In Australia, legal action over climate change is on the rise
A class action might be out of the question but climate change litigation, at least against companies, is on the rise.
Australia has so far had the second-highest number of climate cases globally after the United States and the nation’s financial regulators have been warning about an increase of litigation for years now.
On top of that, in 2016 a legal opinion by Noel Hutley QC and Sebastian Hartford-Davis identified climate change as a material financial risk to businesses. As a result, Australian company directors might be legally obliged to consider and report on the risks.
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Climate activists and lawyers itching to sue Australia government, https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2020/01/25/climate-change-class-action/ Cait Kelly
As Australia experiences the worst bushfire season on record there are growing calls for a class action against the federal government for the lacklustre response to climate change. Emboldened by a recent case in the Netherlands where citizens successfully mounted a class action against their government for its failure to act on the climate crisis, there are mounting calls to do the same here. One change.org.au petition to rally support for a class action has received more than 63,000 signatures. “The government has failed to increase its emissions targets,” it reads. “Failed to increase the renewable energy target and failed the people of Australia. “We are now witnessing the effects of the climate emergency first hand, and still the government sits on its hands.” But mounting a class action against the government over the issue is “uncharted territory” and highly complicated, said Australian Lawyers Alliance’s Greg Barns. “There is certainly a strong and compelling moral argument that government inaction, in the face of uncontradicted expert evidence warning about the increased risk of number or, and magnitude of fires, should compel it to pay compensation to those impacted by the fires,” he told The New Daily. One argument thrown around for a class action is the historical precedent taken after Black Saturday fires in which 173 people died. Continue reading |
Climate and the Coalition’s new denialism
Nick Feik, In recent months the federal government’s position on climate change has shifted. Not in policy terms: the change has been restricted to its rhetoric. It has a new strategy to avoid responsibility. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has become adept at evading questions on climate change and its links to bushfires and judging by his satisfied expression as he fronted up for ABC’s 7.30 recently, he remains confident he has a form of words that, like armour, journalists will be unable to penetrate…. (subscribers only – or buy the print version) https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2020/01/25/climate-and-the-coalitions-new-denialism/15798708009296
Australia’s megafires a wake-up call on the climate-nuclear danger
the task of civil society is to organize more strongly in order to increase awareness regarding the link between the climate crisis and the vulnerability of nuclear facilities so that public opinion may begin to be altered and political powers may be pressured to begin an exit from the innately dangerous nuclear path.
What Australia type fire may tell us about the possibility of nuclear disasters, https://www.dianuke.org/what-australia-type-fire-may-tell-us-about-the-possibility-of-nuclear-disasters/ JANUARY 22, 2020 Australia is one of the countries that have experienced extreme weather events, especially in the last decade due to the effect of global warming. According to experts, system interactions triggered global warming, and extinguishing fires has become impossible due to reduced water resources as a result of excessive evaporation and mismanagement of these resources in the last decade in the country. It is estimated that nearly 1.25 billion animal species and at least 27 people have lost their lives, in addition to annihilation of forests and vegetation due to the fires which could not be controlled for almost four months; other species are threatened with extinction and 1800 houses have reportedly burned down.
Unfortunately, the impact of the events is not limited to the period of their occurrence – while four months of carbon emissions, as much as the annual carbon emission amount to the atmosphere, there are scientific studies indicating that there may be an increase in various diseases, especially asthma, especially among children, with the air quality rising to nearly 21 times the dangerous level. Things could have been much worse if the fires had reached the region where uranium mines are located in Australia, which supplies 12% of the uranium fuel used in nuclear power plants operating worldwide; Australia however, has no nuclear power plant of its own. Continue reading
1980 spill of nuclear poisons – a warning note for Kimba area
Potential nuclear spill a cause for concern, Port Lincoln Times, TY BRUUN 22 Jan 2020, I hope individuals from all over the Eyre Peninsula attend the protest rally (Kimba, February 2) to demonstrate the nuclear waste proposal affects more communities than just Kimba.
For those who are on the fence, please consider this realistic scenario.
The scene was attended by police officers. They were exposed to the radiation and became violently ill at the scene.
The following events bring doubt as to whether country SA could ever possess the expertise to deal with a nuclear waste accident, given this could not be sourced in the higher skilled population of Sydney.
