The 3 demands at the top of the IPA’s 75-strong wish list for a “better Australia” were the repeal of the carbon price, the abolition of the Department of Climate Change and clean energy funds.
Tony Abbott’s Year of Leading Dangerously, REneweconomy By Giles Parkinson on 8 September 2014 Just over a year ago, after it became clear that Tony Abbott’s Coalition would sweep to a federal election victory, the predominant thought among many in the clean energy and climate policy space was: Well, he won’t be that bad, will he?
Yes, he will, and he has been. As we noted in our pre-election summary on September 6 last year, there was every reason to believe that anAbbott government could be worse than people feared. And not it should be noted, by doing anything Abbott hadn’t already flagged, but by doing exactly what he said he would do.
Several months earlier, RenewEconomy flagged Five ways Abbott could kill renewables in Australia. They were: Kill the carbon price, the Clean Energy Finance Corp and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, make the renewable energy target unworkable, and disband the Climate Change Authority.
He has acted on all five. Here’s how he has progressed.
Can the carbon price. Tick.
Can or dilute the Renewable Energy Target, and make it unworkable. Tick. The Abbott government now has the recommendation it needs, from the controversial Warburton Review, now it just a matter of implementing them. The uncertainty in the industry has brought all large-scale investment to a halt.
Axe the Climate Change Authority. This was one of the government’s first acts. It hasn’t yet succeeded, but the CCA has been gutted by the departure of many key personal. It has been sidelined from the RET Review, and its key findings on climate policies and emissions targets are ignored by the government, and ipso facto by mainstream media.
Can the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. It’s still trying, with a vote to be presented to the Senate later this month. Funding has already been cut, but Abbott wants to cut all future funds and absorb the running of the committed projects back within a government department.
Can the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. It tried, but once again the Senate has stymied its attempts. Still, the CEFC can be directed where to direct its funds, and it is increasingly likely it will be given modified mandates to help out with the discredited Emissions Reduction Fund, the key plank of Direct Action policy.
A lot of what Abbott has sought to achieve in his first year was mandated by the Institute of Public Affairs, the conservative think tank that has become a voice for extreme right views and vested interests. Continue reading
Non profit ASSET OWNERS DISCLOSURE PROJECT scrutinises funds investments and climate change
ASSET OWNERS DISCLOSURE PROJECT
The Asset Owners Disclosure Project is an independent global not-for-profit organisation whose objective is to protect members’ retirement savings from the risks posed by climate change. We aim to do this by helping funds to redress the huge imbalance in their investments between high-carbon assets (50-60% of a portfolio) and low-carbon assets (typically less than 2%) and realigning the investment chain to adopt long-term investment practices. Key elements of the initiative are:
- Conducting an annual survey and assessment of the world’s 1000 largest asset owners pertaining to their management of climate change risks and opportunities.
- Publishing rankings of the world’s 1000 largest asset owners to allow members, stakeholders and industry to see which funds are better than others at managing climate risk.
- Providing and promoting climate change best practice to drive and improve climate change management and capability of asset owners.
- Developing consumer-facing programs to educate asset owner’s members or stakeholders of the financial risks associated with climate change.
- Researching trends in climate risk, member behaviour and institutional investment.
- Creating frameworks to encourage active ownership………..http://aodproject.net/about/about-us.html
Christopher Pyne has opposite view to Abbott, on Renewable Energy Target
Government increasingly divided over plan to scrap renewable energy target Christopher Pyne said to have given full support to RET scheme at a private meeting, amid signs cabinet at odds over issue Oliver Milman theguardian.com, Monday 8 September 2014 The government appears to be edging away from the closure of the renewable energy target (RET) scheme, with the education minister, Christopher Pyne, reportedly giving his full support to the scheme at a private meeting.This comes as pressure mounts on Labor to reach a “compromise” position on the issue. However, Labor appears unlikely to compromise its opposition to any change to the RET.
“The Abbott government shattered any notion of bipartisanship on the RET when it walked away from its election commitment to keep the existing 41,000 gigawatt hours by 2020 target,” said Mark Butler, Labor’s environment spokesman.
