, including climate change.

To continue reading click here.

A new coal plant for Victoria?

2010-08-06T11:43:00.007+10:00

According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the planet has just come through the warmest decade, the warmest 12 months, the warmest six months, and the warmest April, May, and June on record.

Despite this, and despite releasing a white paper with a 20% emissions reduction target (YCAN will be analysing the white paper in more detail after the Federal Election) John Brumby's Government is still supporting a new coal-fired power station to be built in the Latrobe Valley.

Despite the spin (the company that wants to build the plant, HRL, says that it is clean technology, although it would have the same emissions as a black coal power station) this new power station would increase Victoria's emissions by 3%, thereby cancelling out the State Government's policy of closing 25% of Hazelwood Power Station.

Effectively, instead of replacing one quarter of Hazelwood with renewable energy, Brumby's policy is to replace brown coal with......more coal.

The 600MW HRL plant will receive $150 million of taxpayer money to subsidise its construction if it is to go ahead. It would have 36% less emissions than a conventional brown coal power station, but that is still infinitely more than the zero emissions from baseload solar thermal and wind power - both of which are commercially available now. We would prefer if our money went towards those technologies.

A solar thermal power tower. These are being constructed in the USA and Spain. With heat storage they can replace baseload electricity from coal.

HRL is now working on a plan to submit to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for approval. If it can slide under the extremely lax emissions standard of 0.8 tonnes of carbon per megawatt hour of energy produced (average globally for rich nations is 0.45, wind and solar are zero), then it is presumed it will get a tick of approval, unless we can stop it politically.

The message just doesn't seem to be getting through to the Labor Party. We have to urgently transition out of coal. Building new coal-fired power plants is insanity. We can go to 100% renewable energy if we wanted to.

If John Brumby and his inner-city ministers that are under threat from the Greens want to be taken seriously on climate change, then this new coal plant must be stopped before the State Election in November.

Vote Climate

2010-07-30T12:33:00.007+10:00

Many of us are doing what we can in our homes to cut carbon pollution and save water, and now the government must do its part.

Bush fires, floods, sea-level rises and drought — climate change is already harming us all and will get rapidly worse, unless we take urgent action.

Denial and delay are dangerous and inexcusable.

On Saturday August 21, we urge you to send a message that you want immediate and strong action on climate change.

To make your vote count for a safe climate get informed on the different policies of the parties, and pass this information on to family and friends. Below is a scorecard put together by a coalition of independent community groups, the full analysis is here (click on the scorecard to see it more clearly).

You can also check out a more comprehensive analysis looking at more issues and parties here, or the Australian Youth Climate Coalition scorecard here.

Gillard: moving Australia backwards on climate

2010-07-24T16:05:00.007+10:00

Yesterday Julia Gillard announced some of the Labor Party's climate policies.

Debate amongst the YCAN team has centred on whether these are the worst policies ever, or the second worst.

The Labor Party cannot even pretend to care about climate change now. These policies will see Australia's emissions continue to rise rapidly while the impacts of climate change keep worsening.

In summary, the policy announcements are:

1. A green light for new coal-fired power stations and existing ones to keep polluting indefinitely

Twelve new coal-fired power stations on the drawing board around Australia have been given the go-ahead. Any new plants beyond these will be subject to "emissions standards", which will only block brown coal developments, but not black coal.

Further, all new coal plants (the phrase "new coal plants" shouldn't exist in and of itself as we should not be building any) will need to be "carbon capture and storage ready" - something that is completely meaningless.

Existing polluting infrastructure, such as Hazelwood Power Station remain untouched.

2. More inaction and delay

The "citizens assembly", due to report in over 12 months is just an excuse for inaction, when urgent action is desperately needed. Community consensus on climate action has existed for years, and scientific consensus has existed well before that. We want action, not more talk!

3. Money from solar energy to go to buying petrol cars

Money will be taken away from the solar infrastructure program to fund rebates for car owners to purchase a new car if their car is older than 1995.

For further information see the Vote Climate website.

And for further analysis, Bernard Keane from Crikey has expressed it well in his piece:

Citizen Gillard abandons basic leadership on climate change

It's hard to describe just how truly wretched Labor's new climate change policy is. It makes the CPRS, its dog of an emissions trading scheme, look like a model of best practice. It is a spectacular failure of leadership.

Julia Gillard's "citizens' assembly" has effectively outsourced responsibility for climate policy to "ordinary Australians", on whose "skills, capacity, decency and plain common sense" Gillard will rely to tell her about the community consensus on climate change. In effect it institutionalises what is already apparent -- this is a Government controlled by focus group reactions.

Labor has been playing politics with climate change for three years and it hasn't stopped. But whereas for most of that time it used climate change to damage the Coalition, now it is having to defend itself against the issue. It will only be with the political cover afforded by this nonsensical Assembly that the Government will take any action on a carbon price.

Rarely has so much goodwill and political capital been wasted on such an important issue.

The consensus the Government insists it needs the protection of before acting already exists. It's not just in the opinion polls, which show time and time again that the majority of voters want action on climate change and supported the Government's CPRS. In 2007, let's not forget, both sides of politics told Australians they were going to introduce an ETS. The 2007 election endorsed a community consensus on the need for action.

Instead, in 2010, neither party will commit to any sort of carbon price mechanism for at least three years. Instead, they're offering excuses as to why they don't want to take action. We've done anything but move forward on climate action.

Gillard's interim actions are little better. The new emissions standard she proposes won't even apply to four coal-fired power stations being built or brought back on line currently. They may not apply to two more, the massive Mt Piper and Bayswater projects in NSW, which will together add 4% to national CO2-equivalent emissions when they come on line. Holding the baseline for the CPRS at 2008 levels won't give electricity generators any more investment certainty when it remains unclear whether there will ever be an emissions trading scheme in Australia. Nor does it change the simple fact that State Governments continue to drive Australia into a coal-fired future.

Labor's craven pandering to key outer-suburban electorates in its population and asylum seeker policies was bad enough. But abdicating executive responsibility for action on climate change is a new low in cynical politics, beyond the depths even reached by NSW Labor. Politicians are elected to lead. Deferring every controversial issue back to the electorate is a clumsy variant of leadership by polling and focus groups.

So blatant is Labor's refusal to lead that it raises serious questions about its fitness for government. The only problem is that the alternative is an economically-illiterate party whose leader doesn't believe in climate change at all, but who insists on wasting $3b on the most expensive possible means of addressing it.

What a choice, two major parties incapable of leadership and unfit to govern.

YCAN Event: 100% renewable energy for Australia: What are we waiting for?

2010-07-20T21:07:00.005+10:00

As heard on Radio National and seen on ABC News Breakfast...

Come along to hear Beyond Zero Emissions present their detailed blueprint for how Australia can be powered by 100% renewable energy within a decade. The Zero Carbon Australia 2020 Plan is essential knowledge for all Australians.

When: Wed 28 July, 6.30pm - 8pm
Where: Level 2, Kindness House, 288 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

Please RSVP to: yarracan -at- gmail.com

...and bring $5 if you want to go in on some pizza

Federal Election Called - help make climate the key issue‏

2010-07-19T22:44:00.001+10:00

The election has been called and the circus begins.

Amongst the sea of spin and annoying catch phrases, it can be hard to find some substance - and sometimes, the best thing to do is to create it!

We need you to help with the Vote Climate campaign.

YCAN, together with several other local community groups will be running the Vote Climate campaign for the next five weeks.

This will be a non-partisan campaign, which aims to educate the public on the different climate policies of the three main parties.

We want to inform voters and encourage them to vote for action on climate change. With your help we can ensure that the climate crisis stays on the election agenda.

Can you help? We need volunteers to letterbox, attend stalls and attend pre-poll and polling day booths.

If you are interested in helping out then please fill out the web form here.

To donate to the Vote Climate campaign and fund the printing of the Vote Climate leaflets, you can direct transfer to the following account:
Account Name: Yarra Climate Action Now
BSB: 803 140
Account No. 23196790

Don't let the polluters, deniers and delayers bury climate change in this election - sign up to volunteer for Vote Climate.

Zero Carbon Australia Plan available - 100% renewables can be a reality

2010-07-17T12:21:00.005+10:00

The Zero Carbon Australia 2020 Stationary Energy Plan was launched to a packed out auditorium at the University of Melbourne on Wednesday.

To download the full Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan click here (8.4MB).

Hard copies can be purchased from the Melbourne Energy Institute.

Don't miss out on this cutting-edge research, which shows how Australia can reach 100% renewable energy within a decade, using technology that is commercially available right now.

Great news for all Australians!

See media coverage on ABC Radio National PM and ABC2 News Breakfast.

YCAN is pleased to be hosting a presentation on the Zero Carbon Plan by Beyond Zero Emissions - come along to see how 100% renewable energy is possible!

Wednesday 28 July
6.30-8pm
Kindness House, Level 2, 288 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

RSVP to Yarracan -at- gmail.com

Replacing 25% of Hazelwood is greenwash

2010-07-10T14:34:00.005+10:00

Big news on the front page of The Age today, with the Brumby Government considering replacing one quarter of Hazelwood Power Station, Australia's most polluting, with a mixture of fossil fuel gas, energy efficiency and renewable energy by 2014. Our campaign is succeeding in getting this issue on the agenda!

However, this current plan is nothing but a hollow attempt to appease the growing community concern over the support the Brumby and Gillard governments are giving to the coal industry and the increasing emissions from the Victorian coal sector, which are worsening the climate crisis. It is rumoured that one of the eight generator units at Hazelwood is broken down anyway, in which case only one unit would actually be replaced.

While the Brumby Government has finally recognised the problem, i.e. our reliance on dirty brown coal for energy, they have yet to come up with a real solution.

Allowing 75% of Hazelwood to continue to pollute indefinitely is not a solution. Replacing one polluting fossil fuel (coal), with another (gas) is also not a solution. The whole thing needs to be replaced with clean renewable energy and energy efficiency as part of a complete phased transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Hazelwood Power Station - John Brumby wants to allow 75% of this pollution to continue

This transition is possible with existing technology, and is affordable too - as long as the big polluter corporations aren't allowed to rort taxpayers by getting massive "compensation" payouts as coal-fired power stations are replaced. We hope the Brumby and Gillard governments are able to do the right thing and spend money on compensation and training for laid-off workers, rather than wealthy shareholders, and on price support policies for renewable energy technologies.

So well done to all the people that have been writing letters, doorknocking, leafletting and spreading the word on the Replace Hazelwood campaign. We have gotten it on the political agenda in a big way! We need to keep going, making it clear that we won't accept anything but the replacement of Hazelwood with clean, renewable energy.

Melbourne launch of the Zero Carbon Australia Plan

2010-07-07T11:43:00.003+10:00

100% renewable energy for Australia within a decade is possible and affordable. Come along to the energy event of the year to find out how.

This free public lecture will be the launch of the Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan.

Hosted by the University of Melbourne Energy Institute.

Wednesday 14 July, 6-8pm

Basement theatre, The Spot, 198 Berkeley St, Carlton

For further information click here

Speakers:
John Daley (CEO Grattan Institute)
Keith Lovegrove (Solar Thermal Group Leader, ANU)
Lane Crockett (General Manager, Pacific Hydro)
Matthew Wright (Executive Director Beyond Zero Emissions)

Saving civilisation is not a spectator sport

2010-07-02T17:54:00.003+10:00

By Lester R. Brown (written for US audience)

Given the enormous environmental and social challenges faced by our early twenty-first century global civilization, one of the questions I hear most frequently is, What can I do? People often expect me to talk about lifestyle changes, recycling newspapers, or changing light bulbs. These are essential, but they are not nearly enough. We now need to restructure the global economy, and quickly. It means becoming politically active, working for the needed changes. Saving civilization is not a spectator sport.

Inform yourself, read about the issues. If you want to know what happened to earlier civilizations that found themselves in environmental trouble, read Collapse by Jared Diamond or A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright or The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter. My latest book, Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, can be downloaded free of charge from Earth Policy Institute’s (EPI’s) Web site, earthpolicy.org, along with complementary data sets and a slide show summary. If you find these materials useful in helping you think about what to do, share them with others.

Pick an issue that’s meaningful to you, such as tax restructuring, banning inefficient light bulbs, phasing out coal-fired power plants, or working for streets in your community that are pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly, or join a group that is working to stabilize world population. What could be more exciting and rewarding than getting personally involved in trying to save civilization?

To continue reading, click here.

Gillard Government already disappoints on climate

2010-06-26T16:40:00.005+10:00

Unfortunately, the Gillard Prime Ministership has gotten off to a very bad start.

Within 24 hours of her swearing in, the Federal Government was signing a deal to export brown coal - the world's dirtiest, most greenhouse gas intensive fuel - to Vietnam.

The greenwash was coming in thick and fast from the Trade Minister Simon Crean, who said the technology used in this export deal would clean up the brown coal - when in fact it will make it as polluting as black coal - still a disaster in terms of emissions produced.

So far, Victoria has avoided the coal export curse, with all its associated health and environment impacts, which affects NSW and QLD. This deal is a step in the wrong direction. Australia is the world's biggest coal exporter and this makes us one of the biggest pushers of the fossil fuel drug which is causing global warming.

We must stop exporting coal as well as burning it within our own shores. Not only will this help avoid catastrophic climate change, a transition to renewable energy will create more jobs than it destroys and in the medium and long term provide a massive boost to the Australian economy.

Luckily this grubby deal did not go unnoticed. A group of people gathered at the Southbank hotel where the deal was signed, after being given only a few hours notice. The media coverage can be see here - The Age, ABC

It is crucial that the Australian public cuts through the spin coming from the Labor Party and judges Julia Gillard on her policies.

The children of the Khapi Community in Bolivia, where glacier retreat has robbed the community of its water and its livelihood.

Knocking the suburbs

2010-06-25T12:14:00.004+10:00

Last weekend volunteers from Yarra Climate Action Now doorknocked over 1000 homes in Collingwood and Fitzroy for the Replace Hazelwood campaign. We gathered hundreds of signatures for our petition and spoke to people about the urgent need to replace Australia's dirtiest coal-fired power station with clean renewable energy. We got a great response from the community.

While many first-time doorknockers were nervous at the beginning, with one hour of training and practice, over 20 people hit the streets and had a good time doing it!

First time doorknocker Phil said:

"Thanks for the chance to participate. It was a great learning experience.

"Oddly, I was pretty nervous right at the start. I was worried about how to do the opening pitch when the door was first opened. I went with my partner and watched her as she did a few houses and that helped a lot.

"Following that, and after doing about 3 pitches myself I got over my nerves and started to really get into the flow. I then found it really enjoyable, in fact it really fired me up!"

Some of the YCAN volunteers doing the doorknocking training

Our next doorknocking session is Sunday 4 July in Richmond, 1-4pm (one hour training, two hours doorknocking), meeting at Melbourne Girls College, Yarra blvd, Richmond.

We need your help! Sign up now here.

Climate Truth and Lies forum 23 June

2010-06-18T12:13:00.002+10:00

Come and hear about climate change science and solutions at Truth & Lies, a presentation by Climate Code Red co-author David Spratt at Northcote Town Hall (189 High St, Northcote) on Wednesday 23 June from 7.00–9.00pm (snacks from 6.30pm).

Brought to you by Darebin Climate Action Network, Yarra Climate Action Now and Alphington Community Centre.

For more information email YarraCAN@gmail.com

AMWU supports 100% renewable energy

2010-06-15T19:19:00.003+10:00

The Western Australian branch of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union has passed a motion supporting 100% renewable energy at its recent conference.

The call for renewable energy was included as part of a motion against the nuclear industry. A section of the motion is below.

It's great to see the union movement getting behind sensible energy policies.

"[the] Conference notes and supports the union policy on uranium mining, however until now very little has been done to implement this policy while the pro-uranium lobby continues to roll on and, in fact, is becoming more confident as they hitch their bandwagon to climate change. They argue that nuclear energy is necessary as part of the energy mix, which is not correct. The delay in the uptake of renewable energy is historically due to the fact that the fossil fuel lobby has been able to dominate energy.

"A “business as usual” model will not address the urgency of climate change. 100% renewable energy by 2020 is achievable. It is also necessary to combat climate change in such a manner as to negate the pro-uranium lobby. The demand for 100% renewable energy by 2020 is an international campaign that we need to not only support but be prepared to take action in support of, thereby attaining a nuclear-free future."

YCAN wins Yarra City Council sustainability award

2010-06-11T09:00:00.004+10:00

Yarra Climate Action Now has won the Yarra City Council Sustainability Award for Community Action (environment group) 2010.

We are very pleased with this award and want to thank and say well done to everyone that has taken part in YCAN actions and activities in the past - you helped!

We are lucky in the City of Yarra to have so many fantastic community initiatives and we were in a tough field full of excellent groups. Thank you to the City of Yarra for recognising the importance of community action.

Replace Hazelwood video

2010-06-04T09:01:00.004+10:00

In this election year let's get some action instead of backflips...

An urgent message from Bolivia

2010-05-29T18:19:00.005+10:00

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Steve and Naomi from Rising Tide reporting from Bolivia

Some countries around the world are feeling the effects of climate change more than others, yet most of us are unaware of these struggles. Australia is doing relatively well coping with the current effects of climate change for now, at least compared to some low lying island nations or communities reliant on the melt waters from glaciers.

This was made amazingly clear at the Bolivian hosted World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, April 2010. Throughout the conference, people spoke about losing human rights due to water shortages. Glacier-fed drinking water disappearing as global warming melts the snowy peaks away.

We learned that one of the glaciers in the Andes mountain chain, Chacaltaya was once a popular ski field, but has completely disappeared, years earlier than scientists predicted. And according to these same scientists, in the next 20-30 years most of the glaciers right across the Andes will go, affecting access to water for 70 million people.

One woman was very direct when talking us. “What can we do to stop this?”

We considered Australia’s contribution to these climate problems. In Australia, we mine and burn coal as our number one energy source. We have some of the world’s largest per person carbon emissions due to our dirty energy supply. Even this seems insignificant compared to the coal we mine and export, releasing more CO2 than all of our domestic emissions combined.

