Pacific leaders have voiced frustration over Australia’s failure to curb its emissions
|
UN secretary-general meets Pacific leaders to discuss ‘global catastrophe’ of climate change ABC
Regional heavyweights had gathered at an historic climate change summit convened with the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres. Mr Guterres is intent on building global momentum for sharper cuts to emissions, arguing that drastic action is necessary to stave off ecological disaster. The Pacific is on the “front line of climate change”, Mr Guterres told the meeting. “It has a unique moral authority to speak out. It’s time for the world to listen.” Senior Australian officials at the meeting could do little else; sent in the place of Prime Minister Scott Morrison only days before the federal election, they were bound to observer status by the caretaker conventions. As a result, Australia did not sign up to the final statement by Pacific leaders, which declared climate change a “global catastrophe” and called for “transformative action” to stop it…… while Pacific leaders have praised New Zealand’s announcement that it wants to go carbon neutral by 2050, many are frustrated that Australia has failed to curb its emissions. One Pacific official told the ABC the meeting’s call for radical action on climate change “really was aimed at the whole globe” but “for those in the room [it] was a message for one country”.
The outspoken Prime Minister of Samoa, Tuilaepa Sailele, went much further, wading straight into Australia’s election campaign during the post-summit press conference……. decision makers in Canberra also know that the Pacific is increasingly impatient about Australia’s long and painful debate on climate policy. The argument will flare up again in only months when regional leaders gather for the Pacific Islands Forum on tiny Tuvalu, which has long been a vocal champion for drastic climate action. And this time, Australia will not be sitting on the sidelines. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-16/guterres-antonio-un-pacific-meeting-climate-change/11115816 |
|
Primatologist Jane Goodall calls on Australia’s leaders to take greater action on climate change
|
ABC By Claire Campbell 15 May 19, World-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall has weighed in to Australia’s federal election campaign, calling on the nation and its leaders to take greater action on climate change.
Key points:
Dr Goodall told ABC News she was seeing the impact of climate change everywhere she travelled around the world and there was no time for complacency. “Any leader, any individual has to realise that climate change isn’t something that might affect their country, it’s actually affecting everywhere around the world,” she said. “A lot of them do nothing because they don’t know what to do, they feel helpless. “Sea levels are rising, people have had to leave their island homes … hurricanes are getting more frequent and disastrous and the same with flooding and drought. We just have to do something about fossil fuel emissions and the methane from breeding cattle.” ……. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-15/jane-goodall-calls-for-more-action-on-climate-change/11116766 |
|
|
Leaders of New Zealand, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Fiji welcome UN chief Antonio Guterres for climate talks (What about Australia?)
|
UN chief Antonio Guterres hits out at climate change ‘paradox’ ahead of historic Pacific trip https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-13/un-chief-antonio-guterres-talks-climate-historic-pacific-trip/11106622
The trip marks the first time a sitting UN secretary-general will meet with Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders in the region. Key points:
“Climate change is running faster than what we are … the last four years have been the hottest registered,” Mr Guterres said yesterday alongside New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern.
Under the Paris Agreement, many countries agreed to a long-term commitment to keep the rise of global temperatures well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in a bid to substantially reduce the effects of climate change. After New Zealand, Mr Guterres will travel to Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Fiji to meet with leaders who have for years been warning that many of the Pacific’s small island nations face being washed away by rising sea levels due to global warming. Mr Guterres added to those sentiments yesterday warning that Pacific nations are on the frontlines of climate change.
“We need to protect the lives of our people and we need to protect our planet.” However, he praised the efforts of Ms Ardern’s Government who just last week, introduced an ambitious bill that aims to make New Zealand mostly carbon neutral by 2050 while giving some leeway to farmers. ‘With America or Australia — Sydney could go down’In Fiji, Mr Guterres will meet with PIF leaders and senior government officials from the region. Samoa’s Prime Minister Tuilepa Sailele, a leading critic against nations who he believes are ignoring the threats of climate change, told the ABC’s Pacific Beat program that he had a message for Mr Guterres. To impress on him the importance of the smallness of our islands, and the quicker moves that our vulnerable islands would like to see from the bigger countries responsible for all these problems that we are facing today,” he said. Mr Sailele, who has previously blasted countries for ignoring the warnings, added that rising sea levels is not just an issue for the Pacific, but for those very same “bigger countries” as well.
