Antinuclear

The scheme is designed to reduce emissions from electricity, provide financial incentives for new renewable energy projects and ensure at least 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2020.

Curl Curl Solar Business Services director Nigel Morris said there was no sense to getting rid of the target, which among other things, provided a discount for solar installation in homes.

“We know 4.5 million Australians wake up every day and make a cup of coffee in a solar-powered house,” Mr Morris said. “For the government to consider axing the target … makes no sense.”

Solar Energy Industry Association national chair Brian England said Australia could be left behind.  “When the rest of the world increases renewable energy, we’re winding it back.”

Clean Energy Council acting chief executive Kane Thornton said the industry was affected by uncertainty. “People don’t want to invest in solar or wind when they don’t know if it has a future in Australia,” he said.

Solar Citizens campaigns director Claire O’Rourke said removing the target could increase power bills.

Manly Councillor Cathy Griffin said the event was a success.

“This is the biggest protest I’ve seen outside Tony Abbott’s office,” Ms Griffin said. “It shows people are passionate about renewable energy and going totally off fossil fuels.”

At some 30 locations around the nation on Friday, peaceful protesters waved placards and made speeches outside the offices of Coalition MPs and senators.

“Tasmania is a renewable energy paradise,” climate action spokesman Phil Harrington called from the back of a ute outside the Hobart office of Liberal senator Eric Abetz.

The leader of the government in the upper house wasn’t inside his office to hear speeches, which outlined the billions of dollars worth of investment Tasmania is set to reap from renewable energy projects including wind farms.

A similar scene backing the renewable energy target (RET) was on show in Perth outside the office of deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop, where protesters were addressed by state MP for Perth, Alannah MacTiernan.

MacTiernan said it was embarrassing countries all over the world were supporting market mechanisms to combat climate change, but Australia was backing down.

“Where is this concept that we’re out here on our own?” she asked the crowd. “We have lost our price on carbon but we will bring that back.

“But what we still have here is the renewable energy target and we must make sure that we keep this credible target.”…….http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/26/renewable-energy-target-rallies-held-across-australia

OUR VIEW: THE Coast has an abiding interest in the future of the energy industry in Australia.

Our pristine environment depends upon it, after all.

We were once the target of politically mischievous claims that the Coast was on a list of “possible future nuclear power plant sites”.

This week, however, lost in headlines about terrorism, terror laws and our continued reliance on coal this week, Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane ruled out nuclear power plants in Australia, in line with government policy.

We are pleased to hear it.

The issue has bubbled up with the release of the government’s Energy Green Paper, which urges the establishment of a broad mix of energy sources, including nuclear power.

Mr Macfarlane said, how-ever, his focus was on keeping consumer costs down while forging an energy industry that provided investment and development opportunities.

“We are blessed in Australia with a broad set of energy sources, and not only in terms of coal and gas, but also renewable energy, and renewable energy will grow as part of our energy mix,” he said.

“So there is … no need to have a debate in regard to nuclear energy in Australia, but we should focus on the opportunities that nuclear energy presents in other countries and build our uranium industry to take advantage of that.”

That, of course, sets off a different chain-reaction debate.

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane on Tuesday released the paper, an early precursor to the government’s energy policy, to a mixed reception.

The green paper has laid out draft plans to attract more energy investment, loosen market regulations and lower electricity prices.

But it also maintains strong support for the existing coal and gas industries, and has raised the ire of environmental groups for not focussing on renewable energy options.

Mr Macfarlane said the paper aim to “reset” energy policy, coming only two years after a similar process by then-Resources Minister Martin Ferguson.

The report also focuses on building domestic gas supply, but did not advocate a reservation policy, and has reinforced the government’s drive for states to sell off energy assets.

But the Australian Conservation Foundations’ climate change manager Victoria McKenzie-McHarg said it “positions Australia as little more than a quarry”.

She said the paper failed to address two of the “biggest challenges”; growing the renewable energy sector and replacing coal-fired power stations…..

.The green paper is now out for public comment, before submissions will be taken into account for a white paper, which will lead to an official government energy policy. http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/abbott-government-energy-green-paper-environment/2396883/

so far as I know, only Crikey’s Bernard Keane has called George Brandis out on his alarmism.

ISIL knows the power of terror, however. As the Prime Minister puts it, “It is a serious situation when all you need to do to carry out a terrorist attack is to have a knife, an iPhone and a victim”.

But what last week showed us was that, with a bit of help from your enemies, you can terrify a supposedly confident and prosperous nation of twenty-three million people by making one call on an old-fashioned telephone……

Funding for ASIO and ASIS up; the Department of Climate change abolished, and funding for the CSIRO’s scientists cut. More and more laws to stop terrorists; fewer and fewer measures to limit greenhouse gas emissions. And of course, no carbon price.

The threat of terrorism by followers of ISIL, and the threat posed by climate change, are both real.  But only one of them is potentially existential.  If we expect government to keep not just us, but our children and grandchildren safe, this one will let us down. Count on it. http://www.smh.com.au/comment/islamic-state-is-not-an-existential-threat-to-us-20140923-10kolr.html#ixzz3EGrMBW9X

Australia’s People’s Climate March is one of around 2500 rallies taking place around the globe ahead of a United Nations summit on climate change in New York next week….

…Greens leader Christine Milne said Australia must send a strong message to Mr Abbott that the time for a “conversation” was over.

“We won’t stand for it, that’s what we have to convey to Tony Abbott and leaders around the world,” she said. “The reign of fossil fuels is over, what we have to do is end the reign of the fossil fools who keep it going.”……. http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/melbourne-rally-for-climate-change-action-attracts-30000-people-20140921-10jxwl.html#ixzz3E65gcdDR

In a statement released for World Peace Day on Sunday, the former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town said it should be followed by a “national healing process for all Australians”.