Australia is the world’s biggest coal exporter, and state and federal governments are planning to expand this deadly industry, building roads and railways so we can send the coal to the ports faster, and pushing for new mines to be opened. That is, unless we stop them.

After a little scratching of our heads we turned back to the woman, “We could paint a banner with a glacier-fed community that reads, Please Stop Mining Coal, Climate Change is Taking Our Water”.

There was no going back now. This woman’s question set us on a path high into the Andes Mountains in search of an appropriate community. We found ourselves in the meeting room of local NGO Aqua Sustentable (Water Sustainability) explaining our odd sounding idea to strangers we hoped could help us in our quest to share this message with Australians back home.

Our enthusiasm caught on and days later we took off further up the mountains with their team. Within three hours we arrived at the Khapi community, passing seemingly endless fields of fresh growing food along the way. We learned the Khapi community is made up of about 40 families, all working together to grow their food, live in mud brick homes and use the glacier-fed water supply that literally flows right past their houses.

Upon arriving at the community, we were greeted by 30 smiling faces at the primary school. To begin, we gave a short presentation about Australia (and our world famous kangaroos) the coal industry, renewable alternatives and our climate change work back home. We spoke in English, another woman translated into Spanish, and then another young man spoke in the local Aymara language. Luckily, the photographs projected up onto the wall told most of the story.

It wasn’t a fun story to tell. Photos from near our home in the Hunter Valley NSW, showed open cut coal mining. Tiny spots in the dark hole were revealed to be enormous trucks hauling tones upon tones of coal. Huge smoke stacks spewing dark clouds of pollution. The more we told the story, the more the reality of what is going on really hit us.

The children seemed glued to the slides, including the photos of Australian banners. When we explained our banner idea they all cheered with excitement. They now had a chance to paint their own.

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The kids loved it. We were very impressed with the way they concentrated to make the banner the best it could be. They were obviously very proud of their hard work, parading the banner around the community above their heads, laughing and carrying on.

They soon reached a special lookout where we could see the towering glacier in all its glory. Illimani.

After the laughter and joy we shared with the kids, it was sobering to hear the words of community leader Severino Cortez Bilbao. “Recently we've started thinking about our Illimani. Before it was pure white, right down to there. In the last 5 or 6 years it's suffered badly, it's all black. Some people don't think about it, but we are thinking about it, we're thinking about our children, those who will come after, because we're already getting on, we may not see what happens later on. If Illimani dries up, there'll be no water and no life, no life.”

This experience turned out to be far more than a banner painting exercise. It was life changing. We knew a little of warming events in mountainous regions of the world, but it was something else to visit a community where their glacier and water supply is disappearing before their eyes.

The challenge to support climate affected communities and to encourage action against climate change and coal mining is a large one, but the smiles of those children with the most to loose will stick with us for a while yet.

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Volunteers needed - Replace Hazelwood

2010-05-23T11:32:00.007+10:00

The campaign to Replace Hazelwood power station with renewable energy (and energy efficiency) is gathering strength. You may have seen the coverage in the media recently as well as Hazelwood’s owners’ outrageous attempt to sabotage energy efficiency programs.

Hazelwood brown coal-fired power station near Morwell is Australia’s most polluting power station. Replacing it with renewable energy and energy efficiency would reduce Victoria’s emissions by around 12% and Australia’s by 3%. If we want to reduce emissions, we must start by replacing Hazelwood.

To do this we need your help.

The state and federal Labor governments are now under pressure to act after Kevin Rudd's backflip on climate change.

So, now is the time to get the message out in the community.

http://www.climateactioncentre.org/iwanttodoorknock

Over the next two months local community climate groups are going to be doorknocking in the key inner city electorates of Melbourne.

Door knocking is easy, fun and one of the most effective ways of getting our message into the community and having an impact on politicians.

Here is how it works. We start at 1pm and do about an hour of training, we knock on doors for less than two hours (in pairs) and then get together for a cuppa or a drink and talk about how it went.
http://www.climateactioncentre.org/iwanttodoorknock

It's easy! Residents are friendly and usually very happy to take some information or sign the petition.

No prior experience or detailed technical knowledge about Hazelwood necessary – we will provide training and materials. Doorknocking will be done in pairs.

YCAN will be hosting two doorknocking sessions:
Saturday 19 June in Fitzroy, 1-4pm
Sunday 4 July in Richmond, 1-4pm

There is also doorknocking happening in Brunswick, Kensington, North Melbourne and Westgarth/Northcote.

So please join us on a coming Saturday or Sunday by clicking on the link below and registering to doorknock. There is also a video showing how it works below.

http://www.climateactioncentre.org/iwanttodoorknock

To find out more about doorknocking and the Hazelwood campaign go here http://www.climateactioncentre.org/replacehazelwood

A YCAN Investigation – State Government Green Jobs Package

2010-05-16T16:44:00.004+10:00

Just under two weeks ago many of us at YCAN received a media release from Peter Batchelor, the Victorian Minister for Coal Industry Profits, trumpeting the recent Green Jobs Action Plan released in the State Budget on 4 May. As some environment groups had praised the plan, one of our members decided to investigate to see if the Brumby Government (as opposed to current form) had actually put forward a decent policy to tackle the climate crisis.

The State Budget announced several proposed water and energy efficiency measures. Most if not all of these initiatives are grouped under the heading ‘Jobs for the Future Economy - Victoria's Action Plan for Green Jobs’. Outside the ambit of the 'Jobs for the Future Economy' package Peter Batchelor proudly trumpets the hosting of the World Geothermal congress in 2015. Yes that's right a conference, in five years time.

The package allocates modest amounts to training and research but the proposed actions generally promote modest energy efficiency and water saving measures at the point of end use, the benefits of which are self-evident. These initiatives can be divided between limited term programs that last until the money runs out and a few driven by regulatory change and training programs that could be expected to have ongoing benefits. Modest but positive aspects of the package are the changes to landfill fees which seem likely to strengthen the recycling industry and the Green Door package from Planning Minister Madden which both tightens the climatic requirements of new housing and provides some training for builders relevant to the new regulatory regime. The rest however appears to be little more than pork barrelling. The total cost to government is projected to be $175 million and according to the Premier, “The program will achieve cost savings of more than $7 million per year through reduced energy and water consumption and save 130,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases each year”. Judging from the premier’s media release the package is projected to create ‘up to 700 (green) jobs’.

So how significant are these reductions in greenhouse gas emissions?

If we take the projected cost ($175 million) and divide it by the projected annual greenhouse gas emissions reduction (130,000 tonnes) we find the projected cost of mitigation is a staggering $1400/tonne.

If we compare the projected annual greenhouse gas emissions reduction (130,000 tonnes) to Victoria’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions (121.9 Mega tonnes) the projected reduction is about 0.1% of current total annual emissions. For Victoria to achieve its share of Kevin Rudd’s pathetic 5% emissions reduction using these measures would (by the Government’s own figures) cost $8.7 billion!

So to summarise – the major climate change policy of the Brumby Government in the latest state budget will reduce Victoria’s emissions by 0.1%!

Another example from this material is the seductively named ‘Solar Hubs’ program under which the Brumby Government proposes to allocate $5 million for the establishment of up to 10 ‘solar hubs’ around regional Victoria with grants of between $250,000 and $1 million. As these solar hubs are simply arrays of conventional domestic PV solar collectors the same as some of us have on our roofs it is not hard to do the sums. Approximately $15,000 buys about 1.6 kilowatts (kw) of generating capacity. Assuming that the government gets a good price from its suppliers perhaps $100,000 would buy 16kw of generating capacity. Scaling this up $1 million would buy 160kw and $5 million would buy 800kw of generating capacity. Allowing for 4 hours of collection this array of installations collects around 3.2Mw-hr daily. Multiply by 365 to get annual generation and we find that annual generation from this array would be around 1168 (say 1200) Mw-hr. Annual residential energy use in Victoria is around 164 Petajoules.

One petajoule = 277,778Mw-hr therefore annual domestic sector energy consumption, (164 petajoules) = 45,556,000 Mw-hr. The reduction in domestic energy demand resulting from the implementation of this program (1200Mw-hr) is miniscule. Given a projected annual rate of increase in domestic energy consumption of about 2.5% the solar hubs program would have to be multiplied by roughly 1000 to just cover the growth in energy demand! To follow this exercise in the absurd just one step further, just covering the projected annual increase in domestic (residential) energy consumption by expanding the Solar Hubs program would cost $5billion! These figures look incredible but we've checked several times.

The Brumby government is adopting a time-honored pre-election strategy of throwing money (as little as possible) at very carefully selected targets to give the misleading impression that they are addressing a problem that they think might impact on them electorally but which they have in reality chosen to avoid. Of course it can be argued that the primary intention of this package is the creation of environmentally responsible jobs. It is hard to judge whether $175 million spent on the creation of 'up to' 700 green jobs in regional Victoria is good value for money but as an exercise in emissions reduction (surely the primary measure of the 'green-ness' of a proposal) or as a demonstration of the government's ability to extract best value from green dollars invested, this package is very uneven.

In any case it is hard to take any policy seriously that proposes to reduce Victoria’s emissions by 0.1%.

Replacing Hazelwood Power Station with clean energy would reduce Victoria’s emissions by around 12%. It’s time Brumby committed to this.

Federal Budget funds fossil fuels more than renewables

2010-05-12T13:46:00.006+10:00

The Federal Budget, handed down yesterday by Treasurer Wayne Swan, contains no significant climate change initiatives, and reduces funding for several existing programs such as the water tank and greywater system rebates, water recycling and stormwater harvesting programs, Landcare and the Natural Heritage Trust.

The much reported $652 million for renewable energy represents a tiny proportion of Australia's electricity consumption. This is so low as to be almost insignificant and pales in comparison with the call by over 40 organisations, including YCAN, for renewable energy funding at least as high as the national broadband network of $22 to $42 billion.

Funding for the fossil fuel industry is still higher under this budget than funding for renewable energy.

Below is a press release from the Victorian Climate Action Centre with some further information.

MEDIA RELEASE

Kevin Rudd's back flip on climate has not been addressed by Wayne Swan's Budget, the Climate Action Centre said today.

“Australian's angry and disappointed by Kevin Rudd's recent back flip on climate change will not be mollified by this Budget,” said Damien Lawson, coordinator, Climate Action Centre.

“Labor has again failed to take an opportunity to make polluters accountable by putting a price on carbon and cutting subsidies to the coal industry.”

“While there is some new money for energy efficiency and renewable energy in the Budget, it is only $652.5 million over four years, well short of what is needed.”

“The money does not really start to flow until 2012 and there is little detail on how it will be spent.”

“And there is still more money in the Budget for the fossil industry than for climate change, in fact those chasing the clean coal pipe dream still get about as much as the renewable energy sector.”

“Elsewhere the government has slashed $200 million from its Green Car Fund, and failed to put any money into the electric vehicle revolution this country needs.”

“There is no vision for a zero carbon economy in this Budget just more of the same quarry vision that we had under the Howard government.”

“The public will see through this attempt to green wash the Labor government after a hit in the polls because of its climate back flips.”

Replace Hazelwood campaign

2010-05-08T17:26:00.003+10:00

What dinosaur lives in the Latrobe Valley and suffers from terrible gas?

Hazelwood brown coal power station near Morwell in the Latrobe Valley is Australia’s most polluting power station and one of the dirtiest in the developed world.

Hazelwood produces a whopping 15% of Victoria’s greenhouse gas emissions, and is a major consumer of our precious and scarce water (27 billion litres per year).

It was due to be closed down in 2009, but in 2005, in a shameful decision, the State Labor Government extended its life out past 2030.

If the Australian economy is to begin the transition to zero emissions, and thereby do our bit in avoiding the worsening droughts, fires, floods and sea level rises that will come from runaway climate change, then we need to start by replacing Hazelwood with clean renewable energy by 2012.

A number of groups have begun a campaign, calling on all parties to commit to replacing Hazelwood before the Victorian State Election in November this year. We have already held rallies and started doorknocking in inner Melbourne. This is a key election test – do the candidates in your seat support replacing Hazelwood with clean energy?

We need your help to make this happen!

What can I do?

Send a letter to the Labor and Liberal Party leaders
Sign up to the Environment Victoria or Climate Action Centre bulletins
Join the campaign on facebook
Follow Replace Hazelwood on Twitter
Help with letterboxing or doorknocking (see video below)
Print out and put a Replace Hazelwood poster up in your house or workplace
Get more information

If you have any questions send us an email on yarracan@gmail.com

100% renewable energy for Australia

2010-05-03T12:35:00.005+10:00

Photo by www.drewechberg.com

YCAN took part in yesterday's launch of the 100% Renewable Energy campaign by adding our voice to thousands of others via this photo of some of our members at the iconic "Fitzroy" sign on Johnston Street. Photos were taken by community groups all over Australia.

This new campaign is calling for an urgent transition to 100% renewable energy for Australia.

Is this possible? Is this affordable? The answer is yes and yes! Just one example of how we can do it is here.

Visit the campaign website for more information and to get inolved, or contact us at YCAN.

Rudd's Hypocrisy

2010-05-02T22:54:00.003+10:00

The Rudd Government now officially has no practical policy to tackle the climate emergency (just like the Howard Government).

This video is an excerpt from a recent ABC report. It speaks for itself.

GetUp is asking people to vote on the following no confidence motion:

"We the people have no confidence in Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's leadership on climate change. He has failed to deliver action to address the greatest moral challenge of our generation."

Click here to add your vote.

Cochabamba Diary Day 4 – Earth Day

2010-04-24T09:08:00.007+10:00

This is the final post from Pablo and Taegen at the Cochabamba conference. Many thanks to them for their thorough updates from this globally important event. They will be back May 2 or 3 but are now heading to the jungle for some r & r.

The People’s Agreement

The conference wound up today on the fortieth anniversary of the first Earth Day. It ended with an epic closing ceremony at the Cochabamba Stadium which lasted around five hours (we were smart enough to show up only for the last two) and featured music and speeches, including one from the show-stealing President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez.

Most importantly, the final document to have come out of the summit, the People’s Agreement was presented and accepted. This document represents the work of thousands of people and the synthesis of the conclusions from the 17 working groups we discussed yesterday. The Bolivian Government is now trying to put this agreement on the agenda at the UN Cancun conference in December to allow governments to see and discuss the position of global social movements on the climate crisis.

Some of the points from this document that we left out in yesterday’s summary of the 17 working groups are:
• A call for emissions cuts of Annex 1 (developed) countries of 50% by 2020 on 1990 levels, without the use of any offsets or international carbon markets.
• A recognition of climate refugees and a call for developed countries to take responsibility for them and grant them refugee status in their countries under a special climate refugee category.
• A call for a fund made up of 6% of developed countries’ gross domestic product (GDP) to unconditionally pay back the climate debt to countries already facing severe climate impacts.
• A rejection of free trade agreements which have put the rights of profit-seeking corporations above the rights of people and nature.
• A call for an end to the logging of forests and the urgent re-vegetation of lands. A rejection of the definition within the UN Climate Change Convention of tree plantations as forests and a rejection of the REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation) scheme, which rich countries are using to avoid emissions reductions at home and is causing the further theft of indigenous people’s lands.

This agreement must be taken seriously by any government that considers itself democratic. Unlike most past climate agreements and most national climate policies, including those of the Rudd Government, this is a truly democratic document that doesn’t have the dirty fingerprints of greedy corporations all over it. It is an expression of a democratic and deliberative process and represents the views of people, many of whom are facing a very real threat to their own survival.

$2.5 million incentive for the USA?

Shows of defiance against the United States and el imperialismo yanqui, are a dime a dozen in South America and there were many to be found at this conference. Our highlight was an announcement by the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño, at the government/social movements dialogue held this morning (a meeting between representatives of government and grassroots organisations). He explained that the USA had withdrawn $2.5 million of aid funding, because Ecuador refused to sign the pathetic Copenhagen Accord (which was negotiated by the USA and only a few other countries in secret during the Copenhagen talks). In reply, Ecuador has offered the Obama Administration $2.5 million if the USA ratifies the Kyoto Protocol. We hope the price is right!

Six critical differences between climate change discourse and debate at the Cochabamba conference and in Australia

As Aussies attending this conference perhaps the most critical question, and something we have been conscious of throughout the whole event is: How does any of this relate to what is happening in the climate movement/debate in Australia?

We have come up with 6 critical differences between what we have heard and seen of the climate change debate here in Bolivia throughout the course of this conference and what we know of the situation in Australia:

1. Structural causes.
In Australia, there is no serious debate about the structural causes of climate change. Analysis of systemic reasons for our high levels of pollution is decidedly absent or marginal and there is an unspoken (and unproven) implication that we can deal with climate change simply by putting a price on carbon and going on consuming, growing, exporting fossil fuels and so on. Anyone who bothers to look at the big picture quickly understands that something does not add up, but the majority of people just avert their eyes.

At this conference we have heard over and over that the capitalist system and mentality is to blame for climate change and is incompatible with averting climate catastrophe. From Evo´s grandstanding at official plenaries, to the conclusions of the working groups, to the most informal of conversations with participants from different South American delegations, we have heard the mantra – we must choose capitalism or our Earth. Without launching into an assessment of the accuracy of this analysis here, we cannot help but notice how much this discourse jars with what is being discussed in Australia. For the majority of Australians, capitalism is not necessarily a system they are conscious of participating in – it is synonymous with ´just the way things are´. It is not a system widely scrutinised or questioned, let alone vehemently opposed and presented as the ultimate culprit as it is here.

2. A moral leg to stand on.
We, in Australia, are part of the rich, industrialised world. As the world’s highest per capita emitter, we are quite clearly the bad guys and this gives us, as citizens and as a country, a very different perspective from the host country, Bolivia, and many of the other countries most strongly represented here. In Australia, when explaining the impacts of climate change at a global level, there is inevitably some statement about how it is those who live in the poorest nations that are most screwed and (depending on the audience) a cloud of guilt and abstract sympathy inevitably descends. In contrast, the mood at this conference has been very much one of ´we are the victims here and others are to blame´.