Guardian Australia understands that Pyne told a group of solar panel installers that he did not want to see any change to the RET, which requires that 41,000 gigawatt hours of Australia’s energy comes from renewable sources such as solar and wind by 2020.
Cabinet is divided over what to do with the RET, with Tony Abbott understood to favour its closure, while others, such as the environment minister, Greg Hunt, advocating that it be scaled back……
Analysis released by the Clean Energy Council on Monday showed that $15bn in investment would be lost if the RET was cut. The NSW economy would be worst off among the states, according to the analysis, losing $4bn, while Victoria would lose out on nearly $1bn. Queensland leads the way in terms of clean energy employment, with 4,600 jobs in solar power and more than 6,500 across the state’s renewable energy sector. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/08/government-retreats-on-renewable-energy-target-closure
CLAIMS about the potential economic benefits of uranium sales to India are laughable.
Directly or indirectly, Australia will be fuelling a nuclear arms race in South Asia … for a pittance in return.
It is foolish and dangerous to sell uranium to a country that is actively expanding its nuclear weapons arsenal and refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
Opinion: Race to export uranium to India only has a booby prize http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/opinion-race-to-export-uranium-to-india-only-has-a-booby-prize/story-fnihsr9v-1227050580065 JIM GREEN THE COURIER-MAIL SEPTEMBER 08, 2014
- CLAIMS about the potential economic benefits of uranium sales to India are laughable.
Michael Angwin from the Australian Uranium Association claimed that Australia could sell 2500 tonnes of uranium annually to India by 2030, generating export sales of $300 million. A 2011 report in the Fairfax press claimed that uranium sales to India could generate $1.7 billion in annual exports.
Such claims ignore readily available facts.
According to the World Nuclear Association, India’s uranium demand this year will amount to just 913 tonnes – just 1.4 per cent of world demand. If Australia supplies 20 per cent of that demand, uranium export revenue will increase by 3 per cent.
Vanessa Guthrie from Adelaide-based uranium explorer Toro Energy, who is accompanying Prime Minister Tony Abbott on his trip to India, claims that by 2018-19 the uranium industry could generate 10,000 jobs.
But according to the most generous estimate, that of the World Nuclear Association, uranium mining and exploration account for just 1700 jobs in Australia – that’s 0.015 per cent of all jobs. So Guthrie anticipates a sixfold expansion in just five years, at a time when global nuclear power capacity is stagnant?
That’s laughable. Mr Abbott may struggle to keep a straight face as Guthrie dishes up this nonsense in India.
But there’s nothing funny about other aspects of the proposal to sell uranium to India. Continue reading
Australia breaches South Pacific Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty in selling uranium to India
Uranium sale to India breach nuclear treaty http://www.afr.com/p/opinion/uranium_sale_to_india_breach_nuclear_btS3KzxSBE8YNw55mbQAOK Dave Sweeney, 8 Sept 14, When it comes to uranium sales it is a case of let both the buyer and seller beware. Tony Abbott’s plan to sell Australian uranium to nuclear-armed India is irresponsible and risky.India is a nuclear-armed nation that is expanding its nuclear weapons program amid a high-stakes standoff with its neighbour and rival Pakistan. India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and is not subject to full international or independent scrutiny.
Supplying uranium in this context breaches Australia’s obligations under the South Pacific Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty.
Mr Abbott’s plan also ignores the serious and unresolved safety and security problems facing India’s nuclear industry. These were highlighted two years ago when the Indian Auditor-General warned of “a Fukushima or Chernobyl-like disaster if the nuclear safety issue is not addressed”.
Some Labor party heavies likely to join Abbott’s anti renewabl eenergy crusade
The worry for the renewable energy industry is that Labor would be tempted to cut a deal: Its energy spokesman Gary Gray is no fan of renewables and once described himself, Macfarlane and former minister Martin Ferguson, another who wants the RET cut, as three peas in a pod.
Abbott reveals his true colours on renewables By Giles Parkinson, RenewEconomy 7 Sept 14,
If there was ever any doubt about the Abbott government’s antipathy to renewable energy, then a Senate report into the proposed abolition of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency mus surely put it to rest.