His comments follow a controversial withdrawal from the Paris Agreement’s commitments by United States President Donald Trump in 2017, a move that was praised by former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott who last year said that Canberra should do the same. The secretary-general’s Pacific trip comes ahead of an anticipated Climate Action Summit that he plans to convene in September in New York. |
|
|
Protesters scale Sydney Harbour Bridge to declare ‘climate emergency’
SMH 14 May 19, Ten people have been arrested while three protesters remain dangling from the Sydney Harbour Bridge after environmental group Greenpeace called on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to “declare a climate emergency” on Tuesday morning.
The abseiling protesters could be hanging from the bridge all day, with a Greenpeace spokesperson saying they were “fully stocked up” and had enough provisions in their bags to last at least 24 hours.
The three people can be seen holding small banners that read “100% renewables” and “make coal history”.
A NSW Police operation is attempting to remove the protesters who are attached to ropes beneath the bridge….. https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/protesters-scale-sydney-harbour-bridge-to-declare-climate-emergency-2019051
CSIRO unsure on Adani coal project’s water plans, but Minister For Coal, Melissa Price gave it environmental approval anyway
Adani water plan ticked off within hours despite lack of detail, internal CSIRO emails reveal
Key points:
- Internal CSIRO correspondence explicitly shows the agency went out of its way to avoid giving any categorical scientific advice on Adani’s plans
- A letter from the CSIRO to the environmental department noted other concerns were yet to be addressed
- The emails obtained by the ABC also show how rushed the CSIRO was to provide its “formal assent” to the department
Despite the Government saying Australia’s top science agencies “confirmed” Adani’s water plans had “met strict scientific requirements”, the emails show CSIRO was determined not to give a “categoric” response.
The correspondence obtained by the ABC through freedom of information laws exposes further discrepancies between what the Government said about the assessment of Adani’s environmental plans, and what actually occurred.
The newly uncovered emails follow hand-written notes from Geoscience Australia, obtained by the ABC in April, showing Adani refused to accept several of its recommendations, counter to what the Government said at the time.
Two days before the federal election was called, Environment Minister Melissa Price signed off on Adani’s two groundwater management plans,meaning Adani had passed all the tests required by the Federal Government before it could start constructing its proposed Carmichael coal mine.
When announcing the decision, Ms Price said she was simply following the advice of scientists.
“I have accepted the scientific advice,” she said, declaring that CSIRO and Geoscience Australia had provided “assurances that these steps address their recommendations”.
Scott Morrison claims that the Liberal Coalition saved the Great Barrier Reef!!
M’s claim Coalition saved reef from nonexistent ‘endangered list’ condemned as ‘ridiculous’, Guardian, Lisa Cox, Mon 13 May 2019
Scott Morrison says government took reef ‘off the endangered list’ – despite no such list existing. Scott Morrison has credited his government with having “saved” the Great Barrier Reef, a claim rejected as “ridiculous” by scientists, environmental groups and the Queensland government.
At the Liberal party’s campaign launch in Melbourne on Sunday, Morrison thanked the former environment ministers Greg Hunt and Josh Frydenberg for their work on reef issues.
“We have saved the Great Barrier Reef – well done to Greg Hunt particularly on his work when he was environment minister – taking it off the endangered list,” he said.
“We’ve invested record funds in researching and protecting its future thanks to Josh’s time as environment minister.”
Morrison’s statement contained more than one inaccuracy, including the suggestion the reef was on an “endangered list” at all.
“There is such a thing as the ‘in danger list’ for world heritage properties,” the coral reef scientist Prof Terry Hughes said. “The barrier reef was never on that list.
“If Morrison is claiming Hunt got Australia off the ‘in danger’ list, the obvious response is: it never was on it.”