3. Agency.
Going beyond the point about who’s got the moral upper hand, there is also the related question of who’s got any power to actually affect climate change and the climate negotiations. When you consider where this conference fits into the grand scheme of things – multi-lateral climate negotiations, the UN process and who inevitably called the shots in Copenhagen, you have to ask what options Bolivia has to influence their own climate future.

In Australia, we are much larger emitters and are the biggest coal exporters in the world. What we do and say matters a lot more in a geopolitical and climate sense than what Bolivia does.

4. Respect for indigenous values.
In Australia, we have no concept of indigenous values and lifestyles as presenting any real alternative to our current lifestyles. This conference has been marked by the presence of indigenous peoples from around the world and none more strongly represented than indigenous peoples from all over Bolivia, young and old alike. You could not turn your head here at this conference without seeing a colourful mish-mash of traditional costumes. Here, the idea of revaluing indigenous knowledge and models for living in harmony with nature is not an abstract concept – it is central to finding an alternative to the destructive capitalist model and considered part of the real solution to climate change.

5. Ideology of the climate movement
In Australia our movement is ideologically broad and, while it does lean to the left, there are representatives from most points on the ideological spectrum taking action on climate change and calling for government action. This may be a product of our lack of analysis of the structural causes of climate change, mentioned in point 1, or it may be because the science clearly shows that the climate crisis poses a threat to all people: rich, poor, right-wing or left-wing. It may be a combination of both.

In Bolivia, it seems that the Right is missing from the climate movement. From the rhetoric at the summit, climate change has been incorporated into the series of threats to human life that the Left attributes to capitalism. There were no defenders of market-based mechanisms or sustainable capitalism at the conference. This may be because the Right is very small compared to Australia, or it may be that the Right here just isn’t thinking about the climate crisis at all.

6. No Deniers
During our five weeks of travel in South America before the conference and during, we did not see one single media report or have a conversation with anyone who took a denialist position on climate change. The plague of climate change deniers we have in Australia seems to be totally non-existent here and acceptance of the overwhelming scientific evidence is widespread.

I did but see her passing by…

At an after-party, attended by mainly gringo activists, held at the office of the Democracy Centre, we were very excited to see the activist, author and all-round hero Naomi Klein (No Logo, The Shock Doctrine) walk in. Unfortunately we were too gutless to go talk to her.

And a quick thanks

Finally we want to say a big thankyou! to our hosts here in Cochabamba, Manuel and Erin, and also to the Bolivian people for getting behind this conference in a big way. While from an organizational point of view it left a little to be desired, the interest shown by the detailed media coverage and the massive turn-out was very encouraging.

Cochabamba Summit Diary - Day 3 April 21

2010-04-23T09:18:00.005+10:00

Day 3
We realised that we have so far neglected to paint a picture of what exactly are the activities underway at this conference and for this, dear readers, we apologise and rectify forthwith.

First of all, there are the seventeen working groups that we mentioned in our first post, each preparing statements and recommendations which will eventually find their way to the UN climate summit in Mexico at the end of this year. These working groups reported back to several plenary sessions today and we have listed some of the main outcomes below.

Apart from the working groups there are countless self-organised workshops, put on by organisations on a range of different topics (including, funnily enough, Australian coal). At the same time, there has been a range of panel discussions. These panel discussions cover the big picture issues, such as the structural causes of climate change or the concept of climate debt, and feature conference celebrities such as Naomi Klein, Dr. James Hansen and Bill McKibben, as well as a range of Latin American government ministers and international climate negotiators.

Of course there are also the stalls, both official and unofficial, with the government run stalls giving away posters and flyers attracting long queues and indignant accusations when they run out of free stuff (the crappiness of the free stuff bearing no relation to the level of indignation).

The Bolivian media has also given plenty of attention to the unofficial 18th working group, which the Morales Government tried to suppress. This working group, focused on local Bolivian climate and environment issues and run by Cochabamba grassroots environment groups, has been critical of the Morales Government, accusing it of not living up to its environmentalist rhetoric in its domestic policies (sound familiar?).

So back to Day 3. This morning we managed to accost a bureaucrat from the Bolivian Environment Ministry and talk to her about the Transition Decade (T10) approach. Unfortunately, people don’t seem to have much awareness of the backcasting and full transition to zero emissions concept here. In fact, so far, we’re the only ones we´ve heard talking about it. The coca-chewing bureaucrat was very excited about the idea, and promised to pass on our work to the appropriate people.

After a lunch of vegetarian empanadas (and that’s Australian standard vegetarian, not South American standard which sometimes includes chicken or fish) came the moment we had all been waiting for: the Aussies got to run their own workshop! We almost had to cancel it because the room it was supposed to be in had been taken over by the working group on forests, and they were in heated debate furiously trying to finish their work, but luckily they were done about ten minutes before we were due to start.

The workshop was about the climate movement in Australia, with a focus on coal export campaigning and direct action. Steve from Rising Tide in Newcastle presented some facts and figures on Australian coal and then went through a series of photos showing actions in Australia over the last few years.

We emphasised the significant impact of Australian coal exports on global greenhouse gas emissions and the importance of working together as sellers and buyers of coal to break the coal addiction. While the presentation may have seemed a little abstract to an audience consisting mainly of Bolivians with a smattering of other Latinos, Europeans and South Africans, an interesting dialogue was generated afterwards in the question and answer session, and continued after the workshop had finished.

Key outcomes of the 17 Summit working groups

As mentioned above, 17 themed working groups have been meeting and working continuously since the conference began 3 days ago. Anyone was free to participate - if they could get into the room! These groups today presented their conclusions and recommendations at three concurrent plenary sessions.

The ideas generated, some of which are listed below, will be formally passed on to government officials (from Bolivia and other delegations) tomorrow morning at a special ´Government-Peoples Dialogue´ session. The story goes that several people have been nominated to then integrate and prepare a final document which will constitute the official outcomes of the Summit and be taken to UN climate change negotiations.

Some of the main statements or outcomes of the working group process include:

· An International Climate Justice Tribunal should be formed with headquarters in Bolivia. The Tribunal would have the capacity to warn, judge and sanction States, businesses and people who pollute and cause climate change by action or failure to act.

· Preparation of text for a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth, outlining obligations of humans to preserve and take care of natural systems, which will be presented for adoption by the UN in Mexico in December this year.

· The United States should sign the Kyoto Protocol and the commitments of developing countries under Kyoto limit global emissions sufficiently so as to return atmospheric carbon dioxide to less than 300 parts per million.

· A Global Referendum on 22 of April, 2011 to determine agreement with issues including the need to change the capitalist system and redirect current military budgets towards defense of the Earth. In countries where referendums cannot be carried out officially there should be a popular vote or consultation.

· Capitalism, and its model of endless growth, is incompatible with life on a finite planet. We need to choose a path that establishes harmony with nature. (There was agreement about the need to change the capitalist model of production, but not that socialism would be an appropriate alternative.) The notion that economic growth should contribute to wellbeing was put forward as a shared vision.

There was lots more said, of course – with some speaking in higher-pitched voices than others. We will post a more complete summary if it is available before the end of the summit.

Cochabamba Summit Diary - Day 2 April 20

2010-04-22T22:56:00.006+10:00

“We are gathered here because the so-called developed countries didn’t meet their obligation of establishing substantial commitments to cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen. If those countries had respected the Kyoto Protocol and had agreed to substantially reduce the emissions inside their borders, this conference would not be necessary.” – Evo Morales, 20 April 2010

The Cochabamba summit was officially inaugurated today with impressive colour and movement. The outdoor stadium was packed with approximately 20,000 people and probably as many indigenous Andean rainbow flags, video cameras, dancers, soldiers, you name it. The sun beat down as we sat through several hours of ceremony and speeches. Pablo managed to take a break from sitting in the sun when he was roped into translating between two indigenous Mohawk Indians from North America and a Bolivian Aymara. They exchanged warm words of solidarity and grains of corn.

After an official and inclusive indigenous welcome ceremony, we heard from representatives from the ´5 continents´ attending the conference (we´re not sure how they classify continents). These included: an indigenous woman from Alaska, an African, an Indian, a Spanish member of European parliament, and a leader from the Brazilian branch of Via Campesina. A representative from the UN spoke and got heckled a bit. Oceania missed out.

The speeches all echoed one another. We heard several times that Evo Morales is an inspiration for giving a voice and a platform for developing countries, indigenous peoples and social movements on the issue of climate change. We heard that Copenhagen failed and that developing countries are not going to ´dance to the beat´ of the rich world. The only interruptions to the cheers of support were the decidedly lukewarm/mixed response to the UN address and the usual argy bargy between patriots from different Latin American countries about flag waving etiquette.

And then there was Evo himself. In his hour-long address this popular, proudly indigenous President of Bolivia made it clear that 2 degrees warming of the earth is completely unacceptable and gave us his perspective on the climate crisis, presenting what is essentially the crux of this conference. It is a perspective that is unashamedly and explicitly anti-capitalist. It places climate change firmly within the ideological story that says that the capitalist model (which to us Westerners is better known as ´just the way things are´) does not value the environment, does not value people and never will.

In this part of the world this story is well-understood and popular. Similarly widely grasped is the idea that indigenous values and lifestyles offer a legitimate and superior alternative. Evo presented numerous examples: ceramic plates and cups are far superior to disposable plastic ones, quinoa is better than rice, the beautifully designed and hand-made ponchos of the Andes could never be substituted for $2 el-cheapo versions, Andean potatoes are better than Dutch ones and chicha (the local alcoholic drink made from maize) is far better for you than Coca Cola. The list went on and the speech became theatrical as the props were brought out to demonstrate his points.

The conference represents a major push for ´Mother Earth rights´, which Evo presented as the alternative to capitalism and as the application of indigenous thought to human development. This concept is one of the most interesting and radical that we´ve come across at the conference and we explore it further below.

Mother Earth Rights
In late 2008, the Ecuadorian people via a referendum approved a new constitution that had been written by an elected assembly. This constitution is the first to include rights for the natural ecosystems of Ecuador.

The new constitution gives nature the "right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution". It places the responsibility on the government to take "precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles."

While it is still unclear how this clause will be implemented and whether it will have an effect on the current destructive extractive (and greenhouse gas intensive) model of development being followed by Ecuador (with some exceptions including the Yasuni ITT initiative), it is still a fascinating advance in environmental law. It also represents the growing influence of indigenous views in Ecuador. The indigenous people see themselves as a part of nature (Pachamama), and have fought throughout the history of colonisation and capitalist development against the commodification and exploitation of essential resources. This new constitution is a major victory for them.

In Bolivia since the election of the Morales Government in 2004, indigenous ideology and culture have also been in ascendancy. Bolivia is pushing hard within the UN for the development of a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth to sit alongside the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. So far this proposal has the backing of nine countries and it is expected that this conference will give this concept a boost. The Bolivian Ambassador to the UN explains this concept further here.

In Bolivia the shift towards giving ´Mother Earth´ rights is embodied in the concept they call ´living well´. This is a form of development that emphasises quality of life and harmony with nature rather than GDP growth or accumulation of wealth. We hope to find out more about this concept and be able to give you some concrete examples as the conference goes on.

These developments, stemming from the cultures of indigenous Americans, are starting a fundamental paradigm shift that puts humans inside nature, rather than outside it.

Is this paradigm shift necessary to reach a safe climate future? It´s not an easy question to answer.

What we do know is that we are finding it hard to reconcile the kind of rhetoric we are hearing so strongly here with what is happening in Australia. This is something that we are grappling with.

Cochabamba Summit Diary - Day 1, April 19

2010-04-20T20:23:00.010+10:00

This strangely familiar conference delegate was happy to have finally received his accreditation after spending day 1 of the conference standing in queues.

Day 1

Today the conference began. Unfortunately it was marked by a registration process that seemed to have been designed by the love child of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Franz Kafka. Let’s just say that by around 5pm we finally had our entry passes and programs to add to our frazzled nerves and tested patience, but had missed most of the day’s proceedings.

Rewinding to a more innocent time at the beginning of the day, the bus ride to the Universidad del Valle allowed us to see Cochabamba in daylight for the first time. Cochabamba is a significant city in the recent history of Bolivia. Ten years ago this month, it was the scene of the Water Wars, a mass uprising against the privatization of the water supply, which resulted in the water being put back into public hands and the strengthening of anti-capitalist sentiment across the whole country.

Cochabamba is also the location of the headquarters of the Union of Coca Growers. It is via the leadership of this union that Evo Morales, the current socialist president of Bolivia came to prominence, and he first entered parliament as a representative of Cochabamba.

We will be seeing President Morales tomorrow back in his old stomping ground when he officially opens the conference.

In between standing in queues, we met briefly with the other Australians at the conference (although not the mysterious Rudd Government representative, who remains elusive). Groups represented include Beyond Zero Emissions, Rising Tide, Socialist Alliance, Climate Emergency Action Network of South Australia and inner city climate action groups Yarra Climate Action Now and Climate Action Newtown. Most of us are hoping to use the conference as a learning and networking experience, and to bring these experiences back to strengthen the climate movement in Australia.

All in all a fairly uneventful day, but we promise tomorrow will be full of fiery latino speeches and high rhetoric.

For some news coverage of the conference so far, click here

World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, Cochabamba, Bolivia – Day 0, April 18

2010-04-19T21:28:00.005+10:00

Welcome to the first edition of the five part series reporting back for YCAN from the World People’s Conference on Climate Change here in Cochabamba, Bolivia. These diary entries are designed to give you an on-the-ground account of what is happening at this historic event.

First we have to say how pleased we are to be here! This Summit has held the door wide open to civil society and it is refreshing to have a platform to bring governments together with diverse members of civil society from around the world, to discuss the structural causes of climate change and work on proposals for real solutions.

The Cochabamba Summit gets going tomorrow, though it will be officially kicked off by Bolivian President, Evo Morales on Tuesday. The local media is saying that around 15,000 people are already registered on line, just over half of which are from outside Bolivia. The guest list includes presidents, Hollywood actors, government ministers, bureaucrats, indigenous people and activists from 138 countries. Even the Rudd Government has sent a representative, a mid-level employee from the Department of Climate Change, whose identity we don’t yet know.

The conference will have 17 main working groups which will discuss the relevant issues and develop a position that will then be presented to the full conference for ratification. The idea is that these positions will be presented to the UNFCCC process at the meeting in Mexico at the end of this year.

It’s already abundantly clear that this conference will be very different to the UN versions (such as the disastrous one at Copenhagen last December). One critical difference is that the structural causes of climate change will be explored and discussed here in Cochabamba. While the UN process tends to treat as taboo the political, cultural, economic and ideological structures that allow climate change to continue worsening and create such large barriers for action, this summit will take this analysis as its starting point.

This week the Bolivian media has been previewing the summit and the newspapers have been full of information about global warming. As distinct from mainstream debate in Australia, indigenous perspectives are integral here, as well as whether capitalism is capable of ever achieving a safe climate future.

On a more practical level, as Australians we are planning a workshop with representatives from our biggest coal customers, to discuss ways in which we can wean the world off Australian coal. We will keep you posted on how that goes. We also hope to learn from the different viewpoints that a very diverse range of people are bringing to the conference.

On the eve of this summit, we are excited about the potential it has to help strengthen the global movement for real, science-based action on the climate crisis. So from the beautiful Andes mountains, whose glaciers and snow caps are fast disappearing, we ask you to stay tuned!!

Everywhere you go - Clifton Hill Politician Rebranding 17/4/10

2010-04-17T16:36:00.010+10:00

Richard Wynne, our beleaguered State Labor Government Member of Parliament, feeling his political mortality and searching for some environmental credibility in the absence of any useful environment policies invited his constituents to a 'City West Water' shower head exchange on a suburban street corner in Clifton Hill. A number of YCAN friends and supporters showed up in response to this invitation to remind him of the climate and environment issues the ALP wants Australians to forget. This was YCANs first action as part of the combined 'Replace Hazelwood' campaign. Wynne and his staffers were extremely unhappy to see us and enthusiastic responses from passing drivers to the 'Honk for Urgent Climate Action' sign visibly irritated the shower head exchange team making it all the more worthwhile for those of us on the other side of the street. Thanks to all who participated and especial thanks to Mic Rosenbrock for the terrific video.

Environment Victoria shows the way.

2010-03-29T16:00:00.006+11:00

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.

Climate Summit targets the replacement of Hazelwood Power Station

2010-03-17T21:54:00.006+11:00

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.

A History lesson fit to weep over

2010-03-11T16:37:00.005+11:00

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.

Politician rebranding video

2010-03-07T23:06:00.005+11:00

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.

Videos from the Transition Decade launch

2010-03-01T16:29:00.003+11:00

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.

Climate change deniers exposed and explained

2010-02-26T10:45:00.004+11:00

Professor Clive Hamilton's absolutely brilliant five-part series of articles (originally published on the ABC website) is a clear-headed and searing exposé of climate change denial and the people and motivations behind it.

This is highly recommended reading.

A brief overview of each article is below, together with a link to the full piece. A warning - the comments after the articles quite clearly confirm (in Prof. Hamilton's words) "that denial is only nominally about the science and really about ideology and cultural identity", and that they are an angry and aggressive bunch with lots of time on their hands!

Part 1 - Bullying, lies, and the rise of right-wing climate denial
Details the cyber-bullying that scientists, journalists and others endure when they speak publicly on climate science.

Part 2 - Who is orchestrating the cyber-bullying?
Looks at the major blogs and news outlets, such as The Australian, that drive climate change denialism.

Also describes the driving factors behind climate change denial and exposes it for what it is, an extremist political movement that has nothing to do with science or scepticism.

"...becoming a denialist does not follow from carefully weighing up the evidence (that is, true scepticism) but from associating oneself with a cultural outlook, taking on an identity defined in opposition to a caricature of those who support action on climate change. It is the energy in this wider movement that has seen climate denialism morphing into a new form of political extremism."

Part 3 - Think tanks, oil money and black ops
Looks at who are the major think tanks behind climate change denial, who is funding them and what their motivations are.