The officers’ requested for assistance – it was refused on the grounds that no-one with nuclear waste spillage expertise could be sourced to prevent anyone else suffering radiation exposure.
The two officers and a council worker could only bury the waste beside the highway.
The sick officers tried to have the waste spillage formally acknowledged and cleaned up properly and spoke to the media.
It is truly questionable that, given this incident has still not been resolved despite other road workers becoming ill and construction of a new highway through the burial zone, the federal government will actually adequately resource the country town of Kimba (or anywhere else along the nuclear waste transport route) so that we can deal with this sensibly foreseeable emergency situation with radioactive waste.
I urge you all to consider what it would be like to wish your grown child a good day at work as they head off to deal with a radioactive spillage along Eyre Highway.
Is this really the legacy you will leave your children?
Remember, it has happened before; it is not over emotional or fear mongering to consider such scenarios, it’s rather sensible.https://www.portlincolntimes.com.au/story/6587692/potential-nuclear-spill-a-cause-for-concern/?fbclid=IwAR2NWWHE9A_5Uqog5nrcvC_o_3VukGgmUFcEfaxjiPMJ20r6edQVdcAEIsI
For those who are on the fence, please consider this realistic scenario.
The scene was attended by police officers. They were exposed to the radiation and became violently ill at the scene.
The following events bring doubt as to whether country SA could ever possess the expertise to deal with a nuclear waste accident, given this could not be sourced in the higher skilled population of Sydney.
The officers’ requested for assistance – it was refused on the grounds that no-one with nuclear waste spillage expertise could be sourced to prevent anyone else suffering radiation exposure.
The two officers and a council worker could only bury the waste beside the highway.
The sick officers tried to have the waste spillage formally acknowledged and cleaned up properly and spoke to the media.
It is truly questionable that, given this incident has still not been resolved despite other road workers becoming ill and construction of a new highway through the burial zone, the federal government will actually adequately resource the country town of Kimba (or anywhere else along the nuclear waste transport route) so that we can deal with this sensibly foreseeable emergency situation with radioactive waste.
I urge you all to consider what it would be like to wish your grown child a good day at work as they head off to deal with a radioactive spillage along Eyre Highway.
Is this really the legacy you will leave your children?
Remember, it has happened before; it is not over emotional or fear mongering to consider such scenarios, it’s rather sensible.https://www.portlincolntimes.com.au/story/6587692/potential-nuclear-spill-a-cause-for-concern/?fbclid=IwAR2NWWHE9A_5Uqog5nrcvC_o_3VukGgmUFcEfaxjiPMJ20r6edQVdcAEIsI
Honeymoon uranium mine might restart this year, and pigs might fly
Uranium miner flags restart at Honeymoon within a year if prices jump, others aren’t so sure, ABC BROKEN HILL BY DECLAN GOOCH AND SARA TOMEVSKA 22 Jan 2020, The company behind a proposal to restart uranium mining in north-east South Australia says it would be ready to begin production within a year if prices improve.
But the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has cast doubt on the likelihood of that occurring, arguing the market is moving away from uranium.
Key points:
- Honeymoon is one of only four Australian uranium mines with an export licence but has been mothballed since 2013
- New owner Boss Resources says technology will help it lower operational costs and will reopen the mine once uranium prices improve
- Anti-nuclear campaigners doubt the mine’s prospects, saying significant uranium producers have been deferring or halting development
The Honeymoon uranium mine was mothballed in 2013 because it had become too expensive to run.
But in 2015, the mine, which is about 80 kilometres north-west of Broken Hill, was purchased by WA exploration company Boss Resources.
Boss chief executive Duncan Craib said the company had developed new technology to lower operational costs and had finalised a feasibility study.
He said the mine would reopen once uranium prices improved, which he was expecting to happen soon.
“We don’t want to destroy the resource at low uranium prices, so we’d like an uptick in the market before proceeding,” Mr Craib said.
Honeymoon is one of only four Australian uranium mines with an export licence.
However, Mr Craib said uranium was under-utilised in Australia and he would like to see a domestic uptake of nuclear power…….
Optimism baseless, campaigner says
Anti-nuclear campaigner Dave Sweeney from the ACF said he believed the announcement was without substance.
“There is nothing new in their statement,” he said.
“It’s pretty much a holding-pattern statement from a mining company with not a lot of resources, not a lot of projects, that are trying to continue to hold a place in the market, where the market is increasingly in freefall.