In 2017, Unesco opted not to list the reef as in danger after reviewing the government’s Reef 2050 plan. But it will reassess that decision in 2020 and whichever party wins the federal election must submit an update on progress of the plan at the end of this year.
Hughes said recent surveys of the Great Barrier Reef showed the impact climate change and rising ocean temperatures were having on coral cover.
The Australian Institute of Marine Science – the government’s own agency responsible for monitoring reef health – reported in 2017-18 that trends in coral cover in the north, central and south reef showed steep decline that “has not been observed in the historical record”.
Hughes’s most recent paper found that the production of baby coral on the reef had fallen by 89% after the climate change-induced mass bleaching of 2016 and 2017.
Under the Liberal-National coalition government, Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase, which Hughes said was “an abject failure” for the Great Barrier Reef……… https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/13/scott-morrisons-claim-coalition-saved-great-barrier-reef-condemned-as-ridiculous?CMP=share_btn_fb&fbclid=IwAR0
Yeelirrie uranium approval, Adani coal – Australia needs new and stronger national environment laws
|
Adani, Yeelirrie and mining: Our environmental laws are broken, https://independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/adani-yeelirrie-and-mining-our-environmental-laws-are-broken,12664
By Dave Sweeney | 11 May 2019, The Morrison Government’s quiet approval of a controversial uranium mine in Western Australia the day before the Federal Election was called is evidence that our national environment laws are broken and too often subverted for political purposes.
Environment Minister Melissa Price approved the Yeelirrie uranium mine on April 10, the day before the Prime Minister headed to Government House to call the 2019 Federal Election. Ms Price did not announce the approval via a public release. Instead, two weeks later a notice was placed on the Environment Department’s website, late in the day ahead of the Anzac Day public holiday. Perhaps the view was that when it comes to public awareness of irresponsible sign-offs for radioactive pollution and species extinction, we best forget. Minister Price’s approval came despite a clear commitment that she would not advance any further federal approval until a continuing legal challenge to the earlier state approval for Yeelirrie had been decided. The controversial project, which is in Ms Price’s electorate of Durack, is still being legally challenged on appeal by senior Tjiwarl native title holders and conservationists. Ms Price had previously told media: “My department advised that it was prudent to wait for the result of the WA Supreme Court proceedings before finalising the federal assessment [for Yeelirrie].” The mine had been previously rejected by the WA Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) because it could drive rare subterranean fauna species to extinction and do harm to other wildlife species like the Malleefowl, Princess parrot and Greater bilby. Critics have identified that Yeelirrie could produce more than 35 million tonnes of radioactive mine waste, use up to 10 billion litres of groundwater and require 2500 hectares of vegetation to be cleared for its nine-kilometre long open pit. The lack of respect for the Australian people and due process demonstrated by this clandestine approval under the cover of a national election is a sign of both Government desperation and the fact that environmental protection currently runs a poor second to political imperatives. The WA EPA’s prudent recommendation not to approve Yeelirrie was overruled by the conservative Barnett Government just weeks before it lost the 2017 state election. Now the Morrison Government has performed the same trick, approving Yeelirrie hours before the Federal Election was called, without regard for the Tjiwarl Traditional Owners on whose land the planned mine sits or other stakeholders who might be adversely impacted. The proposal threatens the area which is part of the Seven Sisters Dreaming songline. The word Yeelirrie translates to the word Yullala – which mean to weep or mourn – and Yeelirrie is referred to as a “place of death”. The cultural stories and connections with Yeelirrie are a major factor in the strong and consistent opposition to this project by members of the Tjiwarl Traditional Owners. The community has been dudded doubly over this project with both the State and Federal governments putting politics and corporate interests ahead of science and the national interest. The approval decision followed hard on the heels of Minister Price’s rushed approval of Adani’s plans to guzzle billions of litres of groundwater for its massive coal mine on the eve of the election and was greeted with widespread scepticism and described by Opposition leader Bill Shorten as “shonky”. Environment groups have called the assessment deficient and urged that this rushed rubber stamp be reviewed by any future federal government. The Conservation Council of West Australia has started an online call to Federal Labor: It’s not worth wiping out a species for an unsafe, unwanted and uneconomic uranium mine. Radioactive risks last longer than any politician and deserve real assessment, not backroom fast-tracking. Australia’s environment laws have long been abused and short-changed by politicians cutting deals that put the interests of big companies over nature, traditional owners and local communities. For environmentalists, the lessons from the Yeelirrie and Adani eleventh hour approvals are clear. Australia needs new and stronger national environment laws that protect nature and take politics and undue influence out of approval decisions for major industrial projects. These laws should be overseen by an independent national EPA that is charged with making approval decisions free from the interfering hand of big businesses and their politician mates. Since the Minister’s rubber stamp there have been three further developments. Mining company Cameco has stated it will not immediately develop the project due to “challenging market conditions”. An expert international body has warned of one millionlooming species extinctions. And Minister Price has been missing, just like the species at Yeelirrie will be, should this flawed project ever go ahead. Approving Yeelirrie is a deeply deficient decision that makes neither dollars nor sense. |
|
|
Where do the parties stand on climate and the environment?