Part 4 - Manufacturing a scientific scandal
Outlines the process by which climate change deniers manufacture scientific scandals with the support of a lazy or biased media without any evidence. This article also provides an update of where the science is really at.

This is a quote from the article talking about the CRU email "scandal" after scientist emails were hacked last year:

"Although sceptics have been gnawing away at the credibility of climate science for years, over the last five months they have made enormous leaps owing to the hacking of emails from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and the discovery of a number of alleged mistakes in the benchmark reports of the IPCC.

"While the "revelations" have been milked for all they are worth, and a lot more, the science remains rock solid. If instead of cherry-picking two or three that lend themselves to spin, you read the 1000 or so emails that were posted on a Russian server the picture that emerges is one of an enormously dedicated group of men and women doing their best to carry out research of the highest quality.

"If there were a conspiracy among scientists to manipulate the truth, you would expect the evidence to be there in spades in these private emails. But it's not. Instead they show scientists working their backsides off to do good science, with email exchanges stopping briefly on Christmas Eve to be resumed on Boxing Day, with apologies to colleagues for taking time out to have surgery or get married, all with a sub-text of worry about the implications of their work for the future of humanity."

Part 5 - Who's defending science?
Contains a list of lies about climate science that The Australian newspaper has published in recent times and the techniques it uses to further its political aims.

Zero Emissions Electricity by 2020 - possible and affordable

2010-02-19T12:20:00.004+11:00

Climate solutions research group Beyond Zero Emissions has just released a preview executive summary to their Zero Carbon Australia 2020 electricity (Stationary Energy) plan.

The Zero Carbon Australia 2020 (ZCA2020) Stationary Energy Plan is a detailed, costed blueprint demonstrating how Australia can reach zero emissions electricity by 2020 using proven, existing, commercialised technology.

The report concludes that there are no technological impediments to transforming Australia’s stationary energy sector to zero emissions over the next ten years. The costs of transformation are adequately offset by savings made from shifting away from the business as usual scenario.

No resource constraints have been identified. With adequate societal and political commitment and regulatory support, the goal of an efficient and competitive zero-emissions stationary energy sector is well within Australia’s reach.

Have a read of the 6 page executive summary and be inspired. Let's get on with it!

Australia ranks fourth-last out of 57 nations for climate action

2010-02-13T17:11:00.006+11:00

The new mantra of the Rudd Government is that Australia will do "no more and no less" than the rest of the world on the climate crisis (even if that means we head into catastrophic, runaway climate change?).

However it seems we can't even reach that most mediocre of goals. A recent assessment by the German NGO German Watch of the world's 57 most polluting nations put Australia fourth last, or 57th out of 60 (the top three spots were left blank due to no country deserving them). Maybe Rudd's new mantra should be "we will do no more and no less than Kazakhstan".

For the full report, click here.

Politician re-branding media coverage

2010-02-09T12:38:00.006+11:00

YCAN's re-branding sessions outside the office of Richard Wynne, Labor member for Richmond are catching people's attention. See coverage below from the Melbourne Leader and Melbourne Times.

Please get in touch to help with the campaign to get Victoria out of coal and into renewable energy: yarracan -at- gmail.com, or drop in to a re-branding session for a chat, every Wednesday, 5.30-6.30pm, 112 Smith St, Collingwood.

Australia handicapped by 19th-century technology

2010-02-05T19:06:00.003+11:00

Originally published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 3 Feb.

Renewable energy is the fastest growing power source in the world, and already generates baseload electricity on the scale of utilities. Large solar thermal plants with heat storage can dispatch power around the clock every day of the week regardless of whether the sun is shining, and make handsome profits during demand peaks.

Wind power is being installed on scales that dwarf Australian grid requirements. These and other clean energy technologies are replacing coal on modern grids. While Australia continues to throw money at 19th-century technologies, Spain, China, the US and others are charging ahead with zero-emissions power generation, and creating export markets.

Spain consumes about as much electricity as Australia, though its population is about twice as large. Like Australia, Spain is blessed with strong, consistent sunshine, and it uses this attribute to ensure energy security. Already it has built 24-hour baseload solar plants, using molten salt to store heat which is then used to create steam and turn turbines. It started with Andasol 1, a 50MW plant, and has now completed two similar projects. More than 1,800MW of projects are under construction and the government has just approved another 2,440MW for their feed-in tariff scheme for construction over the next three years.

The Gemasolar project is the shining light of the Spanish boom in baseload solar power. This solar thermal plant has created 1500 jobs and will operate at 60 to 100 per cent of maximum turbine output for up to 90 per cent of hours each year. Very low maintenance shutdown requirements allow this efficiency, far greater than coal-fired power generators in NSW. When the turbine is idle, heat is bled off the ''cold'' 290-degree salt storage tank to keep the turbine seals warm, allowing fast starting - as seen in the best hydro and gas plants. This capacity for baseload and fast-start ''dispatchable'' power generation places the Gemasolar plant among the highest-value electricity plants, a fact not lost on investors.

This solar generation capacity is in addition to Spanish wind power. Wind turbines supply 11 per cent of Spain's electricity demand, and this will more than double to 25 per cent by 2020. Another 6000MW of wind power is approved for installation in the next three years. That is just shy of three plants the size of the Bayswater power station near Muswellbrook, with all the jobs but no emissions.

Spain is phasing out coal and nuclear, and the companies that built the nuclear plants have re-tooled to build solar thermal plants with heat storage. These companies did not want to own the nuclear plants they built, but they have set up investment vehicles to own solar thermal plants.

Compared to the 10 years it takes to get a nuclear plant up and running, solar thermal plants with 24-hour baseload capacity have construction times as short as nine months, so such projects are not exposed to the same political, industrial and financial risks as nuclear plants. Envisaging a lucrative market for their solar infrastructure and expertise, the Spanish anticipate a healthy return on any subsidies for these technologies.

To read on, click here.

The Transition Decade Launch

2010-01-28T18:36:00.005+11:00

Sunday 14 February
12noon
Melbourne Town Hall, Swanston St, City.

Seats are limited, to book your free seat go to: http://t10.eventbrite.com/

Featuring: The Governor of Victoria Professor David de Kretser AC
Uncle Bob Randall traditional owner of Uluru
Professor Will Steffen, Executive Director, ANU Climate Change Institute
Senator Christine Milne
...and many more.

At both the state and national levels, local leadership has failed to deliver even very small cuts in carbon emissions. Not surprisingly at the international level, the recent Copenhagen negotiations have produced no meaningful outcome either.

We have to face it, conventional political change methods have not worked.

We have run out of time for half-measures. It is now imperative that a safe climate is restored as fast as humanly possible. This will require zero emissions, and more, at emergency speed.

It seems that what is essential to accomplish is impossible to achieve. Clearly a breakthrough is needed.

The Transition Decade (T10) initiative has been designed to meet this dual challenge of going for the goals that are really needed and getting effective change too. The strategy is to harness the power of collaboration.

An alliance of committed groups has been formed to drive a collaborative framework through a decade of structural and social change. The launch will create the opportunity to take the size and effectiveness of this alliance to a whole new level. The launch of the Transition Decade will showcase leading work by groups that are using this shared time frame and scale of change, and will set out the many ways that thousands of organisations and millions of people can join the alliance.

Can we do it together? Will a shared plan work? Come along and decide for yourself!

Book your seat at: http://t10.eventbrite.com/

Brought to you by the founding members of T10, the Sustainable Living Foundation, Beyond Zero Emissions, Friends of the Earth and the Climate Emergency Network.

Political activists are happier!

2010-01-22T14:34:00.005+11:00

“Which way of life is the more desirable—to join with other citizens and share in the state’s activity, or to live in it like an alien, absolved from the ties of political society?”

Aristotle, Politics (350 BC)

Research by psychologists Klar and Kasser recently published in the Political Psychology journal has found evidence that activists are happier than non-activists and that doing something politically engaged improved vitality levels compared with doing a similar, non-political task.

Klar and Kasser surveyed university students in two separate studies, and found that those that identified themselves as activists or were located via an activist network were happier and more fulfilled than non-activists. This of course doesn't identify whether happy and fulfilled people become activists or if activism makes you happy and fulfilled.

Another experiment then split the sample (again university students) into those taking part in a politically engaged activity (writing to the cafeteria director asking for food to be sourced more ethically and locally) and a similar but non-political activity (writing to the cafeteria director asking for tastier and more varied food). It was found that those who wrote the political letter reported feeling more energised and alive afterwards than those that did not.

The full article can be downloaded from here.

And for your entertainment courtesy of 350.org - what the happy people got up to in 2009 - much more to come in 2010...

Greens propose interim carbon tax

2010-01-22T13:33:00.003+11:00

The Australian Greens continue their attempts to inject some common sense into the climate change debate. Yesterday they launched a proposal for a two-year carbon tax to start in July 2010 to begin the shift towards a zero carbon economy while a longer-term policy is sorted out.

The tax will be $20 per tonne of carbon dioxide at 2005 dollars, adjusted for inflation. The Greens estimate that this will raise $20 billion over the two years, half of which will be distributed to low-income households, $4 billion would go to trade exposed emissions intensive industries, $2.5 billion to tackling climate change in developing countries and around $1 billion to an Australian climate change action fund. Unlike Labor Party policy and in line with the Garnaut Review, there is no money for coal-fired generators.

While this proposal certainly does not go far enough with regards to how fast and how deeply we must cut emissions if Australia is to play its part globally in avoiding catastrophic climate change, it is at least a step in the right direction. So far the proposals from the Rudd Government only served to lock in business as usual and corporate welfare at the taxpayers' expense.

For more detail on the proposal click here.

POLITICIAN REBRANDING - Every Wednesday, 5.30-6.30pm

2010-01-12T14:01:00.004+11:00

Every Wednesday starting 3 February 5.30-6.30pm, 112 Smith St, Collingwood - 'til the bastards put humanity ahead of coal industry profits

Our weekly re-branding sessions continue and we need you!!

After completing six weeks in a row in 2009, we will now attempt to have a weekly presence outside Labor Minister Richard Wynne's office until the November State Election or until the Brumby Government implements some decent climate crisis policies!

Our actions are already having an effect. Richard Wynne was one of the Ministers that successfully argued to postpone the allocation of brown coal for export to India.

We will be correcting the Brumby Government's image, to match its pro-coal actions, every Wednesday, 5.30-6.30pm, 112 Smith St, Collingwood.

WE NEED YOU FOR THIS TO SUCCEED – CAN YOU FILL A WEEKLY, FORTNIGHTLY, MONTHLY OR ONE-OFF ONE HOUR SHIFT AT THE PROTEST VIGIL ON A WEDNESDAY EVENING? If you can please contact us – Yarracan -at- gmail.com

Also, if you are a musician or performer and feel like busking while we do our rebranding, we would love to have you on a Wednesday evening.

Some recent Brumby Government climate change 'initiatives':

Investing our money in the construction of a new coal-fired power station in the Latrobe Valley.
Lobbying to get the owners of coal power stations more compensation from taxpayers under an emissions trading scheme.
Accepting thousands of dollars in donations to the Labor Party from coal corporations in return for private meetings in which coal expansion proposals are discussed.
Investing in research in so-called ‘clean coal’ rather than genuinely clean energy production like 24-hour baseload solar and wind power that actually exist.
Going back on a promise to introduce a gross feed-in tariff which would pay owners of solar panels for all the electricity their panels produced.
Looking into exporting dirty brown coal to countries like India.

(references for the points above available on request)

To get on the roster for a shift contact Yarracan -at- gmail.com or show up on a Wednesday.

Livestock and global warming pollution

2010-01-08T15:35:00.004+11:00

An Anglican bishop, an economics professor and a Nobel Peace Prize winner walk into a bar……and sit down to a vegetarian meal.

It’s not a joke, but a reflection of the increasingly mainstream concept of becoming vegetarian or vegan, or significantly cutting down meat and dairy in your diet, for ecological and climate change reasons.

In 2006, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) published the report Livestock’s Long Shadow, looking at the significant and growing ecological destruction caused by livestock farming all over the world. This report has recently been critiqued and updated in a report that found that 51% of the global warming effect caused by humans is caused by livestock farming (meat and dairy). Livestock produces huge amounts of methane (the vast majority from belching, not farting!), which is a potent greenhouse gas in the relative short term. Much of the land clearing and deforestation happening around the world is also linked to livestock farming, being either to clear land directly for grazing, or to grow feed for livestock.

In recent months, Economics Professor Nicholas Stern and Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have both urged people to cut down the amount of meat and dairy they consume, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Anglican Bishop of London, Richard Chartres has recently become a vegetarian for ecological reasons.

So how about you, can you do it? Cutting down on personal meat and dairy consumption is certainly easier than trying to convince governments to shift their countries away from fossil fuel dependence. It's a great place to start making a difference!

Copenhagen analysis

2009-12-20T22:39:00.012+11:00

YCAN brings you the best analysis and reactions of the dismal Copenhagen summit failure.

A Climate Con - analysis from the Climate Action Centre
Summary of assessments from leading climate experts
Copenhagen as a historic failure - Joss Garman
Blood on the summit floor - Jess Worth
China is to blame - Mark Lynas
George Monbiot in The Guardian
Reporting from The Age
Reaction from the Australian Greens
Oxfam's reaction
New Matilda - Ben Eltham and Stephen Minas
Interview with Evo Morales, President of Bolivia on capitalism and climate debt
Reaction: Coal trains stopped by Rising Tide protesters in Newcastle

Press conference with Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein

Klein & McKibben: Take off the kid gloves with Obama.
Uploaded by theuptake. - Watch the latest news videos.

AYCC Video

Australia bullies Pacific Islands in Copenhagen

2009-12-18T18:27:00.003+11:00

Australia has shamefully won the Fossil of the Day Award on day ten of the Copenhagen negotiations for pressuring our neighbours in the Pacific islands, in particular Tuvalu, to water down their demands and accept a 2 degrees and 450 parts per million CO2 agreement, which would all but guarantee that their islands and way of life are completely destroyed and would also result in the deaths of millions of people world-wide!

According to the Prime Minister of Tuvalu,:

“There are some countries like Australia who have been trying to arrange a meeting with us to probably water down our position on 1.5 degrees celsius. We did not attend that meeting, but I heard from other small islands that Australia was trying to tell them if they agree to the 2 degrees limit, money would be on the table for adaptation process. That’s their choice to accept the money and back down. But Tuvalu will not. As I said in my speech, 1.5 degrees celsius is our bottom line…

“I as a human being feel that the leaders that are pushing their countries to adopt this 2 degrees they should know from science that that will be killing a lot of people around the world, that should change their position. I will not sign anything less than 1.5.”

When challenged, Prime Minister Rudd did not deny that Australia had tried to get Pacific Islands to effectively sign a suicide pact, but said it was all part of the conference process.

Greens Senator Bob Brown criticised Mr Rudd for his actions, “Our Prime Minister's office has undertaken a concerted campaign to bully island nations, in particular the outspoken Tuvalu, into dropping their demand that the world limit temperature rises to 1.5 degrees.

“The proposals championed by Mr Rudd will lead to global warming of almost 4 degrees, breaching the 2 degree limit that he claims they are aimed at.

“This is essentially a nasty political exercise on behalf of the coal industry and other big polluters who are devoid of any consideration for these small island states."

Rudd says one thing on climate change, but his actions tell a very different story. Australian negotiators have been furiously working behind the scenes to sabotage any meaningful deal. Rudd’s actions in the Copenhagen summit are the same as when Howard was in power – do whatever it takes to avoid any meaningful action on climate change to keep your rich mates in the fossil fuel industries happy.

Kevin Rudd has called climate change "the greatest moral challenge of our generation". His deeply immoral actions show that he is failing this challenge.

Millions march for strong climate action

2009-12-13T23:44:00.008+11:00

Photo: The Age

Millions of people in around 50 countries have marched this weekend to demand a strong, fair and binding deal at the Copenhagen climate talks.

Around 100,000 protested in Copenhagen itself, while Melbourne had the biggest rally in Australia with police estimates putting the crowd at a massive 40,000 people. The Walk Against Warming, which took place in every Australian capital and many regional centres, showed once again that many Australians are deeply worried about what the climate crisis means for them and their children, and that they are prepared to take to the streets to express this.

Meanwhile the Copenhagen negotiations continue to stall, as the rich countries refuse to accept deep emissions cuts (without being able to buy dodgy offsets to buy their way out of it), and the economically poor countries continue to hold out by refusing to take on binding emissions reduction targets.

Photo: Takver

The talks will continue until Friday.

For ABC news coverage of the Walk click her e.

For more photos click here and/or here.

Kevin Rudd takes a bath in "clean coal" Photo: Peter Campbell

See the video below of Leah, Tuvalu-born Australian speaking at the Walk:

Fourteen days to seal history's judgment on this generation

2009-12-08T17:15:00.004+11:00

The following editorial was published simultaneously by 56 newspapers from all points on the political spectrum, across 45 countries, in 20 languages, in an unprecedented show of unity in the face of the climate crisis and the Copenhagen negotiations:

Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency.

Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted.

Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone.

The science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. A bigger rise of 3-4C — the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction — would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea. The controversy over emails by British researchers that suggest they tried to suppress inconvenient data has muddied the waters but failed to dent the mass of evidence on which these predictions are based.

Few believe that Copenhagen can any longer produce a fully polished treaty; real progress towards one could only begin with the arrival of President Obama in the White House and the reversal of years of US obstructionism. Even now the world finds itself at the mercy of American domestic politics, for the president cannot fully commit to the action required until the US Congress has done so.

But the politicians in Copenhagen can and must agree the essential elements of a fair and effective deal and, crucially, a firm timetable for turning it into a treaty. Next June's UN climate meeting in Bonn should be their deadline. As one negotiator put it: "We can go into extra time but we can't afford a replay."

At the deal's heart must be a settlement between the rich world and the developing world covering how the burden of fighting climate change will be divided — and how we will share a newly precious resource: the trillion or so tonnes of carbon that we can emit before the mercury rises to dangerous levels.

