Abbott govt cutback to Renewable Energy Target will cost 1000s of jobs
RET cut a step backwards, says Solar Citizens http://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/news/ret-cut-a-step-backwards-says-solar-citizens/2632812/ 8 May 15 THE announcement today of an in-principle agreement to drastically cut the Renewable Energy Target to 33,000 gigawatt hours will cost thousands of jobs, millions in investment and lock in more expensive power for all Australian consumers, according to Solar Citizens.The decision to slash the Target will take Australia backwards and increase pressure on already stretched family budgets, said National Director Claire O’Rourke.”This massive scale back of the RET could mean up to a $45 billion revenue windfall to the big power companies over the next 15 years and now it looks likely that households will continue to pay more,” she said.
“The vested interests of the power companies have received special treatment from the Abbott Government at the expense of ordinary Australians who want more solar and renewable energy, not less.
“Recent polling from The Australia Institute shows 75% of Australians support an increase in the Renewable Energy Target, not a decrease. The cut to the RET will cost 8,000 jobs and be particularly devastating for solar companies looking at installing big solar projects.
“The Coalition’s proposal to include burning wood waste in the Target, which is the remaining sticking point for the deal, would be yet another horrendous step backwards.
“Renewable energy is recognised globally for the jobs, opportunities and savings on power bills that it can deliver. More than 1.3 million households – that’s at least 2 million voters – have already installed rooftop solar power and are now benefiting from lower power bills.”Yet the decision today will take Australian renewable energy generation backwards.
“They have pledged to support a national goal of at least 50% solar and renewable electricity generation by 2030, an end to unfair fees for solar owners and to help all Australians with the rising cost of electricity bills,” Ms O’Rourke said.
Abbott govt’s new Renewable Energy Target deal freezes investment
Renewable Energy Target: Clean energy sector angry yearly reviews remain following deal http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-08/clean-energy-sector-angry-at-government-change-on-ret/6457070 By political reporter Dan Conifer The clean energy sector is opposing a key part of the Renewable Energy Target (RET) deal struck between the major parties.
The Federal Government and Labor have agreed in-principle to a 33,000 gigawatt hour target for clean energy production by 2020.
But the Government has backflipped at the last minute on a promise to ditch two yearly reviews.
While pleased a deal appears close, companies say the reviews by the climate change authority freeze investment.
“This is an issue we thought had been resolved now by both parties for the last 18 months,” Andrew Richards from wind farm operator Pacific Hydro said.
“We thought they had understood that constant reviews is not good for investor confidence. “We’d like to see it removed. We hope that saner people prevail eventually and they will remove it and will allow us to go on and invest with some level of confidence.”
Wind tower manufacturer Keppel Prince said while it was glad a 33,000 GWh deal has been reached, the reviews needed to stop.
“It just has that air of uncertainty and the industry just locks up any sort of spending for probably a good six to eight months beforehand,” Mr Garner said.
“Every two years we seem to run out of work because the investment just stops.”
The next review is scheduled for 2016 and would follow two reviews last year, including the specially-commissioned Warburton Review that recommended slashing the target.
In a joint statement last month, the environment and industry ministers said: “We will also remove the requirement for regular two-yearly reviews of the RET to give the industry the certainty it needs to move ahead.”
Industry minister Ian Macfarlane now says Cabinet insisted the reviews remain, and Labor did not oppose the plan in talks on Friday.
But Labor’s environment spokesman Mark Butler said the ALP was unlikely to support continued reviews.
“I want to have discussions with the industry about the two year reviews, but our position has been clear on that for almost two years now: we think we need to move away from regular reviews,” Mr Butler said.
CHRISTIANA FIGUERES answers Maurice Newman’s attack on United Nations
CHRISTIANA FIGUERES:...” he is certainly not in the majority, not only the majority of scientists, but the majority of citizens around the world, the majority of leaders around the world, are quite clear about the effects that we are actually playing with here and the risks that we have to manage ahead of us.”