|
The climate change election: where do the parties stand on the environment? Guardian, Adam Morton
With the global and local environment at crisis point, Australians have a clear choice at Saturday’s election. Here are the parties’ key policies This has been called the climate change election, and with good reason: concern about the climate and environment has never been greater. A Lowy Institute poll found nearly two out of three adults believe climate change is the most serious threat to Australia’s national interests, an 18-point-increase in five years. It was taken before a landmark UN global assessment defined the extent of the unprecedented biodiversity crisis facing the planet, with a million species at risk of extinction and potentially dire consequences for human society. Australia has a big stake in these issues. It is one of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters on a per-capita basis and in the top 20 for total pollution, with a footprint greater than Britain or France. It is already experiencing the effects of climate change, including increased heatwavesand mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, and is the global leader in mammal extinction. There are clear choices between the parties on these issues at this election. Guardian Australia looks at how the policies of the Coalition, Labor and the Greens line up. EmissionsCarbon pollution in Australia has been rising since the Coalition repealed carbon price laws in 2014. The country is on track to meet its modest Kyoto protocol target – that emissions be 5% lower in 2020 than in 2000 – but not 2030 targets. Coalition Under the Paris climate deal, the Coalition says it will cut emissions to 26% less than they were in 2005 by 2030. It is significantly less than what scientists advising the government say is necessary for Australia to play its part in meeting the goals of the Paris deal (a 45%-63% cut by 2030 compared with 2005). Scott Morrison explained in February how he planned to meet this goal. About eight points of the cut would come from using what are known as Kyoto carry-over credits. Unlike international and domestic carbon credits created through offset projects, Kyoto carry-over credits do not represent an actual reduction in carbon dioxide. They are bonus credits that Australia wants to award itself for beating the low 2020 target it set itself. It would just mean counting the same emissions cut twice. It is unclear if they will be allowed under the Paris deal; almost all other developed countries have said they will not use them. Developing countries do not have the option. Scott Morrison explained in February how he planned to meet this goal. About eight points of the cut would come from using what are known as Kyoto carry-over credits. Unlike international and domestic carbon credits created through offset projects, Kyoto carry-over credits do not represent an actual reduction in carbon dioxide. They are bonus credits that Australia wants to award itself for beating the low 2020 target it set itself. It would just mean counting the same emissions cut twice. It is unclear if they will be allowed under the Paris deal; almost all other developed countries have said they will not use them. Developing countries do not have the option. The Coalition nominates two other significant sources of emissions reduction. One is the direct action emissions reduction fund, now rebadged as the climate solutions fund, under which farmers and businesses bid for cash from taxpayers to cut pollution. The government announced in February it would spend an extra $2bn on it over 10 years, but that was stretched to 15 years in the April budget, including just $189m over the next four. While some projects backed by the fund are widely considered worthwhile, an investigation by Guardian Australia has found questions over its design and uncertainty over what taxpayers were getting for their money. The biggest flaw is in the administration of the other half of the direct action program, known as the safeguard mechanism. It was supposed to put a limit on industrial emissions to ensure they did not just wipe out the cuts taxpayers are buying through the emissions reduction fund, but in practice industrial emitters have mostly been allowed to increase pollution without penalty. The Coalition has criticised Labor for planning to use the safeguard mechanism to do what government frontbencher Greg Hunt designed it to do: reduce emissions. The other major measure on the Coalition’s carbon budget chart (see p8) is “technological improvements”, which have not been explained. An analysis by scientists from Climate Analytics released on Friday found the Coalition’s target was insufficient to deal with the climate challenge and said there was no evidence the government planned to release further