Rich nations like to point to the arithmetic truth that there can be no solution until developing giants such as China take more radical steps than they have so far. But the rich world is responsible for most of the accumulated carbon in the atmosphere – three-quarters of all carbon dioxide emitted since 1850. It must now take a lead, and every developed country must commit to deep cuts which will reduce their emissions within a decade to very substantially less than their 1990 level.

Developing countries can point out they did not cause the bulk of the problem, and also that the poorest regions of the world will be hardest hit. But they will increasingly contribute to warming, and must thus pledge meaningful and quantifiable action of their own. Though both fell short of what some had hoped for, the recent commitments to emissions targets by the world's biggest polluters, the United States and China, were important steps in the right direction.

Social justice demands that the industrialised world digs deep into its pockets and pledges cash to help poorer countries adapt to climate change, and clean technologies to enable them to grow economically without growing their emissions. The architecture of a future treaty must also be pinned down – with rigorous multilateral monitoring, fair rewards for protecting forests, and the credible assessment of "exported emissions" so that the burden can eventually be more equitably shared between those who produce polluting products and those who consume them. And fairness requires that the burden placed on individual developed countries should take into account their ability to bear it; for instance newer EU members, often much poorer than "old Europe", must not suffer more than their richer partners.

The transformation will be costly, but many times less than the bill for bailing out global finance — and far less costly than the consequences of doing nothing.

Many of us, particularly in the developed world, will have to change our lifestyles. The era of flights that cost less than the taxi ride to the airport is drawing to a close. We will have to shop, eat and travel more intelligently. We will have to pay more for our energy, and use less of it.

But the shift to a low-carbon society holds out the prospect of more opportunity than sacrifice. Already some countries have recognized that embracing the transformation can bring growth, jobs and better quality lives. The flow of capital tells its own story: last year for the first time more was invested in renewable forms of energy than producing electricity from fossil fuels.

Kicking our carbon habit within a few short decades will require a feat of engineering and innovation to match anything in our history. But whereas putting a man on the moon or splitting the atom were born of conflict and competition, the coming carbon race must be driven by a collaborative effort to achieve collective salvation.

Overcoming climate change will take a triumph of optimism over pessimism, of vision over short-sightedness, of what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature".

It is in that spirit that 56 newspapers from around the world have united behind this editorial. If we, with such different national and political perspectives, can agree on what must be done then surely our leaders can too.

The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history's judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it. We implore them to make the right choice.

The Story of Cap and Trade

2009-12-04T18:53:00.003+11:00

Excellent short video that explores the flaws with the current cap and trade model for climate policy pursued by most governments, including the Australian one via the inaccurately named Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

And for an interesting critique of the video click here.

Vote in the Angry Mermaid Award!

2009-12-04T11:15:00.005+11:00

Have you voted yet?

The Angry Mermaid Award has been set up to recognise the perverse role of corporate lobbyists, and highlight those business groups and companies that have made the greatest effort to sabotage the climate talks, and other climate measures, while promoting, often profitable, false solutions.

Named after the iconic Copenhagen mermaid who is angry about the destruction being caused by climate change, the Angry Mermaid Award winner will be decided by a public poll.

The eight nominees:

American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE)
Nominated for being embroiled in a fake lobbying scandal against the US Climate Bill and for trying to hide the extent of its lobbying activities

American Petroleum Institute (API)
Nominated for organising an “astroturf” campaign against the US Climate Bills. In August 2009, a leaked memo from the API revealed it had invited its membership to attend a series of rallies in 20 key states, in order to give the impression of a groundswell of grassroots opposition to the climate legislation.

European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC)
Nominated for successfully lobbying for free allowances under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and for pushing to weaken EU and international climate policies.

International Air Transport Association (IATA)
Nominated for leading lobbying efforts by the major airlines against climate legislation and for issuing misleading and “meaningless” pledges on reducing emissions.

International Emissions Trading Association (IETA)
Nominated for promoting a global market for greenhouse gas emissions, including the use of offsetting through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), even though this currently cannot guarantee emission reductions.

Monsanto and the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS)
Nominated for lobbying for RoundupReady (RR) soy to be considered a “climate-friendly” crop that is eligible for carbon credits and subsidies under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM); and for pushing for meaningless ‘responsible’ label for RoundupReady soy, which could be used to certify ‘sustainable’ agrofuels.

Royal Dutch Shell
Nominated for actively investing in the energy-intensive tar sands, at the same time as pushing unproven Carbon, Capture and Storage (CCS) technology as a solution to climate change, whilst undermining initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions.

Sasol
Nominated for its national and international lobbying campaign to promote Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a clean solution to the dirty business of producing liquid fuels from coal and gas.

Click here to vote and for more information. Voting closes 13 December.

Upcoming local events

2009-12-01T17:28:00.006+11:00

Some fun and interesting climate change events happening in the next couple of weeks in our local area - all free and all welcome:

1. Renewable is Do-able public meeting - Thursday 3 December
2. Ride Planet Earth bike ride - Sunday 6 December
3. Walk Against Warming - Saturday 12 December

Details below:

The Walk Against Warming is Australia’s biggest day of community action on climate change. Similar Walks will be happening across the country, and across the globe as communities everywhere come together to tell their leaders they want action for a safe climate.

If you’ve ever replaced an old light globe with an energy efficient one, taken public transport instead of driving, switched to Green Power, or worried about the kind of world you’re going to leave to your kids, then the 2009 Walk Against Warming is for you!

12pm, 12 December, Victorian State Library (cnr Latrobe and Swanston Sts, City)

Australia to get an emissions trading scheme (probably...)

2009-11-26T12:06:00.006+11:00

STOP PRESS: Update 2 December - The CPRS has been voted down in the Senate - However the Rudd Government will try to get it through again next year - so these criticisms stand.

What else is there to say?

About one year since Kevin Rudd announced his 5% target, it seems enough Liberals will vote for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) in the coming days for it to become law.

A lot has been written by scientists, economists, journalists, environmentalists, health professionals, religious leaders, development workers, politicians and ourselves, as to why the CPRS is inadequate and deeply unjust, however, the only people that Kevin Rudd, Penny Wong and the Liberal Party listened to were the fossil fuel lobby.

Let's not mince words here, the CPRS is an abomination. It will not reduce Australia's emissions due to the unlimited import of dodgy permits and offsets from overseas. Even if it did, it would reduce emissions to such inadequate levels that if they were adopted by all the developed countries we would almost guarantee catastrophic, runaway climate change.

Worst of all it makes rich the very people who should be feeling the pinch of a carbon price. Billions of taxpayer dollars will be handed over to coal miners and coal burners - those that pollute the most get the most money.

With the deal that the Labor and Liberal Parties made, compensation for the big polluters will go up even more, while $910 million will be taken away from household compensation, that is, money for poor households to cope with rising prices caused by the scheme, to be given to the shareholders of companies like TRUenergy and International Power Hazelwood.

We will see prices for many of our goods and services increase under this scheme, with no subsequent emissions reductions (modelling by the Australian Treasury showed that under the scheme as it stood before the negotiations made it even worse, Australia's emissions wouldn't drop below 1990 levels until 2035, and that was after it was assumed that clean coal was invented in 2033).

What has happened is a complete corporate takeover of our two major political parties. The hypocrisy of the Labor Party, which talks about the importance of acting on climate change, while putting forward a scheme that does nothing, is extremely saddening and frustrating. They have put the interests of large foreign fossil fuel corporations before the interests of every existing and future man, woman and child on this Earth. They have broken their election promise to take climate change seriously.

The only amusing sideshow in this whole saga has been the extent to which the Liberal Party has torn itself apart, with the climate change hypocrites and the climate change deniers fighting over their support for a scheme that locks in business as usual anyway.

Every single politician that has been involved in the development of this CPRS should forever be condemned. They do not deserve to represent us in parliament. We hope the Australian public is not fooled by Rudd's spin and punishes the Labor and Liberal Parties for this betrayal, and the scheme is repealed in the future, to be replaced by policies that will take action to the extent the climate science demands.

To read the speech of the only politician that's making any sense in all this, click here.

Take your CPRS and shove it

2009-11-20T16:25:00.002+11:00

An absolutely classic rant by Crikey's Bernard Keane.

Welcome back to Parliament for the final time this year. Two more weeks of this stuff and then we’re finished for a summer that already feels like it’s been going a month. That’s assuming Anthony Albanese doesn’t keep his colleagues confined here at the end of next week, or even brings them back for another spell in December.

Wouldn’t want all those end-of-year “let’s all be best mates” speeches to get in the way of proper legislative business eh?

The job of a political journalist — not of course that I would know, since according to the national broadsheet I’m not a “real journalist”, and strangely proud of it — is somewhere between theatre critic and sports commentator. The main tasks of sports commentators are to tell you who’s winning and pretend something exciting is happening when it isn’t. That’s where it is closest to political journalism. Media coverage of politics is always about who’s winning and who’s losing, naturally, but the trivial and meaningless are routinely built up into events of monumental importance simply for the sake of pretending something significant is happening.

But you also need to appraise the performances of the principal actors (not to mention the ambitious walk-on players), assessing the conviction or otherwise with which they utter their lines, paying close attention to the effect not on professional observers such as oneself, who to use the immortal phrase “don’t know jack”, but the hoi polloi in the cheap seats at the back, from which vantage point scenery-chewing hammery or mindless repetition may look like the stuff of the Great Tragedians.

Once in a while, we’re reminded that this isn’t a show or a game that we’re watching. This morning the Prime Minister made an apology to the “Forgotten Generation” in the Great Hall in Parliament House. He was followed by Malcolm Turnbull. Both made heart-felt and emotional speeches, without political polish, the sort of speeches we can point to when people lament the lack of Australian political oratory. The tears and smiles and applause of those present who as children were abused in institutional care show how significant the actions of government can be, even in simply acknowledging those whose pain was ignored for so long.

This fortnight also sees some sort of climax in the emissions trading debate, another issue of more-than-usual gravity.

I don’t know about you (no, really, I don’t) but I’m utterly over the CPRS debate. It’s been a long road since early last year, when Penny Wong blithely called the Garnaut Review “one input” into the Government’s consideration, in effect spilling the beans, or giving the game away, or belling the cat, or whatever cliché takes your fancy. I’m now sick of emissions trading. Sick of Wong’s tedious droning, of Kevin Rudd’s sanctimony, of the Coalition climate denialists who make a virtue out of their own intellectual and emotional disabilities.

I’m sick of Barnaby Joyce and the National Party, so plum-stupid that they can’t even understand when the National Farmers’ Federation tells them it’d be a good idea to back the scheme. I’m sick of the rentseekers, the whingers, the sooks and Hookes, who preach the virtues of the market when it suits them but whose natural posture is of a hand stuck out, demanding assistance, and assistance in ever greater quantities, like blackmailers who just keep coming back for more.

to continue reading click here.

Climate Justice Fast! Day 10

2009-11-17T18:25:00.005+11:00

I arrive early in the morning and help them set up their marquee on the lawn in front of Parliament House in Canberra. They are not in their usual position today because the lawn will be used to host a barbecue for the former wards of the state after their official apology from the Federal Government and the last thing they want is to be able to smell the food.

All three of the people I’m visiting, Paul, Marcella and Michael are in good spirits even though they have eaten nothing and have drunk only water for the last nine days. As we settle down under their marquee, I get the official business out of the way by letting them know that I am here not only representing myself, but my local climate action group, Yarra Climate Action Now, and that they have our admiration, respect and gratitude.

These three people on hunger strike outside Parliament House are one component of Climate Justice Fast – an international hunger strike for climate justice and for urgent and science-based actions to prevent catastrophic global warming. There are around 100 people around the world taking part in fasts of varying length as part of this action, with numbers growing day by day. Eight of these people, including Paul and Michael here in Canberra are doing the “full” fast, which is indefinite and will probably go until after the Copenhagen negotiations finish – a total of six weeks without food!

The key messages of the fast are that in line with the most robust and up to date climate science, world leaders need to agree to cut emissions and draw-down carbon from the atmosphere in order to get below 350 parts per million (ppm) carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere (currently at around 387ppm and the Rudd Government target is a suicidal 450ppm), and that the rich world must pay the poor world US$160 billion per year to help them cut emissions and adapt to the impacts already being felt.

Paul, 29, from Melbourne and the main organiser of the huger strike said, “We feel that it is our duty to do everything possible to prevent the world’s poorest people and our very own children from suffering at the hands of a problem which they did not create.”

Marcella, 31 and also from Melbourne adds, “we may be suffering by not eating. However, our suffering is voluntary. The victims of the Victorian bushfires and heatwaves last summer died because of the terrible conditions caused in part by our climate changing. Climate change is already causing immense suffering and we can’t stand by and let it get worse.”

We lie under the marquee, it is a 36 degree day and it’s getting hot. Every now and then someone drops in to say hello and have a chat, most are very supportive and Marcella invites them to write in their guest book. At times the conversation is so normal that I forget the immense effort and sacrifice these three people are making. When I remember that they haven’t eaten for almost ten days it feels a little surreal.

I chat to Michael, from Sydney and 61 years old, about renewable energy and carbon sequestration. We eventually get onto the topic of his fast. He tells me that the doctors who examine them regularly say he will most likely end up in hospital. He doesn’t seem too worried about this. For him, the fast is a way to show the Australian public how urgent and serious the climate crisis is. It is also about morality. “We are using our own bodies to expose the moral bankruptcy of our leaders”, he says.

The day ends on an exciting note. The Run for a Safe Climate is passing through Canberra today. They are about half-way through their run from Cooktown to Melbourne via Adelaide, and the 25 runners have run around 20km in the searing heat. I watch as the fasters and the runners, made up of police officers, fire fighters, SES workers and paramedics, chat – the parallels between their actions become obvious as they talk about their experiences.

There are several politicians there to welcome the runners. After the official welcome Paul and Marcella have a chat with Greens Senators Bob Brown and Christine Milne. There is mutual admiration amongst all concerned and I take great pleasure in being able to get some video footage of the chat before a policeman informs me I am not allowed to film because I’m not authorised. As soon as he leaves I pull out the camera again until stopped by another policeman.

Marcella tries to approach Senator Penny Wong, but she makes a run for it as soon as she sees her “Climate Justice Fast!” t-shirt. I wonder out loud why she even bothers to turn up at climate change events considering how woefully her government is dealing with the crisis. Does she have no shame?

Late in the evening we say our goodbyes. As I have my first morsel of food for over 24 hours and get on the bus back to Melbourne the next morning, I think about them once again setting up on the Parliament House lawn and settling in for another day without food. I think about the humble manner by which they are going about their extraordinary action and I hope they are able to get the coverage for the cause that they are aiming for. I also hope they don’t feel alone and isolated in a world that can sometimes seem impervious to acts of sanity like this one.

As the bus leaves Canberra behind my mind settles on one of the entries in their guestbook, written by a year seven student who dropped in to the marquee with his mother. It said, “You are doing a good thing. I wish there were more of you”.

It’s official! Labor to lose votes due to coal support

2009-11-12T17:00:00.005+11:00

GetUp’s ReEnergise Australia campaign has been knocking on doors in Kensington and Richmond in the federal electorate of Melbourne, talking to people about the potential for renewable energy to power Australia and create thousands of clean energy jobs. Over 1600 of the 1700 people that GetUp spoke to signed their petition, asking Lindsay Tanner, the Labor member for Melbourne to become a clean energy champion in the Federal Parliament. This is quite far from the current Rudd Government position, which includes wholehearted support for the coal industry and billions of taxpayer dollars for the big coal corporations while Australian technology and know-how, such as Solar Systems is allowed to go belly-up.

The key result from the door-knocking was this – 85% of those people who identified as Labor voters said they would consider changing their vote if the Government doesn’t act.

GetUp will be handing over their petition tomorrow (Friday) at 5.30pm at Lindsay Tanner’s office – 280 King St, Melbourne. All are invited to come along.

The people of Melbourne have sent a clear message, we want the Government to support renewable energy, not fossil fuels, or else we will vote for someone who will.

Rudd unmasked by Africans

2009-11-08T14:34:00.002+11:00

The climate change talks in Barcelona have just wound up. These are the last round of talks before the Copenhagen summit starts in four weeks.

The refusal of the developed countries like Australia to commit to the necessary reductions in global warming pollution resulted in a walk-out by the African delegation, with Kevin Rudd and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown specifically targetted for their hypocrisy. The African delegation accused Kevin Rudd of promising a lot on climate but not delivering real action.

"Tell me of any politician who delivered on his political manifesto. Was it Gordon Brown? Was it Kevin Rudd?", key African negotiator Lumumba Di-Aping said.

The Africans want the rich world to cut emissions by at least 40% by 2020 on 1990 levels, while Kevin Rudd is offering 5-25% - which would be a death sentence for millions of Africans if adopted globally.

Ironically it now seems that China, India, Brazil and Mexico are on track to reduce their emissions by 25% by 2020 on 1990 levels, according to new reasearch, which puts them well ahead of countries like Australia, the USA and Europe.

Run for a Safe Climate

2009-11-02T13:21:00.005+11:00

The Run for a Safe Climate starts today! 25 runners from Australia's emergency services, including police officers, firefighters, paramedics and nurses are running from Cooktown in the wet tropics down to Melbourne, via the east coast, the Murray Darling Basin and Adelaide.

The run aims to create public awareness of the climate emergency and the iconic ecosystems which are under extreme threat. It is also raising funds for Safe Climate Australia, an organisation that is putting together a transition plan for achieving a safe climate future.

Watch the inspiring video below, and join the runners on the final day of the run, 29 November as they run along the Port Phillip Bay shore to St Kilda.

The fight for Solar Systems continues...

2009-10-29T16:42:00.002+11:00

Reminder:

SAVE SOLAR SYSTEMS RALLY – 5:30 FRIDAY 30 OCTOBER, PARLIAMENT HOUSE

The building of the first large-scale solar power plant in Australia is in doubt.

The Solar Systems power plant will create 1,000 renewable energy jobs, power 45,000 homes and uses home grown, Australian designed and built, world leading technology.