It has given a fascinating – and somewhat frightening – insight into the coalition government’s antipathy to renewable energy, and how it has thrown its support behind extreme right ideology against green energy.
The Abbott government keeps insisting that it is ‘pro-renewables’, a facile description it is hanging on to because it has not yet acted on the diabolical recommendations of the Warburton review of the renewable energy target.
But the government’s conclusions on the ARENA Senate committee shows it is anything but supportive. The coalition sided with two of the most committed anti-renewable lobbies in the country – the gas association and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. These were the only two submissions supported that the government’s move to abolish the agency, which will see all future funding stripped and current projects managed absorbed by the department.
The other 129 submissions supported retention of ARENA, Continue reading
Central Australia’s Aboriginal leaders proclaim that their land is not a nuclear waste dump
Our country ‘not a dump’ Centralian Advocate- Alice Springs NT – by Sasha Petrova – 05/09/2014, AUDIO: Injustices to black and white Australians – guinea pigs in Maralinga nuclear bomb tests
AUDIO: Maralinga: Australia’s experience of nuclear testing ABC Radio p.m Mark Colvin reported this story on Friday, September 5, 2014 DAVID MARK: It happened in the 1950s. But the truth about a series of nuclear tests in which Britain let off atomic bombs at Maralinga in the South Australian desert only started to emerge in the ’70s.
Even now, there are still survivors demanding justice. Many are now dead, but there are still fears about the effects of the big doses of radiation they absorbed having on their children and even their grandchildren.
The journalist Frank Walker has written a book about Maralinga and he told Mark Colvin about what Australian servicemen actually experienced at the test site. ………… Continue reading
Pacific nations, including Marshall Islands, call on Australia to adopt a policy on climate change
Marshall Islands calls on Australia to rethink climate change stance Marshall Islands has joined other Pacific nations in calling on Australia to reconsider its position on climate change. ABC News
The issue has dominated a UN conference on small islands developing states (SIDS) in Samoa which wrapped up on Thursday.
The four-day meeting comes ahead of the UN secretary general’s climate summit later this month, aimed at mobilising global action on climate change.
Marshall Islands’ foreign minister Tony de Brum said Australia and other polluting nations like China, India and the United States need to “deal with the problem now”.
“In our countries we have immediate need for urgent action,” he told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat. “And for the biggest emitters to keep pushing us back as if it’s a problem for the future and not a current problem is very frustrating………Mr de Brum urged the Australian Government to reconsider its stance on climate change for the sake of the atoll nations of the Pacific……..http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-04/marshall-islands-calls-on-australia-to-rethink-climate-change-s/5720990
Human activity is causing global warming – just about 100% a certainty
CSIRO almost 100% sure humans causing temperatures to rise http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/csiro-almost-100-sure-humans-causing-temperatures-to-rise-20140904-10c7y4.html September 4, 2014 Peter Hannam Environment Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald What are the chances the world could clock up 353 consecutive months with average temperatures higher than the norm of the 20th century without humans being responsible?
CSIRO’s now-defunct climate adaptation flagship crunched the numbers and found the chances were less than one in 100,000.
In other words, there’s a 99.999 per cent certainty that human activities – from burning fossil fuels to land-clearing – are responsible for the warming conditions.
“Everyone since February 1985 has lived in a warm world,” said Mark Howden, a CSIRO chief research scientist and author of the peer-reviewed report published on Thursday in the Climate Risk Management journal. “In my view, that’s pretty extraordinary.” Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise in most countries. Figures out this week show Australia’s largest contributor – the power sector – had its fastest growth of emissions in the two months since the end of the carbon price in almost eight years.
The researchers’ model included other potential causes of unusual temperatures – solar radiation, volcanic activity, El Nino Southern Oscillation weather patterns in the Pacific – to tease out the human contribution.
The paper said periods of slowing growth or even drops in temperatures had been taken up by climate sceptics to raise doubts about the link between rising concentrations of greenhouse gases and warming.