policies. Labor Labor has a more ambitious emissions target: a 45% cut by 2030, which Climate Analytics says falls just within what is necessary for Australia to play its part in limiting global warming to 1.5C, and net zero emissions by 2050. Rather than an across-the-board carbon price similar to what it introduced in 2011, it is promising different policies for different parts of the economy. On electricity, it wants to bring in a national energy guarantee, a policy devised and abandoned by the Coalition. Similarly, for heavy industry, it plans to toughen up the government’s safeguard mechanism to set limits and reduce them over time. It is yet to say what the limits would be and the trajectory – how fast they would be cut – but it says both the electricity and industrial sectors will have to meet the 45% target. It wants 50% of new cars to be electric by 2030 and has pledged vehicle emissions standards to limit transport pollution, building on work done under the Coalition but not adopted. It would boost the use of carbon offsets from Australia, allow business to buy an undefined amount from offsets from overseas and has suggested it would limit land clearing. Despite some scary headlines about costs, Labor’s ambition and direction has been praised by policy analysts and scientists. But unanswered questions remain. It has not released a carbon budget explaining how it would hit the 45% target. And it has been accused of hypocrisy for a promise to spend $1.5bn to boost natural gas supply in Queensland and to connect the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo sub-basin to the east coast. Green groups say the emissions that result could dwarf those from Adani’s proposed Carmichael coalmine. Speaking of which: Labor has struggled to articulate a position on the mine. Shorten has expressed personal reservations but not committed to either blocking or supporting it. Greens The Greens want emissions cut by between 63% and 82% by 2030 compared with 2005, and zero emissions by 2040. Their policies include ending fossil fuel subsidies, phasing out fossil fuel mining and electricity generation by 2030, vehicle emissions standards that become a ban on new petrol-fueled cars by 2030 and an economy-wide carbon price to reflect the true cost of pollution. A new public authority, Renew Australia, would lead the transition to low emissions. Climate Analytics says the Greens’ goals sit well within what the scientific literature says would be Australia’s fair share of emissions cuts. Renewable energyCoalition The government does not have a renewable energy policy for beyond 2020……… The government has indicated it would underwrite some new energy projects, having released a shortlist of 12. The list includes one coal upgrade project in New South Wales. Labor Bill Shorten has promised 50% of electricity from renewable sources by 2030. He says he will aim to win support in parliament for the national energy guarantee, which would force energy companies to reduce emissions and meet reliability obligations. If unsuccessful, he would tip $10bn into the government’s green bank, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and create a $5bn fund to modernise the power grid. Other promises include $200m over the next four years for a household battery program, with a goal of 1m homes having batteries by 2025. Greens The Greens want the electricity grid to be 100% renewable energy by 2030. They would extend and boost the renewable energy target and back public investment, feed-in tariffs and regulations for clean generation, storage and energy conservation. Environment protection and threatened species…..Waste and recycling…..Great Barrier Reef….. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/12/the-climate-change-election-where-do-the-parties-stand-on-the-environm
|
|
Climate emergency is here, whatever the election result – Editorial -The Age
Whatever the election result, we must tackle climate emergency https://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/whatever-the-election-result-we-must-tackle-climate-emergency-20190511-p51mcf.html May 11, 2019 Election 2019 is in its final week – and for many people that will be a relief.
Many voters have switched off from politics and been disengaged from the campaigning, which may be one reason why almost 2 million people have already voted.
But beyond the usual photo set-ups and faux outrage during the campaign, an issue of fundamental importance has gained greater prominence across the nation: climate change. It has become one of the fastest-rising issues of concern for Australians, as it has in many countries. Just over a week ago, the British parliament became the first in the world to declare a ‘‘climate emergency’’, and students across the globe have protested about the lack of action from all governments.