As the administrators look at whether funding for Solar Systems can be found, now is our chance to build momentum for clean energy and demand that state and Federal Governments live up to their rhetoric of supporting renewables.

Join us at the Save Solar Systems Rally, tomorrow, Friday 30th October at 5:30 PM at Parliament House.

Your voice counts. Tell the Government that we want solar not coal.

The climate crisis and human health

2009-10-27T17:21:00.005+11:00

What is the greatest global health threat of this century?
Is it heart disease? Malaria? Cancer? Nup... you guessed it: the cumulative impacts of climate change will threaten human health more than any of these. And don’t just take our word for it. Perhaps the most highly respected medical journal in the world The Lancet introduced its comprehensive assessment of the management of human health impacts of climate change with this very statement.

You know things are serious when one of the most notoriously conservative medical journals in the world argues strongly for a new global public advocacy movement. We’ll take that as the top doctors and health academics in the world giving the big tick to joining the climate movement and calling on governments to stop stuffing around and get serious about the ultimate in preventative medicine for the planet and all of us – avoiding runaway climate change.

See this Australian Medical Students Association’s youtube clip for the key messages on climate and health impacts:

Look up The Lancet and University College London’s report for the full diagnosis.

350 day goes off

2009-10-26T10:55:00.008+11:00

Over 100 people had their photo taken on Saturday outside Melbourne's iconic Flinders Street Station, sending a message to Kevin Rudd that we want science based climate change policies, not trade-offs to the big polluters and vested interests, which is an accurate description of his current climate change policy proposals.

This was part of the world's biggest day of climate action ever (so far!) for 350.org day. In Melbourne around 60 actions took place, including a mass bike ride and several concerts and gigs.

A great time was had by all!!!

Attached is a taste of the photos we took. More are available via our flickr site. Down the bottom of this post is a great video that summarises the day.

Photo above by Rodney Dekker - www.rodneydekker.com

A parallel universe?

2009-10-18T22:46:00.003+11:00

Are our leaders criminally insane? Or maybe they live in a parallel universe?
These questions may seem harsh (and probably weird), but they need to be asked urgently in the face of developments in the past week.

First we'll set some context. The climate science keeps getting worse. Climate change is happening faster and faster, with the impacts become greater. We are facing an emergency the likes of which humanity has never seen. Europe's leading climate scientist, Prof Schellnhuber, has warned that on current trends, the Earth's carrying capacity for humans will be below one billion by the year 2100. He also released a report recently, which showed that to give ourselves a two out of three chance of avoiding more than 2 degrees of warming (already unsafe), the USA and Australia needed to cut their emissions to zero by 2020, China by 2035, with the whole world reaching zero by 2050.

In this context, the inaction of our governments on climate change is indeed striking, and the lengths they will go to to protect the profits of the coal industry very disturbing.

Last week, the Rudd Government rejected a UK Government proposal that Australia sign up to their policy of only approving new coal-fired power stations if they have clean coal (carbon capture and storage) technology in place. This sensible policy was rejected, probably because the Rudd Government is aware this would mean no more coal-fired power stations would be built, as carbon capture and storage will never be viable. But why are they planning to build any more anyway? How about some wind and solar thermal power?

At the state level, The Age revealed that the Minister for Maximising Coal Industry Profits, Peter Batchelor, is planning to open up Victoria's brown coal resources for export to India. This would mean that we export the world's most greenhouse gas intensive fuel to India for it to burn in its power stations. Why aren't we investing in manufacturing renewable energy technology and exporting that?

Our climate scientists are very worried, but they insist we still have a chance to avoid runaway climate change. However, this won't happen unless we stop burning coal, and stop it fast.

We need to let our leaders know that we don't live in a parallel universe, we live in reality, a reality threatened by the climate crisis.

A snap rally has been called to encourage Brumby to block the coal export proposal:
START: 12.30, Thursday 22nd October
WHERE: Steps of Parliament House, Spring St
FINISH: 1.10 – plenty of time for lunch and getting back to work!
RSVP: Let us know you’re coming by sending a quick email to exportingcoalisdumb -at- yahoo.com.au

iCoal 2.0

2009-10-13T10:26:00.003+11:00

The Australian Coal Association has launched a campaign in regional marginal seats, telling voters that acting on climate change (in the form of the Rudd Government's Carbon Polluters Rewards Scheme - CPRS) will cost jobs. There are a couple of factual errors here:

1. Acting on the climate crisis will create many more jobs than it will cost. Renewable energy is more labour intensive than coal power and the government investment needed will greatly boost the economy.

2. The CPRS isn't really going to do anything to reduce Australia's emissions, it is designed to give the appearance of action without actually shifting us from business as usual. The coal industry couldn't have hoped for a better deal.

And of course, it goes without saying that the Australian Coal Association couldn't care less about "jobs", what they mean of course is "profits". The coal industry has been responsible for thousands of jobs losses over the last 15 years in the Latrobe Valley here in Victoria.

So we need to fight back! Help get this add on TV to counter the lies from the coal lobby.

The most important number in the world

2009-10-08T09:32:00.004+11:00

by Paul Kalemba - Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC license

24 October. Be there.

Yep, it’s an emergency folks!

2009-10-07T08:27:00.005+11:00

The last few weeks have seen an avalanche of climate science reports and it isn’t pretty. On current trends we are heading towards catastrophe within our own lifetimes.

On Sunday a French scientist warned that 10% of the Arctic Ocean will be corrosively acidic by 2018, 50% by 2050 and 100% by 2100. This will cause the collapse of the ocean food chain, destroying oceanic ecosystems and human livelihoods.

On the same day the UN warned that drought could affect 70% of the planet’s surface by 2025, up from 41% now (currently a rise of 15-25% from 1990).

Last week a UK Met Office report, prepared for the Department of Energy and Climate Change says that temperature rises of 4 degrees on pre-industrial levels are possible by 2060 on current emissions trends. This would mean water shortages for most of the world, hundreds of millions of climate refugees on the move causing wars, and it would be impossible to grow food in most of Australia.

What else does four degrees mean? By 2060 there’ll be no Amazon rainforest, no Great Barrier Reef and no Asian monsoon, and 50% of the world’s species will be extinct. The “once in a lifetime” floods that India and The Philippines are experiencing right now will be regular events, as will mega bushfires in Victoria.

What’s that you say? What about the actions that governments are taking to steer us away from business as usual? Well, depressingly, according to another study for the United Nations Environment Program discovered that even if governments enact their most ambitious climate policy pledges, the world will still warm by 3.7 degrees Celsius (6.29 Farenheit) by 2100.

Yet another catastrophic scenario.

Despite this doom and gloom, all the scientists in these studies say there is still time to avoid these catastrophic impacts. But what governments are proposing to do is nowhere near enough!

We need atmospheric carbon levels brought well below 350 parts per million (Rudd advocates 450ppm at the moment, current levels are 389ppm). We need to urgently start replacing coal-fired electricity with renewable energy (not delay action while money is wasted on researching clean coal), and we need deep and fast emissions cuts, starting yesterday.

Our governments won’t act until you do, and it will soon be too late. There's no point denying reality, the bad news now being published in mainstream science journals isn't going away. Check out this blog for current campaigns or contact us at YarraCAN -at- gmail.com

Yarra's Bicycle Strategy Open for Submissions

2009-10-02T16:25:00.003+10:00

The City of Yarra’s Draft Bicycle Strategy is open for public review and comment until 22 October.

The document includes actions that will aim to increase the mode share of cycling for trips in Yarra, with a long-term vision of making cycling the first transport choice for all short to medium distance trips.

It details actions and timelines for improvements to the on and off road bicycle network and other infrastructure (including bike parking facilities) to maximise bicycle use in Yarra.

The draft strategy sets a clear goal for Council to increase the rate of Yarra residents cycling to work from 6.4% to 15% by 2015 as well as reducing bicycle collisions and injuries. It also aims to encourage people of all ages and backgrounds to take up cycling as a mode of transport.

Increasing cycling is a major part of the necessary transition to zero emissions transport systems. If Yarra Council carries out the actions in this plan, they will most certainly help in increasing cycling and should be commended. It would be great to see other municipalities and the State/Fed Governments make similar commitments backed by tangible actions. Send submissions through to Mark Kulyk at mark.kulyk –at– yarracity.vic.gov.au or PO Box 168, Richmond, VIC, 3121.

Help us save clean energy jobs and solar power

2009-09-24T23:34:00.007+10:00

The Save Solar Systems campaign is asking for your support. The company Solar Systems has gone into administration making 100 workers redundant. This has put the construction of the first large scale solar power plant in Australia in doubt. It was to have been a $420 million project, that would have created 1000 jobs in construction and powered 45,000 homes.

State and federal governments had already promised $125 million to the project, but so far released less than $3 million of that money. We are asking that the federal government immediately intervenes to guarantee (i) that the Solar Systems factory in Abbotsford remains open, (ii) that the redundant workers are reinstated and, (iii) that a large scale solar power plant is built in Mildura.

We are asking you or your organisation to:
1 Sign the petition
2. Write or call Lindsay Tanner MP, Member for Melbourne asking for the three points listed above. Email him at lindsay.tanner.mp@aph.gov.au or call on 9602 2911
3 Endorse the Save Solar Systems rally, 2pm Sunday 11 October, 45 Grosvenor Street, Abbotsford (off Victoria Street, 109 tram from the city)
4 Publicise the rally, by emailing the details and information to your networks
5 Come to the rally
6 Let us know if you can provide photocopying or other resources for the campaign.
7 Come to organising meetings, every Sunday 1pm, at the Terminus Hotel, 605 Victoria St Abbotsford.

Contact via savesolarsystems -at- gmail.com - if you want further information. If you wish to be added to the email list, send a request with "please add me to you email list" to the same email address.

Below is an interview with one of the sacked Solar Systems workers (wind noise dies down after about 30 seconds), and another rally speaker from the first rally on 18 September:

For more information see the Solar Systems website, and media coverage (1, 2, 3, 4)

The Youth Decide

2009-09-22T17:46:00.004+10:00

The results of the Youth Decide poll, run by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition over the week 14-21 September are in. Kevin Rudd's not going to like it.

Over 37,000 people between the ages of 12 and 29 took part in a vote that asked them what sort of emissions cuts they wanted for Australia and the developed world, when provided with the scientific evidence of the consequences of these cuts.

The three options were (cuts by 2020 on 1990 levels):

40%+ (the amount scientists recently said was necessary to avoid catastrophic runaway climate change) - chosen by 91.5% of respondents
25-40% (the amount the media claims scientists say is necessary, which is now badly outdated) - 5.9% of respondents
4-24% (the amount the Rudd Government has proposed in its CPRS) - 2.5% of respondents

Let's hope most of them are old enough to vote at the next election...

Hazelwood Video

2009-09-16T18:12:00.003+10:00

"This is where the black balloons really come from."

2009-09-16T11:07:00.008+10:00

I eavesdropped as the father explained to his very young daughter that the black balloons really came from this place, not the washing machine. Looming over us was the Hazelwood coal power station, the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia. Around us were 500 other people, some of who had travelled long distances, as well as many locals, to help send the message that for our own survival, we need to urgently transition away from coal and towards renewable energy and energy efficiency, and that this means switching off Hazelwood and finding alternative jobs for the workers inside.

Scientists have made it clear that getting out of coal should be our number one priority for reducing emissions and avoiding runaway climate change.

We had spent the night before camping with 230 people, discussing tactics for the day and more general climate change topics, as well as sharing a meal and listening to some fantastic live music. On the day, despite early rain, the atmosphere was positive and friendly. We were welcomed to country by Robbie Thorpe, a local Gunai elder and heard from fantastic speakers.

We marched to Hazelwood and were met with a heavy police presence. Twenty-two people managed to get over the Hazelwood fence and deliver a community decommission order. They were charged with trespass. There were many more willing to commit civil disobedience, but were not nimble enough to get over the fence without the police stopping them.

We received blanket media coverage that night on TV and in the papers the next day. A great time was had by all and the importance of peaceful civil disobedience made clear. It was an historic day for all of us fighting for a safe climate future against the insanity of our governments and fossil fuel industries.

It's time - switch off coal and switch on renewables!

See you at the next protest!

Click here for more photos.

www.switchoffhazelwood.org - for a summary of the media coverage

In Brumby's Victoria: coal thrives, solar dies

2009-09-15T17:37:00.003+10:00

While climate scientists all over the world call for a rapid transition away from coal, the Brumby and Rudd governments continue to support this dangerous industry while allowing crucial renewable energy projects to fall over.

Over the weekend the State Government announced it was looking into exporting brown coal, the world's most greenhouse gas intensive fuel, to India. A week earlier, the company Solar Systems went into voluntary administration putting 150 jobs at risk. The company was not able to raise enough money from private investors to build what was going to be Australia's biggest solar energy plant (so far) in the north-west of Victoria.

Considering the scale of the climate crisis, the Brumby Government cannot allow this project, which is technically sound, and the valuable employment that it will create, to go belly up. If they really believe the things they say about the seriousness of climate change and the importance of clean energy jobs, then this project must not be allowed to fail. If private money will not invest in this project due to the global financial crisis, as John Brumby has said, then government must step in. It's time the government took responsibility for the transition away from coal to renewable energy.

Help us demand the Solar Systems project goes ahead:
Rally to save the solar plant
This Friday, 18 September, 12.30pm
Solar Systems Office, 45 Grosvenor St, Abbotsford

We love Ontario!

2009-09-09T13:28:00.003+10:00

In a world first, the Canadian province of Ontario has put in place a plan to reduce its coal usage by 40% by next year (on 2003 levels) and is hoping to phase out coal burning altogether by 2014.

Wind power is booming in this province of over 13 million people, which is also an electricity exporter to the USA.

Some turbines will be closed down, while others will have their coal fuel replaced with natural gas and renewable biomass. While this isn't a transition to 100% renewable energy, it is certainly a step in the right direction and will be the single biggest reduction in Canada's greenhouse gas emissions in its history.

If Ontario can do it, then Victoria, with our plentiful sun, wind and educated workforce can do it too.

Are you listening John Brumby? These are the kind of short term targets and action that we desperately need to avoid runaway climate change.

For more information click here.

Climate Camp UK - "it's time for a world without coal"

2009-09-04T17:25:00.007+10:00

The fourth climate camp in the UK has wound up! What an inspiring week! This year it was held in London, at a location kept secret until the first day and communicated to thousands of attendees by SMS.

This event, which went from 27 August to 2 September resulted in protests and civil disobedience all over London, as well as the usual workshops held at the campsite.

Actions were held at the Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays Bank, for financing fossil fuel projects, the PR firm Edelman PR, for their work helping the energy company E.ON promote their plans for a new coal fired power station, the offices of Shell and BP (for obvious reasons), the UK treasury (ditto), London City airport and the carbon trading exchange.

To see more, visit the camp for climate action UK website, or the Guardian's coverage online.

The climate casino at the carbon exchange opens for business

And for your entertainment, just before the camp, the organisers responded to police requests for information on where the camp was going to be with this cheeky video:

Scientists prove Victoria's drought is climate change

2009-08-30T17:06:00.006+10:00

A three-year study carried out by the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO has found that Victoria's 13 year drought is actually a permanent climate shift linked to increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Strengthening high pressure systems are pushing rain bands further south, over the ocean rather than land, due to the warming of the planet.

To view the research visit the South Eastern Australian Climate Initiative website, and see coverage of the study in The Age.

Exposing Victoria's Dirtiest Secret - 13 September

2009-08-25T23:02:00.007+10:00

"Switch off Hazelwood. Switch off Coal. Switch on Renewables” is a day of fun, creative and inspiring peaceful community action at Victoria's dirtiest secret, Hazelwood coal power station. This march and protest at the gates of the Hazelwood Power Station, is organised by community members who care about climate change.

We need you all there!

The Hazelwood protest is the community climate movement's big protest action in the lead up to the Copenhagen negotiations. It's timed to coincide with the peak arctic ice melt, and it's far enough ahead to have a bearing on the Copenhagen negotiations, which are happening now!

The day is building to be a big success.

It is billed as a protest and peaceful mass civil disobedience and we need every one concerned about climate change to be involved! Here's what it means:

There are two distinct arms to the event:

You can protest outside the station with banners, clowns, some great creative and positive props, music and speakers - hopefully to include Senator Christine Milne, one of the few politicians advocating a reasonable science based approach to climate change.

At some point in the day, the second arm of the protest will attempt to walk on to the station to serve "Community Decommission Orders" to Hazelwood Power Station. This completely peaceful act of protest may result in those people being liable for charges of trespass: a decision that people have been willing to take because of the scale of the threat to our well-being posed by the climate crisis.

Participants in both groups are equally important!

Some further information:

Background

Coal burning power stations are one of the main contributors to climate change, which poses an enormous threat to the world and it's inhabitants. Hazelwood is one of the dirtiest coal power stations in the industrialised world. It releases an average of 17 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year and represents around 5% of Australia's emissions. It was scheduled to be shut down this year, however it was given a lifeline by the ALP state government in 2005 allowing it to continue operation until 2031. We need support renewable energy instead and extend the lifeline to our planet!

We are advocating an urgent transition to 100% renewable energy and away from coal. This is already technically possible. We are also demanding that the government support the Latrobe Valley community in a transition away from fossil fuels towards a clean energy manufacturing hub - protecting jobs and giving us all a future. Replacing dinosaurs like Hazelwood with renewable energy is the first step in this transition.

Our State and Federal Governments are failing on climate change. Their policies are nowhere near what scientists are saying is needed to avoid catastrophe.

Details of the Event

On 11am on Sunday September 13, 2009 we will meet on the corner of Broadribb & Nadenboushs Rd (South of Morwell) and march to the front gates of the Hazelwood, rallying to 'Switch on Renewables and Switch off Coal' and slap a Community Decommission Order on Hazelwood Power Station. The event will be well organized with speakers, media link ups, first aid and medical help available but you'll need to bring your own food and drink.

Skills Workshop

There is a weekend skills workshop coming up this weekend, 29/30 August: to build skills for future climate protest organizing as well as skilling up for the day . Look on the website for details!

And Of Course...