“Obviously, Boss is going to say the uranium price is going to soar — they’re a uranium miner.
“We’ve got major producers in this country … We’ve got a third of the world’s uranium and we’re not digging much, and that is because the price is not there.
Mr Sweeney said significant producers were deferring or halting development.
Rio Tinto, a massive mining company, is exiting at the Ranger mine in Kakadu,” he said.
“Cameco, the world’s largest dedicated uranium producer, has written down an asset that it spent $500 million on a decade ago in WA, and says that the best way to preserve the value of uranium is to keep it in the ground.”…….. https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-22/honeymoon-uranium-mine-production-within-a-year-company-says/11889466
SA Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young slams investment in South Australian uranium mine
Honeymoon isn’t over: SA uranium mine to reopen, The Advertiser, 22 January 2020 A closed uranium mine near Broken Hill will be reopened to seize on a renewed demand, its owner says.
The Honeymoon uranium mine in the state’s east “will be Australia’s next uranium producer” following a $93 million restart, its owner Boss Resources says.
The ASX-listed company says the mine “can be fast-tracked to re-start production in 12 months with low capital intensity to seize an anticipated rally in the uranium market’’…..
The Honeymoon project uses “in-situ recovery”, which involves injecting solvent into wells drilled into the deposit, dissolving the uranium, then recovering it at the surface. …..
SA Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the focus should be on renewables, not nuclear energy.
“South Australia doesn’t need to tether itself anymore to the toxic and dangerous cycle of the nuclear industry,’’ Ms Hanson-Young said
“SA is better than this and we are best placed in the world to reap the renewables and green industry revolution.
“Rather than a big new uranium mine, SA needs investment in our clean green energy industry. We should be working towards SA being a net exporter of renewable energy and technologies. ‘Green’ mining and industries like lithium for batteries, green hydrogen and renewable powered manufacturing will create jobs fit for the climate crisis Australia is in.”
Wilderness Society SA director Peter Owen said they would prefer to see investment in the state’s vast renewable resources such as wind and solar.
Former Prime Minister Turnbull scathing about #MorrisonFromMarketing, on the climate issue
Last year, The New Daily revealed the Prime Minister had embarked on a secret trip to Hawaii while fires were devastating Australian communities.
The former prime minister, who has a new book out this year, also slammed the US President Donald Trump for playing a “very destructive” role in the climate debate.
“Trump makes no bones about it. He says global warming is rubbish,” Mr Turnbull said.
“Trump is trying to put a brake on global action to reduce emissions. The lack of American leadership is extremely damaging.
Mr Turnbull also accused his own predecessor, Tony Abbott, of being the nation’s most prominent climate denier in Australian politics, who was joined by others in a shameful “war against science”.
“It is an extraordinarily irrational and self-destructive approach,” Mr Turnbull said.
“The right [wing] in the Liberal Party essentially operate like terrorists,” he said.
“Now I’m not suggesting that they use guns and bombs or anything like that, but their approach is one of intimidation.
“And they basically say to the rest of the party… if you don’t do what we want, we will blow the show up. Famously one of the coup leaders said to me, ‘you have to give in to the terrorists’.” https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/2020/01/23/malcolm-turnbull-scott-morrison-climate-denial/
Australia May Add Record Amount of Renewable Power in 2020,
Australia May Add Record Amount of Renewable Power in 2020, Bloomberg, By James Thornhill, January 21, 2020
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Corporate demand for clean electricity driving growth: Rystad
- Policy uncertainty seen undermining longer term expansion
Australia is set to add a record amount of renewable power in 2020, driven by growing corporate demand for clean electricity and to fill generation gaps created by the retirement of aging coal-fired plants.
New markets are expected to unlock growth as pilot hydrogen projects start and oil, gas and mining projects invest in off-grid renewables generation, according to Rystad Energy. The positive outlook would be a rebound for Australia’s clean energy developers after a sharp drop in investment in 2019.
“We expect the industry to bounce back in the second half of 2020,” Rystad said in a media release, citing projects with corporate power purchase agreements and the winners of government auction schemes that are scheduled to start construction this year.
Nearly 2 gigawatts of large-scale solar projects and 1.6 gigawatts of wind power are due to complete commissioning in the year ahead, up nearly 40% on 2019 levels. Wind and solar developers are also lining up to replace the Liddell coal plant in New South Wales, which is due to close by April 2023.