In Australia the issue has gained momentum on the back of relentless drought and a North Queensland flood in early February that killed tens of thousands of livestock and wildlife. A lack of coherent and effective policy on managing our waterways has also been blamed for the death of millions of fish in the Darling River near Menindee.
Last week we received another grim warning: a global report on biodiversity said 1 million species around the world face extinction. The 2019 report for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services revealed the pace of destruction was as much as 100 times faster than the natural rate over the past 10 million years.
Few mainstream politicians in Australia deny that climate change is real. So why is there not enough being done about it? The main point of contention centres around the argument that given whatever Australia does in isolation will make negligible difference, why take risks on harming the local economy?
The obvious counter to that is that Australia is and must be a global citizen. We are all in this together and Australia must pull its weight. And we, like the rest of the world, must act now.
This paper has long argued for urgent action to bring down Australia’s emissions and to prepare the economy for a cleaner future.
In his landmark review of the impact of climate change in 2006, economist Sir Nicholas Stern warned governments to make the changes early or pay a much steeper price later. His analysis – updated in 2008 – was that ignoring climate change was many times more expensive than fixing it.
Australia did not heed his advice.
Climate action became nothing more than a political weapon for the Tony Abbott-led Coalition, especially through its attacks on the carbon-abatement scheme introduced by the Gillard government – a scheme that saw the country’s emissions fall.
According to the last report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in October 2018, we have only 12 years to halve emissions – and almost eliminate them by 2050 – to keep the rise in temperature around 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Exceeding 2 degrees could trigger irreversible tipping points.
“There is nothing opaque about this new data,’’ Christiana Figueres, the former UN climate chief said. ‘‘The illustrations of mounting impacts, the fast-approaching and irreversible tipping points are visceral versions of a future that no policy-maker could wish to usher in or be responsible for.”
Whatever the result of this Saturday’s federal poll, our elected politicians would do well to emulate their British counterparts. A united approach to tackling this emergency is needed. The time for shallow partisan politics has long past.
Our future depends on it.
Torres Strait islanders to United Nations – allege Australian government failure to act on climate change
 Torres Strait Islanders take climate change complaint to the United Nations https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/13/torres-strait-islanders-take-climate-change-complaint-to-the-united-nations
Morrison government accused of failing to take action to reduce emissions or pursue adaptation measures A group of Torres Strait Islanders from low-lying islands off the northern coast of Australia will on Monday lodge a complaint with the United NationsHuman Rights Committee against the Australian government, alleging climate inaction.The complaint will assert that the Morrison government has failed to take adequate action to reduce emissions or pursue proper adaptation measures on the islands and, as a consequence, has failed fundamental human rights obligations to Torres Strait Islander people. One of the complainants, sixth-generation Warraber man, Kabay Tamu, said in a statement: “When erosion happens, and the lands get taken away by the seas, it’s like a piece of us that gets taken with it – a piece of our heart, a piece of our body. That’s why it has an effect on us. Not only the islands but us, as people. “We have a sacred site here, which we are connected to spiritually. And disconnecting people from the land, and from the spirits of the land, is devastating. “It’s devastating to even imagine that my grandchildren or my great-grandchildren being forced to leave because of the effects that are out of our hands. “We’re currently seeing the effects of climate change on our islands daily, with rising seas, tidal surges, coastal erosion and inundation of our communities.” The non-profit coordinating the complaint by the Torres Strait Islanders says this will be the first climate change litigation brought against the Australian government based on a human rights complaint, and also the first legal action worldwide brought by inhabitants of low-lying islands against a nation state. Lawyers with environmental law non-profit ClientEarth, are representing the islanders, with support from British-based barristers. The UN Human Rights Committee is a body of 18 legal experts that sits in Geneva. The committee monitors compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The complainants are alleging that Australia has violated article 27, the right to culture; article 17, the right to be free from arbitrary interference with privacy, family and home; and article 6, the right to life. According to briefing material supplied by ClientEarth, the complaint alleges these rights have been violated both by Australia’s insufficient greenhouse gas mitigation targets and plans, and by its failure to fund adequate coastal defence and resilience measures on the islands, such as seawalls. Lawyers