In fact, the model found “one would expect a far greater number of short periods of falling temperatures (as observed since 1998) if climate change was not occurring”. Continue reading
Uranium deal brings Australia closer to India and Japan, but not China
Bringing India into Australia’s nuclear family, SMH, Mark Kenny 5 Sept 14
“………Energy policy is another great challenge, which brings us back to Abbott’s visit. The tangible – yet officially unconfirmed – mission here is commercial – to sign an inter-country safe-guards agreement removing the last impediments to Australian uranium sales to India. Insiders say it could also to facilitate direct Indian investment in what might otherwise be marginal uranium mines in Australia.
The trade is something John Howard wanted and Julia Gillard got moving on decisively in 2012. And it is a circle the pro-nuclear Abbott is more than happy to square notwithstanding India’s refusal to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
For Abbott and Modi, whose popularity is also tied up in nationalism, the uranium agreement fits a broader narrative. Modi just returned from a five-day visit to Japan for talks with Abbott’s close ally, Shinzo Abe…….
When he nominated Japan as Australia’s best friend in Asia, it was on the basis of its westernised liberal-democratic values – the contradistinction with China was left unsaid.
One imagines the same logic is underpinning the new bilateral relationship Abbott wants to forge with India. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/bringing-india-into-australias-nuclear-family-20140904-10c655.html#ixzz3CZNGY23g
Northern Territory Aboriginal leaders want clear answers on compulsory land acquisition
Northern Land Council Chief Executive Joe Morrison said the Government needed to explain where it stood on the issue.
“Surely if there’s going to be any suggestions about compulsorily acquiring lands gained under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act then they need to make that public,” he said.
Northern Australia report: Aboriginal land compulsory acquisition paragraph withdrawn from NT Government Response, ABC News, By Felicity James , 5 Sept 14, A paragraph calling for powers to compulsorily acquire Aboriginal land was withdrawn from the NT Government’s Response to the Green Paper on Developing Northern Australia, it has emerged.
The Federal Government tabled its recommendations on the Pivot North: Inquiry into the development of Northern Australia in Parliament on Thursday.
The Northern Territory Government Response was released to the media the same day and included a section on land tenure in the NT.
It said: “Given the Australian Government’s primacy in the area of Northern Territory Indigenous land tenure, the Northern Territory Government urges the Australian Government to expedite discussions with the Northern Territory Government and other stakeholders on the following in the interest of the development of northern Australia and its residents, particularly those in remote communities.”
It then had a list of requests for the Federal Government, and the first request called for the capacity to compulsorily acquire land held under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act.
In a version sent to the ABC by a Government media adviser it contained the following paragraph that did not appear in the final document.
“At the very least there needs to be capacity to compulsorily acquire ALRA land for Government/strategic purposes (Territory government including independent agencies and authorities, and local government).”
But the Government says the ABC was sent the wrong version and compulsory acquisition was not mentioned in the final version sent to the Federal Government. “What was written in the paper that you’ve got a copy of, came out of the department. I was the person who removed it before it got to Cabinet,” Chief Minister Adam Giles said today.
“This isn’t a mistake. There’s a draft paper that’s come up from the department. I encourage all employees of Government to think outside the square.”
Mr Giles said the Government does not have a stance on compulsory acquisition.
“We don’t have a position, it’s never come up as requiring a position.”
The Aboriginal Land Rights Act is a piece of federal legislation that establishes collective freehold title for traditional owners, with land councils empowered to act on their behalf.
About 50 per cent of the land, and 85 per cent of the coastline, in the Northern Territory is Aboriginal land.
Chief Minister Adam Giles has previously suggested the legislation should be put under the control of the Northern Territory Government.
Gaining access to land for development is a major theme of the NT Government’s submission.
The submission said development projects on land held under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act have become “too hard”.
“To provide an example of the challenge posed to development under current arrangements, often as many as 70 per cent of outstanding mineral exploration licence applications fall under the ALRA negotiation process,” it said.
NLC: Come clean about intentions
Northern Land Council Chief Executive Joe Morrison said the Government needed to explain where it stood on the issue.
“Surely if there’s going to be any suggestions about compulsorily acquiring lands gained under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act then they need to make that public,” he said.