Still, developers may face headwinds over the longer term. The industry has already met the government’s 2020 target for renewable generation and there is no new target to replace it. Meanwhile, the profitability of projects located a long way from major demand centers has been hit by marginal loss factors — the amount of power lost along transmission lines.
Losing Momentum
Australia renewables investment fell 38% last year “While the outlook for the commissioning of new projects still looks solid in 2020, there is a risk that activity tails off in the years ahead as the impact of falling investment starts to feed through,” said BloombergNEF analyst Leonard Quong. AT TOP https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-21/australia-may-add-record-amount-of-renewable-power-in-2020
Australia’s Finance Minister Mathias Cormann spruiks for coal and for Trump at Davos summit
Davos 2020: Climate critics are wrong, says Matthias Cormann THE AUSTRALIAN, 22 Jan 2020
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has declared global perceptions of Australia’s climate action are “false” as he defended both the coal industry and US President Donald Trump in front of world leaders at the Davos summit…. (subscribers only)
Bob Katter hails remote spots as safe for nuclear reactors
KATTER HAILS REMOTE SPOTS AS SAFE FOR NUCLEAR REACTORS
A nuclear reactor could be built in north west Queensland because the uranium deposits are there, the terrorists have multiple different ways to carry out mass killings, and barely anyone lives out there, maverick Federal MP Bob Katter has said…. (subscribers only) Townsville Bulletin, 20 Jan 2020
Australia’s billion of animal deaths – conservationists must not give up
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Conservation scientists are grieving after the bushfires – but we must
not give up, The Conversation, January 21, 2020 Stephen Garnett,
Professor of Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods, Charles Darwin
John Woinarski, Professor (conservation biology), Charles Darwin University,
Sarah Legge, Professor, Australian National University
That a billion animals may die as a result of this summer’s fires has horrified the world. For many conservation biologists and managers, however, the unprecedented extent and ferocity of the fires has incinerated much more than koalas and their kin.The scale of the destruction has challenged what is fundamentally an optimistic worldview held by conservationists: that with sufficient time, love and money, every species threatened by Australia’s 250 years of colonial transformation cannot just be saved from extinction, but can flourish once again. The nation’s silent, apocalyptic firescapes have left many conservation biologists grieving – for the animals, the species, their optimism, and for some, lifetimes of diligent work. So many of us are wondering: have lives spent furthering conservation been wasted? Should we give up on conservation work, when destructioncan be wrought on the environment at such unprecedented scales? The answer is, simply, no. Acknowledge the grief Federal government figures released on Monday showed more than half of the area occupied by about 115 threatened species has been affected by fire. Some of these species will now be at significantly greater threat of extinction. They include the long-footed potoroo, Kangaroo Island’s glossy black-cockatoo and the East Lynne midge orchid………. 1.action is an effective therapy for grief. There is plenty to do: assess the extent of damage, find and nurture the unburned fragments, and feed the survivors. The official recovery response has been swift. Victoria, New South Wales and now the Commonwealth have all issued clear statements about what’s happened and how they’re responding. The determination and unity among government agencies, researchers and conservation groups has been remarkable……. |
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Bangladesh and Australia- both vulnerable to climate change – but will that stop the coal lobby?