for the islanders allege that the catastrophic nature of the predicted future impacts of climate change on the Torres Strait Islands, including the total submergence of ancestral homelands, is a sufficiently severe impact as to constitute a violation of the rights to culture, family and life. The islanders want the government to commit at least $20m for emergency measures such as seawalls, as requested by local authorities, and sustained investment in long-term adaptation measures to ensure the islands can continue to be inhabited. They want a commitment to reduce emissions by at least 65% below 2005 levels by 2030 and going net zero before 2050 and a phase out of thermal coal, both for domestic electricity generation and export markets. ClientEarth’s lead lawyer for the case, Sophie Marjanac, said in a statement: “Climate change is fundamentally a human rights issue. The predicted impacts of climate change in the Torres Strait, including the inundation of ancestral homelands, would be catastrophic for its people. “Australia’s continued failure to build infrastructure to protect the islands, and to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, constitutes a clear violation of the islanders’ rights to culture, family and life.” The impact of climate change has been a significant touchstone in the 2019 election. A recent poll from a respected foreign policy thinktank, the Lowy Institute, has found a majority of Australians believe global warming is a critical threat. The 2019 result is the first time climate has topped the list of threats since Lowy began the research in 2006. |
|
Melissa Price – the Environment Minster you get from an anti environment government
|
‘Missing in action’: hunt goes on for Coalition’s invisible environment minister, Guardian, Lisa Cox, Sat 11 May 2019
It’s supposed to be the climate change election, and the UN says the planet’s ecosystem is under existential threat. But Melissa Price is nowhere to be seen, ours after the release of a UN report on the dire state of the planet’s ecosystems, the environment minister, Melissa Price, posted a photo of herself on Facebook at the opening of a miniature railway in her electorate.It wasn’t until more than 12 hours after the Facebook post that the West Australian MP issued a statement responding to the analysis by 450 scientists and diplomats that warned the decline of the natural world was accelerating, and a million species were at risk of extinction. There was no interview. The written statement referenced Coalitionprograms, including a $100m fund announced in the federal budget, aimed at tackling biodiversity loss. It was the most that had been heard of Price so far in the election campaign. It’s one thing to not want the environment portfolio,” Labor’s environment spokesman, Tony Burke, said. “It’s another thing to refuse to do the job.” Since she took over the environment portfolio last year, the most conspicuous thing about Price’s performance has been her low profile. In February, she defended herself against criticism from environment groups calling her the “invisible minister”. At the beginning of this month, she was not by prime minister Scott Morrison’s side for the launch of the Coalition’s environment platform for the election. The executive producer of the ABC’s 7.30 program, Justin Stevens, tweeted this week that Price had turned down 11 requests for an interview since becoming minister. In an election where climate change and the environment have been identified as dominant concerns for voters, Price’s opponents are dismayed the Coalition would hide the person with ministerial responsibility for environmental protection from view. Both Burke and Labor’s climate spokesman, Mark Butler, have written to Price requesting a debate similar to those that have been held for the health and Treasury portfolios. They said they had received no response. “In an election when it’s clear that climate change is right at the top of issues of importance for voters, it is extraordinary that the minister has been absent from the whole campaign,” Butler said. “Melissa Price has been missing in action this election campaign, and since she took the job in August,” she said in a statement this week. “When she has surfaced it has been to insult world leaders fighting for climate action, or to approve the Adani coalmine and a mega uranium mine in WA.” Immediately before the election was called, Price signed off on Adani’s groundwater management plan for its Carmichael coal mine, despite the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia raising concerns about groundwater drawdown and the monitoring approaches proposed by the company. A day before the government entered caretaker mode, Price approved a massive uranium mine in Western Australia. Both the federal and WA governments have been warned it could lead to the extinction of native species. Burke says Price’s absence from the campaign and refusal to participate in interviews has denied voters the opportunity to scrutinise those decisions. “It’s completely reasonable for the public to expect an explanation,” he said. Since the release of the UN report, Morrison has been forced to defend the minister…… https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/11/missing-in-action-hunt-goes-on-for-coalitions-invisible-environment-minister |
|
Adani project faces another hurdle – another groundwater review
Adani’s controversial Carmichael coal mine project is facing another hurdle, with the Queensland government seeking a further review of their groundwater plans.