UN climate chief responds to tirade from PM’s adviser Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Lateline Broadcast: 08/05/2015 Reporter: Emma Alberici
UN climate negotiator Christiana Figueres says she is willing to meet business leader Maurice Newman in the wake of his extraordinary attack against on UN climate policy – and warns that it would be dangerous for Australia not to act on climate change.
Transcript……………
Christiana Figueres joins us now from our studio in Canberra……………
40 year fight for land claim- win for Yanyuwa people, in Gulf of Carpentaria
Aboriginal land claim success in Gulf of Carpentaria after 40-year battle, Guardian, Helen Davidson in Darwin, 6 May 15 Deed of grant handed to the Yanyuwa people, covering four islands and Batten Point, at Jawuma near Borroloola, correcting omission in first land grant After a near 40-year fight, the final 200 hectares of a contentious Aboriginal land claim has been handed back to traditional owners in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
On Tuesday the Indigenous affairs minister, Nigel Scullion, delivered a deed of grant to the Yanyuwa people, covering four small islands and Batten Point, at Jawuma near Borroloola.
The land rights claim – Australia’s first – was initially lodged in 1977, rejected and then reclaimed in 1992. However, when the title was finally handed over in 2006 a portion was “inadvertently omitted”.
“The land around Jawuma is of great cultural and historical significance for the Yanyuwa people of the area and I am pleased the title is now back with its rightful owners,” Scullion said.
“The handover of the land title will mean that local Yanyuwa families will once again be in a position to choose how the land is used. I applaud the Yanyuwa people for the journey they have undertaken to have their land and their culture recognised.”
A Yanyuwa woman and SBS journalist, Malarndirri McCarthy, told Guardian Australia that Wednesday’s ceremony was “incredibly significant for the conclusion of a very, very long journey for the Yanyuwa people and the surrounding clan groups”.
The 38-year battle had “really paralysed the progress of the region in terms of empowering the traditional owners”.
McCarthy, also a former Northern Territory minister, was among those who gave evidence to the land commissioner in 1992 at the second attempt to reclaim the land. The 1977 hearing had been held in the old Borroloola police station, which caused anxiety for those giving evidence……………http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/may/06/aboriginal-land-claim-success-in-gulf-of-carpentaria-after-40-year-battle
This decade is crucial for the future of human society
THIS DECADE WILL DECIDE WHAT THE WORLD LOOKS LIKE FOR THOUSANDS OF DECADES TO COME. #AUSPOL, JPratt27 , 9 May 15
It could. if we set our minds to it, be the decade when the planet’s use of fossil fuels peaks and then rapidly declines. We’ve built a movement that, for the moment, is starting to tie down the fossil fuel industry: from the tarsands of Alberta to the (as yet unbuilt) giant new mines of Australia’s Galilee Basin, the big players in coal, gas, and oil are bothered and even bewildered by a new strain of activist. They’re losing on the image front: when the Rockefeller family, the Church of England, and Prince Charles have begun divesting their fossil fuel stocks, you know the tide has turned.
And with it comes the sudden chance to replace that fossil fuel, fast and relatively easily. Out of nowhere the price of solar panels has fallen like an anvil from a skyscraper, dropping 75 percent in the last six years. Renewable energy is suddenly as cheap or cheaper than the bad stuff, even before you figure in the insane monetary cost of global warming. So in Bangladesh they’re solarizing 60,000 huts a month; the whole country may be panelled by 2020.
“The next 10 years will be decisive when it comes to the planet’s future — what we do (or don’t) will play out over geologic time.”
That rapid change wouldn’t be enough to stop global warming — we’re already seeing drastic changes, as anyone living through California’s drought can attest. We’ll continue to see record-breaking years (like 2014. And like 2015 so far). We’ll have to deal with record flooding. The ocean will grow more acidic. But maybe, if we really ratchet up the transition we’ll avoid a challenge of civilization-scale……..http://linkis.com/wordpress.com/tknNA
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 