Aboriginal elders Djiniyini Gondarra, senior Dhurili clan leader of the Yolngu peoples of north-east Arnhem Land, and Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, a former Anglican nun based in Utopia in Central Australia, wrote to the archbishop this month to express their concerns about the slow movement towards indigenous self-determination.

“I pray for the rights of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia to determine their own destiny,” the archbishop said. “It is a severe indictment on Australia that many of its indigenous peoples still feel that their culture and dignity are being eroded and that they continue to be treated as second-class citizens.

“Community councils have been closed down and management of many aspects of the peoples’ lives has been transferred to non-indigenous institutions. The exclusion of local Aboriginal perspectives from decision-making is directly eroding customs, laws, languages and land-use aspirations.

“The imposition of legislation generally known as the Northern Territory intervention in 2007 virtually stripped them of their voice.”

“The archbishop has been one of my heroes and it is an answer to my prayer that the archbishop has responded and taken it seriously,” Ms Kunoth-Monks said.

“Forty-two years after becoming a signatory to the UN’s International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Australian government policy has still not seriously looked at human rights whereas the first people are concerned.”

Mrs Kunoth-Monks said some form of truth commission should be considered. “I certainly am calling for a national journey for that truth and justice, bringing in the history of all the horrors and the assaults that are continuing under the government’s policies,” she said.

“The wounds are still open and raw.”

“A key (reason) is to create a unifying moment for the nation where the first people of the country become included in our national founding document where they’ve previously been excluded,” she told AAP.

“That’s going to be a moment for all of us as Australians to celebrate together.”

She said legal experts had confirmed that voting yes for constitutional recognition does not pose any legal impediment for those seeking a treaty or sovereignly. But despite the message of unification, the campaign is not promising change after the vote, Ms Hosch said…….

An Expert Panel, which included indigenous and community leaders, constitutional experts and parliamentarians, consulted across Australia and reported to the Prime Minister in January 2012, recommending that Australians should vote in a referendum to:
remove Section 25, which says the states can ban people from voting based on their race

remove section 51(xxvi), which can be used to pass laws that discriminate against people based on their race

insert a new section 51A to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and to preserve the Australian government’s ability to pass laws for the benefit (not detriment) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

insert a new section 116A, banning racial discrimination by government

insert a new section 127A, recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages were this country’s first tongues, while confirming that English is Australia’s national language.(SOURCE: Recognise, www.recognise.org.au)

While the consulting industry thrives on selling so-called expert valuations to justify this rort, Sydney University finance professor David Johnstone says it should end…….

energy companies are valuing old assets such as gas pipelines – things that consumers have already paid for – as if they were brand-spanking new. We, the mug punters, are lumbered with the cost on our power bills.

This is the DORC rort (depreciated optimised replacement cost), its moniker alone sufficient to discourage further inquiry.

Suffice to say that a reasonable thing for regulators to do might simply be to value assets at their cost, or to recognise only what their owners actually spend. Suffice to say that in Singapore and Hong Kong they would not be silly enough to use DORC, yet large corporations from these places are here enjoying riskless 10 per cent returns by stinging we mug Aussies twice for access to old gas pipelines, things that were paid for, and privatised, years ago……

why are assets that are already in private hands given the same favourable regulatory treatment? “I think it comes down to ideology as well as vested interests,” Johnstone says. “Economists fall in love their own models and crave the authority of being scientists.”  http://www.smh.com.au/business/dorc-rort-the-art-of-getting-energy-infrastructure-paid-for-twice-20140919-10jega.html#ixzz3DuqE0nIm

350.org is a global climate organisation that has rapidly expanded to become a leading voice across the world for action on climate change. Blair Palese is the Australian CEO of 350.org, and she has enormous experience in fossil fuel and oceans campaigning. 350.org is one of the primary organisers for the people’s march on 21 September, and Blair has written this guest blog to explain why tens of thousands of Australians will be marching.

This weekend will see be the biggest public climate event in history. More than 100,000 people will march in New York alone and hundreds of thousands of others will join them on the streets of 150 countries around the world, all calling for climate change action.

RT @350: Exactly 1 week to the #PeoplesClimate March worldwide – Will you be there? pic.twitter.com/gjrPZVf9Ud

This weekend also will see the heads of state from more than 125 countries, including Barack Obama and David Cameron gather in New York for a summit on climate change organised by Ban Ki Moon. This is the first time world leaders have come together on the issue since the landmark Copenhagen summit in 2009 and the UN Secretary General hopes the summit will inject new momentum to reach a global deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Paris at the end of 2015.

Amazingly Australia’s our own prime minister, Tony Abbott, will be in New York for the UN Security Council meeting – no doubt to talk about war – but refuses to attend the Climate Summit. Although this may have come as a disappointment for the EU Commissioner for climate action, few in Australia are surprised as this government has already made its priorities and prejudices abundantly clear.

The fact that the Prime Minister of Australia, the world’s second largest exporter of coal, has chosen to shun this summit speaks volumes about why we need the People’s Climate Mobilisation. With global leaders so far failing to act in the world’s best interest to address climate change, it’s time for the global public to not only show that it is demanding change but that we will also act together to bring about the change we need. Continue reading →

Video No compromise on RET Australian Broadcasting Corporation Lateline  Broadcast: 17/09/2014 Reporter: Jake Sturmer

Labor has ruled out any watering down of Australia’s renewable energy target, as was recommended in a recent government commissioned review.

Abbott defends skipping UN climate meeting  HERALD SUN AAP SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 PRIME Minister Tony Abbott says he won’t be joining 125 other world leaders at a United Nations climate change summit because he has important business in parliament.