Adani Mining’s chief executive Lucas Dow said the new request came from the Department of Environment and Science last Friday.
“It appears this process will again go beyond the scope of what our project is required to deliver under regulatory conditions – and, put simply, is another fishing expedition,” he said in a statement.
Federal Environment Minister Melissa Price signed off the company’s groundwater plans just before the start of the election campaign. ….
The new review means Adani can’t start construction on the mine which has been stuck in the courts and approval process for almost a decade.
The mine, to be developed in central Queensland’s Galilee Basin, has been a political football, with the country divided on the value of the $2 billion project.
It has dogged the federal election campaign and the coalition believes the Queensland Labor government is putting up road blocks to win over Green preferences in inner-city seats.
This is the second road block for the mine in less than two weeks, with the government recently rejecting Adani’s plans for managing the endangered Black-Throated Finch on the site………..https://www.sbs.com.au/news/adani-project-faces-another-hurdle
Duplicity of the Australian government on nuclear waste dump (“Temporary” means “Indefinite”
Susan Craig Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA, 10 May 19,
I wonder how they will feel if one of their children/grandchildren become contaminated in the future due to lack of duty of care to their constituents that voted them in. This reads a lack of care, lack of understanding of the gravity of the situation and a lack of understanding of the time frame.
Kazzi Jai
Oh, they will continue to promise “the world” if they can manage to SHAFT the NUCLEAR WASTE ONTO SOUTH AUSTRALIA, SO IT BECOMES SOLELY SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S PROBLEM!!
NO MEANS NO!
Lucas Heights is the First to say Not in My Backyard…and they generate over 90% of the non-mining nuclear waste!
They generate it – their problem – particularly after THEY decided to build OPAL – which we did not really need as we had already shown we could access imported isotopes when the reactor was down for months at a time, and our usage has not increased since that time, but in fact decreased!
According to Adi Paterson at Budget Estimates 2017, Australian hospitals use 28% medical isotopes and rest – 72% – are exported overseas (2017 figures).
And they now intend ramping up production from 550,000 doses per annum to 10 million doses per annum – to become one of the leaders in export of medical isotopes!!
Leave the waste there on site at Lucas Heights – they have ample space to accomodate it – they are licenced for many decades yet to hold it – it is safe there, monitored professionally there, and it is secure there. That is the way the world is now heading with nuclear waste – storing it close to the site it is generated – until a solution can be found for dealing with it properly once and for all, which does not involve burying it and effectively abandoning it – which means it remains a liability for future generations to deal with!
Noel Wauchope A glaring example of the duplicity which pervades this entire nuclear lobby push . It is surely aimed at making South Australia a “nuclear hub” for the world. This whole crooked enterprise will make a few individuals rich and famous, while ensuring South Australia a prominent place in radioactively poisoning the planet. more https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
Federal election 2019: Ex-Liberal leader John Hewson endorses South Australian Senator Sarah Hanson-Young
Federal election 2019: Ex-Liberal leader John Hewson endorses SA …
At last – HENRY COX, a Senate Candidate with the guts to fight the nuclear waste dump plan !
1 This month
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
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
19 May – Webinar- Webinar: No Nuclear Weapons in Australia
Start: 2026-05-19 18:00:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
End: 2026-05-19 19:30:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
20 May – Webinar – The dangerous world of AUKUS, US, military occupation and suppression of dissent
National Webinar, 20th May, 2026, 6.30pm AEST. Confronting laws restricting/suppressing protest speech and action
Speakers: Former Sen. Rex Patrick, Lawyer Nick Hanna ,Arthur Rorris ,Jorgen Doyle, Sen David Shoebbridge,
Facilitator Kelley Tranter.
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 