 Despite climate impact, Bangladesh wants Australian coal to fire 29 new power stations, https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/rba-told-to-mobilise-all-forces-to-save-the-economy-from-climate-change-20200120-p53szi.html Bangladesh has been criticised for its ambitious plans to build 29 new coal-fired power stations, but its high commissioner to Australia believes the new projects could be an opportunity for greater trade between the two nations. 20 Jan 2020 , BY BRETT MASON SBS chief political correspondent Brett Mason reports from Dhaka, Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s high commissioner to Australia has urged the Australian government to consider new trade opportunities with the country, including the potential to supply it with 80 million tonnes of coal over the next five years. SBS News is currently in Bangladesh as part of a parliamentary learning tour organised by Save the Children. Speaking to SBS News ahead of the trip, Mohammad Sufiur Rahman said Bangladesh’s controversial plans to construct 29 new power stations over the next two decades would require a “huge quantum” of coal to power them. “We’ll have to source it from places, either Indonesia, or Australia, or maybe South Africa,” he said. Mr Rahman began spruiking the “enormous” export opportunity to the Australian media last year and doubled down on it in his interview with SBS News. “The quality and calorific value of Australian coal is much better in comparison to other sources,” he said. Climate impactBangladesh has the sixth-highest number of current and proposed coal-powered projects compared to the rest of the world, according to environmental advocacy group Market Forces. But the nation is also particularly vulnerable to climate change, with fears a projected half a metre sea-level rise by 2050 could leave 11 per cent of the country’s landmass underwater and 15 million people displaced. Continue reading |
Australia’s future as a renewable energy superpower
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Australia has a real future as a renewables superpower, https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6587200/australia-has-a-real-future-as-a-renewables-superpower/?cs=14246Tristan Edis, 19 19 Jan 2020, Amid almost daily complaints from industry about skyrocketing electricity costs, out dropped an announcement recently so counter to the dominant news flow that it seemed beyond belief. Yet there it was in the business pages: Australian software billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and iron ore billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest have a plan to supply a fifth of Singapore’s electricity needs – all of it from solar power – via a 3750-kilometre underwater cable from the Northern Territory. The proposed solar farm, near Tennant Creek, would be the world’s biggest by a comfortable margin. It would stretch as far as the eye can see, across an area equal to more than 20,000 soccer fields.Despite Cannon-Brookes’s self-deprecating description of the project as “batshit insane”, it could actually make technical and economic sense. And it’s not the only mega-renewable energy project being pursued by credible Australian companies with the aim of powering the many hundreds of millions of people living to the north of us. Continue reading |
Fire fighter’s anger at Scott Morrison, over climate change
cartoon – Reproduced with permission from Mark David and Independent Australia.
The Firefighter Whose Denunciation of Australia’s Prime Minister Made Him a Folk Hero New Yorker, By Amanda Schaffer, January 18, 2020
Since September, millions of acres of land have burned, thousands of people have lost their homes and businesses, and at least twenty-eight have perished.
Morrison’s history of skepticism toward climate change and the government’s record of inaction have infuriated Australians who understand that record-breaking heat and dryness, symptomatic of a warming planet, are fuelling the crisis. On Sunday, Morrison announced an inquiry into the country’s fire response, nodding to the role of climate change but failing to support policies to decrease fossil-fuel use or promote renewable energy……
“Then the wind changed, so the flames were fully involved across the road, and we had to drive the truck through the fire front to get ourselves out. We were driving to stop the fire from going into the village, and we saw a TV-news team down on one of the access roads. It just was a boiling point for me. I said, ‘Are you from the media? Tell the Prime Minister to go and get fucked, from Nelligen. . . . We really enjoy doing this shit.’
“A couple of weeks earlier, the Prime Minister commented that Rural Fire Service members enjoy going out and fighting fires. He’s just got no understanding of what it’s all about. We don’t enjoy fighting bushfires and saving people’s homes. We do it because we have to. He’s got no understanding of what real people in Australia go through. And he doesn’t care anyway. Any real man would never have left the country while his country was in turmoil…….
“Climate change is also a real thing. It’s not something that can be fixed overnight, and the government’s got to make a stand at some stage. Scott Morrison doesn’t even believe in climate change. I don’t think he even considers that we are going through climate change……. https://www.newyorker.com/news/as-told-to/the-firefighter-whose-denunciation-of-australias-prime-minister-made-him-a-folk-hero
Australia reMade – a primer for our climate action future
ReMAKERS’ MEMO #1, January 2020 An Australia reMADE primer to talking about the bushfires and where to from here *V2, updated 14th 
Jan 2020
…………..Conclusion https://www.australiaremade.org/
We get told that now is not the time, or we have to be ever wealthier first, before we can decide to care for people and planet. We’ve already seen the hollowness of the ‘cost of action’ argument in light of the ‘cost of inaction’ reality. Business as usual is no longer an option. Let’s name what we want, and talk about the transformation required to get there. https://antinuclear.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/578d2-remakersmemo_1_14jan2020.pdf
1 This month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/235274195556
21 April Webinar: No Nuclear Weapons in Australia
Start: 2026-04-21 18:00:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
End: 2026-04-21 19:30:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
Event Type: Virtual
A virtual link will be communicated before the event.
Host Contact Info: australia@icanw.org
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 