“They need to articulate what their policy position is and how they intend to go about engaging with the Aboriginal community and particularly traditional owners.
“We’ve got a Government that’s made its intentions clear about the Aboriginal Land Rights Act.
“It’s clear that it sees it and sees the Native Title Act also as an impediment to development.
He said the Giles Government had not made a serious approach to the NLC about dealing with land tenure.
“This underhandedness is not doing anyone any good at a time when there’s enormous disparity between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people and we need to get on with the business.”
Audit of all NT Crown land…….http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-05/hold-nt-government-wants-power-to-take-land/5723336
Rare Earths mining in Central Australia
Note: We mightn’t like mining, and it will be good when eventually product design is such that recycling of rare earths will pretty much eliminate this. Still, rare earths are needed in 21st Century technologies, especially in renewables. At least this company is not involved in the difficult and hazardous rare earths processing. I understand that processing is to be done in China, – where, after their disastrous history, they now do have the most advanced methods
Mining company Arafura Resources says plans to mine rare earth minerals in central Australia remain ‘on track’, despite uncertainty over future funding for the project, ABC Rural News 3 Sept 14, NT Country Hour By Carmen Brown
The company hopes to extract up to 20,000 tonnes of rare earth oxide per year from the Nolan’s Bore deposit, 135 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
A comprehensive project report released this week, indicates mining could begin at the site in 2019, six years later than previously expected. General manager of exploration and business development, Richard Brescianini, says while there has been strong interest in the project from investors, the company is yet to secure full financial backing for the mine……http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-03/rare-earth-mine-on-track-for-central-australia/5715100
Australia’s new ban on uranium to Russia should be permanent
Russia uranium ban should stay: Greens (Oz) http://theinterpretor.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/russia-uranium-ban-should-stay-greens-oz/ Sep 2014 | Scott Ludlam Confirmation that the Australian Government has suspended potential uranium sales to the Russian Federation has been welcomed by the Greens, after questions placed by Adam Bandt MP in the House and Senator Scott Ludlam in the Senate.
“The Australian Greens have argued that uranium sales to the Russian Federation should never have been contemplated in the first place,” Senator Ludlam said.
“President Putin’s implied threat of nuclear escalation last week, saying, “I want to remind you that Russia is one of the leading nuclear powers,” underlies the risks that Australia faces in fuelling the nuclear industry in Russia and elsewhere.
“With heightened tensions resulting from Russia’s military actions in eastern Ukraine, it is entirely appropriate for the Australian Government to prevent Australian uranium from being shipped to the Russian Federation,” said Senator Ludlam.
“The Greens believe we should revert to an outright ban and caution Prime Minister Abbott against opening a new line of atomic instability with India, which has refused to sign up to international legal agreements on non-proliferation and disarmament.”
Tony Abbott’s racist remarks are deliberate, not just blunders
Woolombi Waters says Tony Abbott is at it again but don’t think for a moment these are gaffes The Stringer by Dr Woolombi Waters September 3rd, 2014 A little over a month ago it was reported Tony Abbott as the Prime Minister of Australia made a political gaffe or blunder when he stated “I guess our country owes its existence to a form of foreign investment by the British government in the then unsettled or, um, scarcely settled, Great South Land.”
But this was no blunder. It was intentional and showed the true values and beliefs of this Prime Minister. When he stated he wanted to be seen as Australia’s first Prime Minister for Aboriginal People it was about paternalism and intervention because we obviously are not capable of managing our own destiny.
According to Abbott we need to be told what to do. His personal interest though didn’t appear to last long instead relying on others, Noel Pearson, Nigel Scullion, Warren Mundine and Andrew Forrest to deal with the Aboriginal issues amongst themselves. In doing so Abbott has totally ignored any Aboriginal leaders outside this inner sanctum, including the majority of his own Indigenous Advisory Council.
Then, over the weekend he comes out stating that the arrival of the First Fleet was the “defining moment” in the history of this continent. Then he said it again, “Let me repeat that: it was the defining moment in the history of this continent.” Continue reading
1 This month.
20 September –National Day of Action in Melbourne on the International Day of Peace
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
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PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
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