Climate change is a threat of unprecedented proportions to our world and all it's inhabitants. People who have never been involved in protest before are getting involved in protests over limate change. The science says we already have too much carbon in the atmosphere to avoid run away climate change. We need to motivate our politicians to act fast enough - that means stopping burning coal, building renewable energy ASAP and sequestering carbon out of the atmosphere. We need to speak strongly, loudly and persistently until it happens!

If possible, RSVP on the website to help with planning for the day. Any questions and for further details of the protest and how to get there go to the website: www.switchoffhazelwood.org

Renewable Energy Target compromised by corporate greed

2009-08-20T17:35:00.005+10:00

It seems no climate change policy can be passed by this parliament without it being watered down and made practically ineffective...

From Crikey:

The capacity of the Australian Parliament to bastardise good policy and turn it into a feeding trough for rentseekers and other parasites is truly remarkable.

You can’t move in this place or open a paper without the bottom-feeding filth of the political economy springing out, hands extended, threatening disaster unless they can fasten tightly onto the public teat. And it’s getting worse, as more and more sectors heed the example of lowlifes like the Minerals Council of Australia and come in for their chop.

The Coalition and the Government managed a deal yesterday on the Renewable Energy Target, or what’s left of it. Just in the nick of time before a Question Time in which the Government would assuredly have contrasted its success in facilitating the Gorgon deal with the inability of the Coalition to even agree amongst themselves on a bill they had committed to support.

...to continue reading, click here.

Climate Change Documentary from 1958

2009-08-17T09:47:00.004+10:00

Check out this excerpt from a 1958 documentary about climate change. Seems it's old news.

Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme [sic] in the Senate

2009-08-11T09:54:00.005+10:00

From newmatilda.com

The Rudd Government's Carbon Polluters Rewards Scheme (CPRS) is going to be voted on in the Senate this week. It is most likely to fail, as all other parties apart from the Labor Party will be voting against it (the Greens for good reasons, everyone else for bad reasons).

Yarra Climate Action Now (YCAN) has gone on the record in this blog and in other forums numerous times since the CPRS was announced in December last year. To see our past entries on this issue click on these numbers - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

As this issue is all over the news this week, we would like to reiterate that together with the 150 grassroots climate action groups that met in Canberra in February, and most environment groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, we oppose the CPRS and hope it does not become law.

The reasons can be summarised as follows:

1. It will not reduce Australia's emissions (most reductions will come from buying dodgy overseas offsets)
2. The targets are nowhere near what scientists say is necessary to give us a chance of avoiding runaway climate change.
3. It will result in a massive transfer of wealth from the Australian taxpayer to the big polluting corporations.
4. It will render voluntary action to reduce emissions practically meaningless.
5. It will sabotage international negotiations by showing the world that Australia isn't serious about fighting the climate crisis.

If the Rudd Government was serious about fighting climate change, rather than just saying it is, it would create a scheme that addresses the above concerns.

For further information to back up the five points above, please see our past entries on this issue.

PS - it goes without saying that the proposal that Malcolm Turnbull released yesterday is even worse!

100% Renewable Energy by 2020!

2009-08-07T14:50:00.003+10:00

The Renewable Energy Target (RET) legislation is going before the Senate next week. This typically weak and inadequate legislation is offering us a target of less than 20% renewable electricity by 2020.

This is nowhere near what the climate science says is necessary to avoid runaway climate change and does not do enough to transition Australia to a zero emissions economy. It also misses the opportunity to create thousands of clean energy jobs in this country and make Australia a world leader in renewable energy technology - something we once were but are no longer thanks to the Howard and Rudd governments' acquiescence to the big polluters.

Please email you federal representatives and make the demands outlined below. You can email them via the Your Voice in House website, just by filling in your state and postcode and ticking the boxes.

Please fix the RET by:

1. Increasing the target to 100% renewable electricity by 2020.

This is technically feasible, in particular with the introduction of baseload solar power which is already operating in both Spain and the USA. Solar thermal power with molten salt storage can provide baseload power at an affordable price with zero emissions and zero fuel inputs. Combined with wind power, and energy efficiency measures, we could power all of Australia with renewable energy.

If you haven’t heard of solar thermal with storage start by watching this short video.

This would also be in line with the need to go below 350 parts per million (probably closer to 300ppm) carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is well below the levels (390ppm) we have currently, and close to the 280ppm in pre-industrial times.

Imagine the jobs and the economic growth this would create! It would be a truly visionary project and show true leadership.

2. Excluding solar hot water from the scheme

Solar hot water does not put electricity back into the grid and should be excluded from the RET. It should be encouraged through other means, such as mandating that all new houses have solar hot water and launching a retrofit program to ensure all Australian houses have solar hot water by 2020.

3. Ensuring that all renewable energy accounted for is actually delivered.

The scheme currently gives five times the certificates to installed solar energy than what is actually produced. This means that even the measly 20% by 2020 target won’t really be met. It also means that bigger projects will be delayed as in the first few years most renewable energy certificates go to fake solar power.

To fix this, the year on year target must be increased to fit in with the number of fake certificates that have been issued.

Australian public ahead of politicians on climate policy

2009-08-03T20:45:00.005+10:00

A poll released today found that 75% of Australians either agree or strongly agree that the Federal Government's emissions trading scheme is not tough enough on the big polluters and needs to be strengthened in the Senate.

Only 13% disagreed with 12% not knowing.

It is certainly encouraging to see that the Australian public has more sense than our Labor/Liberal politicians when it comes to acting on the climate crisis. If only they'd listen more to us rather than their fossil fuel industry benefactors.

At the same time as the poll was released, the Australian Greens released research which showed that foreign companies stand to make billions of dollars from the Australian taxpayer if the current scheme becomes law.

The major findings included:

* A total of $11.68 billion worth of assistance under the ETS will flow to companies that are wholly or partially foreign owned in the first five years of the Scheme

* 84% of compensation in the coal-fired electricity generators sector will go to foreign companies, based in UK, Hong Kong and Japan. With a total of $3.246 billion flowing to such companies between 2011-2015.

* 67% of the allocation - or $8.4 billion- under the Emissions Intensive Trade Exposed (ETIE) scheme would flow to companies that are wholly or partially owned by overseas companies between 2011-2016

* The owners of the Hazelwood Power station in Victoria, UK International Power Plc, are in line to pocket 28.6% of assistance available to the coal-fired electricity generators sector, or some $1.1 billion. Yallourn W power station, owned by CPL Power Asia, will receive $908 million.

*Loy Yang A power station - in line to receive $782million.

hhmm, so those very same corporations that should be stopping their burning of fossil fuels, will be paid billions of our money to keep doing it. Does that make sense to anyone?

Awesome August Events

2009-08-02T13:57:00.006+10:00

There are a few events coming up this month that you can’t miss!!

Trivia Night Fundraiser

What dinosaur has eight chimneys, eats coal and suffers from terrible gas?

With live music, stand-up comedy, great questions, food and drink.

This is a fun night for all to raise money for the upcoming Hazelwood Power Station protest.

Details: Saturday August 15, 7pm-10pm – Northcote High School, 25 St Georges Road, Northcote.
Price (including light dinner) Table of 8, $120 Individual $20/$15 concession

Book online at www.trybooking.com/BJB
Tickets also available on the night unless sold out.

The Big Melt Tour

Come and hear the world-record holder for the fastest climb of Mt Everest talk about the effects of climate change in the ‘roof of the world’.

See www.thebigmelt.org

Hear Pemba Dorje Sherpa, holder of the world record for the fastest climb of Mount Everest, talk about his experience of global warming in the Himalayas. He is joined by environmental lawyer and activist Prakash Sharma, Pro Public Nepal.

Global warming is already having a big impact on Mount Everest and the Himalayas. Glaciers are melting creating floods and danger for the local people. But the big melt also means a big dry as these 'water towers' of Asia lose their capacity to provide water to the giant rivers in the summer months. Eventually rivers like the Ganges in India and the Yellow River in China will lose their dry season flow and the billion people in these river basins will lose their water security.

Details of Public Meeting 6.30 PM – 8.00 PM
Monday, August 17, 2009 Village Roadshow Theatrette
State Library of Victoria
328 Swanston St
(Use Entry 3, La Trobe Street)

Clifton Hill Community Sustainability Meeting
…featuring comedian Rod Quantock on the climate science

We are a group of Clifton Hill residents - not experts - with the shared aim of helping each other to live more sustainably and encouraging action that avoids runaway climate change.

Perhaps you share our concern but find the issues frighteningly large and complex and are unsure of what you can do that will make a difference.

You may be asking yourself…

• Where can I find reliable up-to-date climate change
information?

• What can I do to reduce the likelihood of dangerous
climate change?

• What can I do to reduce the environmental impact of
my lifestyle?

• Will it help if I change my diet or grow some of my own
food?

• If I installed water tanks and solar panels how much
would it help and what will it cost?

If you are interested in any of the above issues, this meeting is for you.

There will be displays with handouts and people with particular expertise to talk to.

For information contact: Doug Evans at dg.evans -at- bigpond.com

Featuring Rod Quantock, Yarra Climate Action Now, Beyond Zero Emissions, The Environment Shop, the Ethical Consumption Group and other local groups.

Details: Sunday, 23 August 2009, 2:30 - 4:30pm
St. Mark's Church, 100 Hodgkinson St, Clifton Hill

Environment ministers say the darndest things!

2009-07-24T13:39:00.004+10:00

(and we’re not even talking about Peter Garrett)

Last Tuesday, Yarra Climate Action Now (YCAN) attended a consultation session on the Victorian State Government’s Climate Change Green Paper. The session was well run and designed to illicit feedback on the Paper in preparation for the development of the White Paper and subsequent climate change legislation.

The feedback on the day was overwhelmingly negative. Almost every table (we were seated in groups at round tables) criticised the Brumby Government Paper for not having many concrete actions, not supporting the roll-out of renewable energy technologies sufficiently, not having policies that are science-based that adequately address the size of the climate crisis, and for handballing all greenhouse gas mitigation responsibilities over to the Federal Government, even while the Federal Government has proven, through the design of the pathetic Carbon Polluters Rewards Scheme (CPRS) that it is not willing to take climate change seriously and it is not willing to cut our emissions to a degree that will avoid runaway, catastrophic climate change.

Business as usual, in other words.

In the face of this criticism, the Victorian Environment and Climate Change Minister, Gavin Jennings made some truly strange closing remarks.

Although he spoke in true politician style using very ambiguous language, the implications (note – not a direct quote) of his remarks were as follows:

“I understand that we are not doing enough according to the current climate science. However, the people in this room who have criticised our Green Paper are particularly engaged in this issue and are not representative of the wider Victorian population. Therefore, we won’t do what you say, even if I know it is the right thing to do, because we believe it isn’t popular enough.”

Many people left shocked. Was this the confession of a Minister who knows his government is failing on climate change? Was he trying to ease his conscience? Or is he admitting that his career is more important than the future of humanity?

In any case Minister Jennings’ words are a call to action. If the Brumby Government thinks that (really) acting on climate change – which means transitioning our power supply away from coal by 2020 at the latest – isn’t popular enough, we need to prove them wrong, and we can also use our vote to support those candidates that will act.

If you haven’t told a politician what you think about climate change yet, please do. And you can write your own submission to the Green Paper. To help YCAN write our submission (due 30 September) please get in touch.

Scotland leads, Australia continues to trail behind

2009-07-19T15:25:00.003+10:00

The Scottish Parliament set itself the most ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets in the world last month, passing a law that will set the framework for a 42% emissions reduction by 2020 on 1990 levels. Although the Scottish Government doesn't have control over all of Scotland's emissions (which are also covered by the EU and the British Government), this sends a signal that it is taking the climate crisis seriously and trying to bridge the yawning gap between the science and the policy.

Compare this to the 34% cut passed by the UK Parliament and the 5% on the table from the Rudd Government.

For more information, click here.

Cutting Through the Spin: A pollie-speak translation service

2009-07-14T17:05:00.006+10:00

A member of YCAN recently wrote to Lindsay Tanner, Federal Member for Melbourne, asking why his Government continues to rule out transitioning Australia to a 100% renewable energy economy even though they haven't even explored it as an option.

Below is Mr. Tanner's response – a neat summary of the Rudd Government's current 'line' on the climate crisis. We have taken the opportunity to point to several glaring problems with the way Mr. Tanner and his Government are responding to climate change… It took a while to unravel the spin but we got there in the end!

Tanner: Dear [sir], Thank you for…your correspondence…regarding a shift to 100% renewable energy by 2020. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge that I understand that many people, like yourself, believe that the details of the Governments Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme should be tougher. It is important to note that the targets proposed are tougher than they appear, and the government remains committed to helping achieve an international consensus for strong action to prevent dangerous climate change. Even the Government’s minimum target of 5 per cent reduction from 2000 emission levels by 2020 involves an actual reduction of about 13 per cent, because emissions have increased significantly since 2000.

YCAN reality check #1 – Though the “appearance” of the targets and the public perception that the 5% emissions reduction target is too low may be important to Mr. Tanner, unfortunately this argument is completely irrelevant. Scientists are telling us that we (wealthy countries) need to reduce our emissions by at least 40% by 2020 (but probably a lot higher) and 100% by 2050 if we are to reduce the risk of hitting runaway catastrophic climate change. Anything less than this is putting the world’s people and species at unacceptable risk. The climate crisis is not an issue to be managed by your public relations staff. It is real and it is an emergency.

On top of this, most of the emissions reductions in the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will actually come from importing permits from overseas, under widely discredited schemes such as the Clean Development Mechanism. Reductions won’t be made in Australia. So even the 5% target is actually much lower in reality. The targets are not tougher than they appear, but weaker.

Tanner: The Government recently announced a more ambitious target of 25 per cent by 2020. This target is contingent on global commitment to stabilise levels of CO2 equivalent at 450 parts per million or lower. This commitment follows extensive consultation regarding the best approach to maximise Australia’s contribution to a substantial outcome in international negotiations at Copenhagen this December.

YCAN reality check #2 – The government’s 25% target is so conditional, it will never happen and they know it. It depends on the immoral condition that developing countries commit to reducing their emissions almost as much as developed countries like Australia (despite historical responsibility for climate change lying almost exclusively with the developed countries). Also, what exactly does “extensive consultation” mean? Since not a single scientist has come out in support of the scheme, and almost all environment and climate action groups are against it, who did they consult with? Just the polluter lobbies?

It is quite clear that, even under the Rudd Government, Australia is playing a spoiler role at international negotiations on climate change. In fact, on the first day of climate negotiations in Bonn in June 2009 it was awarded a Fossil of the Day Award as voted by 450 non-government organisations “…for announcing a midterm emission reduction target including unreasonable conditions on other countries”. Later that week Australia came second for trying to avoid a discussion on the necessary emissions reductions by developed countries.

Tanner: If the world achieves an ambitious agreement, Australia will meet this 25 per cent target by implementing the Rudd Government’s comprehensive climate change strategy which includes:
Introducing the CPRS to for the first time account for the harm our pollution is causing;
Establishing the Renewable Energy Target which will ensure 20 per cent of Australia's electricity - the equivalent of all household electricity consumption - is sourced from renewables by 2020;
An additional investment of $2 billion worth of initiatives to support the development and deployment of low carbon and renewable sources of energy; and
The nation’s largest ever investment in energy efficiency consisting of more than $4.5 billion worth of programs to improve energy efficiency.

YCAN reality check #3 – Of the $4.5 billion going to low carbon and renewable sources of energy (all except $1 billion announced in the 2009 budget), $2.4 billion is going to so called “clean coal” – carbon capture and storage – which is just a delaying tactic to avoid real action. Also, the government’s investment in clean, renewable technologies is small compared to the estimated $7 billion of taxpayers’ money it gives to the fossil fuel industry in subsidies.

Tanner: The Rudd Government has put forward this 25 per cent target because we believe that an ambitious agreement to stabilise levels of CO2 equivalent at 450 parts per million or lower is in the Australian, and global interest.

YCAN reality check #4 – Actually, the most up to date science says that we should be stabilising emissions at around 300 parts per million carbon dioxide if we want to re-freeze the Arctic and go back to a stable climate away from tipping points. It is well documented (even in the Garnaut Review) that the 450ppm target gives a 50% chance of going over 2 degrees warming – a disastrous scenario. Would Mr. Tanner get on an aeroplane that had a 50% chance of crashing?

Tanner: If the world achieves this ambitious agreement, the Government would seek a new election mandate to increase our 60 per cent by 2050 target.

YCAN reality check #5 – What’s the point of having election mandates if you don’t keep your promises to tackle the climate crisis anyway? The Rudd Government had an election mandate to take serious action on climate change in this term, and it hasn’t.

Tanner: The importance of getting a global agreement means we need to secure passage of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme through the Parliament this year. Australia cannot responsibly sign up to targets without a means to deliver them and that is what the CPRS does.

YCAN reality check #6 – Actually, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme would lock in failure by setting in stone inadequate and un-scientific targets and loopholes (such as imports of international permits). It is also unfair – the CPRS would see the biggest transfer of wealth from the Australian taxpayer to the big polluting industries in our history.

Tanner: The Government recognises that there will be some who say that what we are doing is not enough and it comes too late. We know others will say what we are doing is too much and too soon. Australia has had a decade of denial, delay, reviews and neglect under the Liberal Government. The world will meet in December this year to work out a global agreement. Passing the CPRS will ensure we can play our part at Copenhagen and sign up to do our bit. Failing to legislate the CPRS will give other countries an excuse not to act.

YCAN reality check #7 – This is a clever ploy by the Rudd Government, to paint themselves as charting the middle path between “some who say that what we are doing is not enough and it comes too late...[and] others [who] say what we are doing is too much and too soon.” Let’s see how these sides stack up:

Those who say the Government is doing too much: The coal lobby, polluting industry, the oil and gas lobby, the Liberal Party, the National Party.

Those who say the Government is not doing enough: CLIMATE SCIENTISTS, most of the Australian public, progressive businesses, local councils, environment groups, climate action groups, Aid charities, human rights lawyers, doctors, The Greens, the list goes on…

Tanner: Australia’s population is growing more rapidly than most comparable countries, particularly those in Europe. That means we have an inbuilt additional driver of emissions growth to overcome as well. Even if the Governments minimum target is all that is achieved, that will mean that Australia’s per capita emissions will be 27 percent lower than in 2020 compared with the 1990 level. Once population growth is taken into account Australia’s proposal is comparable with the European Union position and significantly in advance of the proposal initiated by US President Obama.

YCAN reality check #8 – Again, this is irrelevant – it is not consistent with scientific necessity. You can’t negotiate with the laws of physics and chemistry. You can’t negotiate with bushfire and drought. Also, the Rudd Government has some cheek using per capita emissions as a reason to do less when Australia’s per capita emissions are the highest in the world!

Tanner: Specific assistance to sectors most affected by the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is inevitably the focus of public debate. I would urge you not to underestimate the challenge involved in introducing this scheme during a period of great economic uncertainty and fragility. The transition to a low carbon economy will be an enormously challenging task. Australian businesses are currently dealing with the worst global recession since the great depression. The Government is committed to making this transition, but we are also committed to ensuring that we minimise the economic disruption it involves.

YCAN reality check #9 – All the evidence shows that the Rudd Government is not interested in transitioning Australia to a zero carbon economy. What it is interested in, is managing public perception of the issue in order to win the next election. We don’t underestimate the challenge of the transition necessary, it will be hard, but it is nothing compared to the catastrophes we face as the climate crisis worsens. The Rudd Government, with its support for the coal industry and business as usual, is only delaying this transition and making it harder in the future.

Yours sincerely
Lindsay Tanner MP

YCAN's selection for a winter's night in

2009-07-07T21:19:00.005+10:00

When the weather turns cold there's nothing like snuggling up on the couch to watch some DVDs. So as part of our service to you, dear reader, here are some of our favourite videos doing the rounds at the moment.

Wake Up, Freak Out, Get a Grip

This brilliantly animated video is the best explanation we’ve seen of the climate science concept of tipping points and positive feedback loops. Essential viewing.

Climate Denial Crock of the Week
This video series systematically demolishes all the common climate change denier myths. Great for getting your confidence up in discussing climate change.

A Time Comes: the story of the Kingsnorth Six
This inspirational 20 minute documentary on the Kingsnorth Six looks at a group of people who too peaceful direct action against a coal fired power station in the UK, and were then acquitted of all charges using the “lawful excuse” defence. They successfully argued that by damaging a coal-fired power station they were preventing greater damage from occurring.

Climate Code Red Talks
Watch presentations given by Melbourne based David Spratt and Matthew Wright, experts in climate science and renewable energy respectively, on the climate crises and the solutions available.
Part 1
2
3
4
5
6

350.org Videos
These short videos from 350.org communicate the climate problem and the October 24 international day of action. Great to pass on to others.
Video 1
Video 2

The Great Disruption
Technically not a video, this radio program features Paul Gilding discussing the physical and biological limits to our current economic model. Excellent for understanding the bigger picture.

America’s Top Climate Scientist Arrested

2009-06-27T21:23:00.003+10:00

Dr James Hansen, one of the world’s most respected climate scientists (who raised the alarm on climate change in the US Congress 20 years ago) was arrested together with a 94 year old former congressman, Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah and around 30 others at a protest against mountaintop removal coal mining on the 22nd of June.

Dr. James Hansen arrested outside a coal plant (Rainforest Action Network)

The protesters sat down and blocked a road near the Goals Coal Plant in West Virginia, demanding that this destructive form of mining be stopped, due to the direct ecological damage it is causing and the urgent need to stop burning coal in order to avoid catastrophic climate change.

"I am not a politician; I am a scientist and a citizen," said Hansen, who is the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City and adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University.

"Politicians may have to advocate for halfway measures if they choose. But it is our responsibility to make sure our representatives feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not what is politically expedient," Hansen told a crowd of about 350 people gathered at Marsh Fork Elementary. "Mountaintop removal, providing only a small fraction of our energy, should be abolished."

Thank you Dr. Hansen.

For those of us that want to follow Dr. Hansen’s brave example, sign up at beyontalk.net and come along to the peaceful community protest at Hazelwood Power Station on 12-13 of September this year.

Climate Science Updated

2009-06-24T14:54:00.002+10:00

The synthesis report from the March 2009 climate change conference has now been released. This is one of the most important publications since the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report in 2007. Click here to download a copy.

The message from the world's climate scientists couldn't be clearer. The Earth is warming at an accelerating rate, and climate change is happening faster than previously predicted. To avoid ecological, social and economic catastrophe, we need to act now to reduce emissions, and that means, primarily, burning less fossil fuels and replacing them with renewable energy technologies.

The Yarra Valley Climate Action Group has prepared a summary of the synthesis report, available here.

YCAN joins the Climate Justice Now network

2009-06-21T14:48:00.003+10:00

Yarra Climate Action Now has recently joined the Climate Justice Now (CJN) network. The network was formed at the Bali climate negotiations in December 2007, and now has hundreds of organisational members from across the globe. It is led and coordinated by climate action groups and others in the developing world.

Climate Justice is based on the understanding that, while climate change requires global action, the historical responsibility for the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions over the past 250 years lies with the developed countries like Australia. Cheap energy – in the form of oil, coal and gas – has been the engine of our rapid industrialisation and economic growth.

It is also the poorest communities that will face the worst impacts of climate change, and face them sooner than others. Climate Justice Now works to expose the false solutions to the climate emergency such as forest carbon markets, offsetting and agrofuels and pushes for solutions that will work, including:

leaving fossil fuels in the ground and investing instead in appropriate energy-efficiency and safe, clean and community-led renewable energy;
radically reducing wasteful consumption, first and foremost in the developed world, but also by developing world elites;
huge financial transfers from rich to poor countries, based on the repayment of climate debts and subject to democratic control. The costs of adaptation and mitigation should be paid for by redirecting military budgets, innovative taxes and debt cancellation;
rights-based resource conservation that enforces Indigenous land rights and promotes peoples' sovereignty over energy, forests, land and water; and
sustainable family farming and peoples' food sovereignty.

Yarra Climate Action Now has joined this network to show solidarity with those that are already bearing the brunt of climate change impacts, and to increase the pressure on the governments of the developed countries such as Australia, USA, Japan and Canada so they stop delaying and sabotaging a strong international agreement to reduce emissions and avoid runaway climate change.

If you would like to join the network, visit this website.

Time for Plan B

2009-06-14T17:59:00.003+10:00

Condemning the Rudd Government’s response to climate change as ‘dangerously inadequate’, a coalition of environmental groups has put forward a compelling alternative response entitled Plan B: An Agenda for Immediate Climate Action.

Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the Wilderness Society and the state-based conservation councils including Environment Victoria were amongst the key organisations, together representing more than 400,000 Australians, backing the alternative plan.

Plan B puts forward a range of policies and actions that can be taken immediately to halve Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade. These include:

Prioritising saving energy

Cutting energy use in manufacturing, commercial buildings and homes by 30% using available technology, with an average payback time of four years
Minimum 7-star rating for new homes and 5-star for commercial buildings, schools, hospitals and warehouses

Fast-tracking the switch to a renewable energy economy

Doubling the Renewable Energy Target to 90,000 GWh by 2020
A moratorium on new coal-fired power stations

Driving the shift to low emissions vehicles and sustainable cities

Adopting an emissions intensity target for new cars of 130grams per km by 2012 and investing in electric vehicles and public transport

Protecting our forests and woodlands as a carbon store and making agriculture part of the solution

Ending logging of old growth forests and major land clearing of mature and regrowth forests, woodlands and grasslands by 2011
Incentives for minimising the carbon and energy intensity of farming and agriculture

Growing the green job economy

The creation of nearly a million ‘green jobs’

The environment groups behind Plan B have called on the Rudd Government to abandon the fundamentally flawed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) which rewards big polluters and includes loopholes such as allowing unlimited carbon credits to be bought overseas.

This strong condemnation of the CPRS in its current form is consistent with the message put forward by Yarra Climate Action Now alongside 65 other climate action groups around Australia in a letter sent to Kevin Rudd in May.

The Rudd Government needs to let go of its flawed and irredeemable CPRS – it’s time for Plan B.

National Climate Emergency Rally

2009-06-14T17:42:00.007+10:00

Yesterday’s National Climate Emergency Rally saw thousands of Australians take to the streets to demand the Rudd Government recognise climate change for the emergency it is, take the Carbon Pollution Rewards Scheme back to the drawing board, and take much stronger action to create green jobs and a switch to 100% renewable energy by 2020.

Rallies were held in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart and Wollongong.

Damien Lawson’s opinion piece published in The Age today sums up the sentiments of protestors: Stop wasting time and save the planet Mr Rudd

For photos of the event click here, here and here.

The rallies received media attention in Australia and internationally, see:

BBC - Australians demand climate action
Reuters India - Australians demand more action on climate change

ABC Online - Wong defends policy amid climate change protests
The Sydney Morning Herald - Activists call for green jobs
The West Australian - Hundreds rally in Perth for climate action

...and compilation of TV coverage in Sydney

Be there, or be Heather Ridout*!

2009-06-04T16:16:00.009+10:00

6 months to Copenhagen and a crucial vote on the terrible Carbon Pollution Law in the Senate. Now is the time to show you care.

National Climate Emergency Rally
1pm, Saturday June 13, State Library, Melbourne

If you have thought of taking action on climate change, now is the time. Drought, bushfires, floods and rising seas are already hitting hard. It’s an emergency and we need emergency action.

In December 2009, governments of the world will meet in Copenhagen to create a new global climate agreement. Australia must support, not stop, strong global action.

We can tackle the recession and climate change together. Direct investment in renewable energy will create jobs, stimulate the economy and begin to create the carbon-free economy of the future.

100% renewable energy by 2020
Australia must make the shift from fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy from wind, solar and other available technologies.

Green collar jobs not job cuts
We can renew our economy by creating hundreds of thousands of ‘green jobs’ and supporting workers to make a fair and just transition to sustainable industries.

Strong international action with climate justice
Australia must take the lead in global climate talks, not undermine them with an ineffective 5%-25% target. Globally, we must to listen those who are most affected by climate change and least responsible for it.

Don’t pass the Carbon Pollution law
We need climate policies that make the big polluters pay and not allow big companies to go on polluting. The CPRS won’t reduce Australia’s greenhouse pollution.

Protect Australia’s Forests
Logging and clearing vegetation are major contributors to climate change as forests and woodlands are essential carbon stores.

1pm Saturday, June 13, State Library
Only a strong and growing movement for change will make a difference. Come with your friends and family to the Rally. Help promote the rally in your community.

Speakers and entertainment includes:
Peter Marshall - United Firefighters Union, Emeretta Cross -Tuvaluan climate activist, David Spratt - author Climate Code Red, Greens leader Senator Bob Brown, Rod Quantock - Melbourne comedian and Taegen Edwards - Yarra Climate Action Now.
Music by Melting Pot.

Weldon, first published in The Big Issue

* Heather Ridout is the Chief Executive of the Australian Industry Group. She has lobbied successfully against meaningful climate change action by the Rudd Government. She doesn't care how badly climate change will affect the world's people and species, as long as her members keep making massive profits.

We want a real solar feed-in tariff!

2009-06-04T15:51:00.005+10:00

The Brumby State Government continues to support an ineffective solar feed-in tariff, that just won't do the job to encourage the take-up of solar panels across the state. As was reported in The Age this week, the Minister for Coal Industry Profits, Peter Batchelor has said that if the amendments to the tariff put forward by the Greens pass the State Upper House (with support from the opposition parties) then the solar feed-in tariff scheme will be pulled completely.

Yarra Climate Action Now has written to the State Member for Richmond, Richard Wynne, to ask the State Government to support the amendments and pass a scheme that will actually work to encourage clean solar energy. An abridged version of the letter is below. For the full version send us an email or leave a comment on this post.

This is a no-brainer really. We encourage all members of the public to email their local member in support of a gross solar feed-in tariff.

To see our previous posts on this issue with links to further information click here and here, and see Environment Victoria's web site.

Dear Richard,

The reason for this letter is the government’s failure to deliver on its clear election commitment to introduce an effective gross feed-in tariff to stimulate the growth of clean renewable solar electricity in the State of Victoria.

At the last election the Victorian State Labor Government committed itself to the institution of a ‘German style’ gross feed-in tariff to promote privately generated solar electricity. As is well known by now the institution of such a tariff which commits electricity generation and distribution companies to purchase all privately generated solar electricity at a premium rate was the centre-piece of the rapid expansion of photovoltaic solar electricity generation in Germany over the last decade and a half. This imposed small cost increases on conventionally generated electricity but created a great deal of employment in a rapidly expanding industry.

For reasons best known to itself after an acrimonious and difficult debate between proponents and opponents of such a scheme within the State Government, the Government finally adopted a position that committed the relevant industry bodies to purchase back from private generators only solar electricity generated in excess of requirement. In other words they would pay for that electricity that entered the grid and take as a free gift the reduction in overall demand generated by the installation of the equipment in the first place.

The government did this despite advice that such a scheme – known as a net feed in tariff – would do nothing to stimulate change to clean renewable solar electricity. It did this in the full knowledge that such a measure would discourage local investment by overseas producers of solar panels that the government was seeking. The rationale for rejecting a gross feed in tariff for a net feed in tariff was that introduction of the former would cost low income households too much in increased energy bills. This occurred despite credible informed advice to the contrary and the example of Germany where this did not happen. The justification for this action was a set of figures produced at the last minute by Energy Minister Peter Batchelor the source and basis for which are unknown and which Batchelor has consistently refused to discuss with the press, hiding behind spokespeople from his staff.

There is still an opportunity to salvage the solar laws as they pass through Parliament, so that we can develop a thriving solar industry in Victoria. The importance of making the Brumby Government’s solar laws meaningful for industry is now even more critical given the Federal Government’s plan to cut the solar rebate scheme as of 1 July 2009, and replace it with a less effective Solar Credits Scheme – effectively halving the support for small-scale solar installations. In Victoria this scheme must be complementary to any renewable energy target that Victoria has, it is not one or the other, but both. The climate science demands a transition to 100% renewable energy as soon as possible. We need to be taking emergency action now.

If the Government’s proposed solar laws pass through the Parliament in their current form, they will do little to support solar power, the solar industry development, or reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We call on you, as our elected representative in the State Parliament, to work to implement the amendments to the legislation proposed by Environment Victoria, the Alternative Technology Association, the Moreland Energy Foundation and the Electrical Trades Union that are summarized below.

1. Allow business and community organisations to participate in the scheme.
The Brumby Government’s model excludes business, local government and community organisations like churches, from participating. This restriction should be removed to encourage all sectors to invest in renewable energy.

Premier Bracks made clear during the 2006 election campaign that small businesses would be included in the scheme. The Brumby Government must deliver on this election commitment, and also allow for the inclusion of community buildings in the scheme.

2. Increase the system size limit for the 60c per kWh tariff to 10kW.
The Brumby Government’s Bill excludes any solar systems of more than 3.2kW. This will effectively deter households from installing larger systems - a ludicrously perverse incentive for a scheme that is supposed to encourage solar power.

3. Make the 60c per kWh payable on gross, not just net generation.
The Victorian Government has shunned the experience of over 40 nations with feed-in tariffs and has decided to pay the tariff only on the excess generation of solar electricity that is fed back into the grid, rather than on all of the electricity generated.

The Government’s own departmental and independent advice (leaked to The Age earlier this year) stated that the proposed ‘net’ feed-in tariff would do nothing to increase the uptake of solar power in Victoria to 2020. This advice also found that the ‘gross’ feed-in tariff would lead to a seven fold increase in Victoria’s solar uptake to 2020.

4. Ensure that the small-scale renewable energy producers included in the scheme are actually paid for the electricity they generate.
Under the government’s proposed scheme, those eligible for the 60c tariff for feeding electricity into the grid would not actually be paid. The legislation suggests that a customer would receive a credit on their electricity bill if they fed energy into the grid. This amount would roll over to the next bill if it was not used.

However, if this credited amount of electricity was not used within 12 months, or if the customer changed retailer it would simply evaporate. The customer is left with nothing. For an energy efficient household with a 3.0kW system this lost credit could amount up to $600 and would establish a perverse incentive for the householder to consume more energy towards the end of the twelve-month period.

Failure to rectify these flaws in the proposed legislation would make it difficult to escape the conclusion that, despite its election commitments and the positive effects springing from them in terms of employment growth and industrial investment, this government is committed to avoiding meaningful action to promote the growth of clean renewable solar electricity.

Thus far the Brumby Government has a lamentable record on climate change action (as opposed to rhetoric). The voters in the Seat of Richmond are aware of the climate science and want urgent, emergency action to prevent runaway climate change and create green jobs. We hope that you will heed this letter and finally begin to fulfill a clear and unambiguous election commitment to support the growth of the solar electricity industry by introducing an effective gross feed-in tariff.

Yours faithfully,
Yarra Climate Action Now

What will global warming look like? Scientists point to Australia

2009-05-26T21:58:00.007+10:00

The view from the USA - this excellent article, published in the LA Times, gives a fascinating perspective on climate change in Australia, one we don't usually get from within this country.

(Los Angeles Times / Brian Vander Brug)

Reporting from The Murray-Darling Basin, Australia -- Frank Eddy pulled off his dusty boots and slid into a chair, taking his place at the dining room table where most of the critical family issues are hashed out. Spreading hands as dry and cracked as the orchards he tends, the stout man his mates call Tank explained what damage a decade of drought has done.

"Suicide is high. Depression is huge. Families are breaking up. It's devastation," he said, shaking his head. "I've got a neighbor in terrible trouble. Found him in the paddock, sitting in his [truck], crying his eyes out. Grown men -- big, strong grown men. We're holding on by the skin of our teeth. It's desperate times."

A result of climate change?

"You'd have to have your head in the bloody sand to think otherwise," Eddy said.

To read the full report, including a video and pictures, click here.

(Los Angeles Times / Brian Vander Brug)