Nuclear waste dump would ‘dispossess’ Indigenous landowners in NT Australian Associated Press theguardian.com, Wednesday 11 June 2014 Researcher says commonwealth’s offer of financial help should not be conditional on outcome of court case over proposed site The commonwealth government is dispossessing Indigenous people by seeking to place a radioactive waste storage facility on their land, a researcher says.
The federal court is sitting in Tennant Creek this week to hear from traditional landowners, who say they were not consulted when the Northern Land Council (NLC) and the commonwealth decided to put forward the site for consideration in 2007.
Four clans from the Muckaty area, 120km north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, say they were cut out of the process in favour of the Lauder family of the Ngapa clan.
The family were paid $200,000 and promised a further financial package of $12 million to pay for a road, educational scholarships and other initiatives benefiting all indigenous groups on Muckaty Station.
Paddy Gibson, a researcher with the Jumbunna House of Learning at the University of Technology Sydney, said the money should be released to the traditional owners regardless of the outcome of the case.
“It’s not money going into people’s back pockets as cash, it’s money they’re saying is going to be spent on basic services,” he told reporters in Tennant Creek on Tuesday.
“It’s an absolute disgrace that Aboriginal people in this region, who are some of the most impoverished people in the country, are being told they’re not going to be able to access basic services if not for establishing a nuclear waste dump.”……
“Our ancestors passed it to our elders and our elders passed it to us and we want to pass it to our young ones,” said Ronald Morrison of the Milwayi. “The dump would destroy our land and bush tucker for our living and for our next generation. We want to keep it clean for all of us.”…….http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/11/nuclear-waste-dump-would-dispossess-indigenous-landowners
June 11, 2014
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aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, legal, Northern Territory |
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Nuclear waste will poison land: elder https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/24214130/nuclear-waste-will-poison-land-elder/
NEDA VANOVAC June 11, 2014, The spirit people of Muckaty don’t want “poison” stored on their land in the form of a nuclear waste dump, the Federal Court has heard. The court is sitting in Tennant Creek this week to hear evidence from four clans who are against the radioactive waste storage facility being placed on their land, 120km north of the Northern Territory town.
The clans say their will was overruled by a fifth clan which worked with the Northern Land Council (NLC) and the Commonwealth government to approve it.
Milwayi woman Pamela Brown originally agreed to the radioactive waste storage proposal, thinking it would be a rubbish dump that would hold predominantly medical waste. “They said they would put gloves and gowns there from the hospital, that it’s not poisonous,” she told the court on Wednesday.
But her younger sister who was living in Adelaide reminded her of the long-term health effects experienced by Aboriginal people living at Maralinga, near Woomera in South Australia, in the aftermath of the British nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s and 60s. Ms Brown said she was also concerned by the explosion at Chernobyl.
“I don’t want any poison on our country,” she said. “I want my country for the future generations so I can teach them and they can get out there. “If the dump goes ahead, there will be destruction (of the land),” she said. “The spirit is alive. The spirit people don’t want any rubbish put on their country.”
Muckaty Station covers 221,000ha and seven Aboriginal groups claim land within it.
One of the key issues of the case is determining who owns the roughly two square kilometres which would house the dump: the Lauder family of the Ngapa clan have been acknowledged as traditional owners by the NLC, but the Milwayi people say the land is theirs.
Ms Brown told the court that maps used for the successful land rights claim of 1993 showed the Milwayi were traditional owners of the site, but said the maps had since been redrawn.
“All these names got juggled up by the new map the NLC did … they moved the sites around,” she said. “They changed the whole map.”
But the NLC says there was no claim that the land belonged to the Milwayi when the site was first proposed in 2006.
The hearings continue.
June 11, 2014
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aboriginal issues, legal, Northern Territory |
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CEC: Renewable Energy Target not power price villain: Queensland Competition Authority http://ecogeneration.com.au/news/cec_renewable_energy_target_not_power_price_villain_queensland_competition_/087591/ Tue, 10 June 2014
The Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) confirmed on Friday what the clean energy industry has been saying for years – that the Renewable Energy Target is not a major factor in rising power prices.
Clean Energy Council media release 2 June 2014
Clean Energy Council Policy Director Russell Marsh said the latest price determination from the QCA showed that in 2014-2015 the cost of the Renewable Energy Target to Queensland households will fall, while all other parts of the average electricity bill will rise.
“In particular, power bills are set to jump due to the increasing cost of gas and the costs of the poles and wires in the electricity network,” Mr Marsh said.
“The Renewable Energy Target makes up less than 3 per cent of the average power bill, supports thousands of jobs and is an insurance policy against the future cost of gas power, which some analysts predict may be the defining energy challenge of this decade.” The Renewable Energy Target is designed to ensure at least 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity comes from renewable energy such as wind, hydro, solar and bioenergy like sugar cane waste by 2020 – at the lowest cost. The policy is currently under review, leading to uncertainty which has frozen investment in the sector until it has been completed.
Mr Marsh said the cost to consumers was a major part of the current review process, and four studies this year had shown that power prices would actually increase slightly if the Renewable Energy Target was removed.
“Removing the Renewable Energy Target would mean that we need to source more power from increasingly expensive gas, driving up costs for energy users such as mums and dads and manufacturers. We have already seen the start of this in Queensland with the latest price determination from the QCA.
“The Australian Industry Group, which represents some 60,000 businesses including many manufacturers, has also recognised that there would be no benefit to consumers if the Renewable Energy Target was reduced.”
June 11, 2014
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Indigenous elder speaks out at NT nuclear waste dump trial, Guardian, 10 June 14 Bunny Nabarula threatens to ‘block the road and let the truck run us over’ if a waste dump is approved on her traditional land A central Australian Indigenous elder has threatened to throw herself in front of a road train if a proposed radioactive waste management facility is approved to be built on her ancestral lands.
The federal court held a special sitting at the Muckaty community on Monday, 120km north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, to hear the evidence of Milwayi traditional owner Bunny Nabarula, about 84.
Members of the Lauder family of the Ngapa clan laid false claim to the land when they along with the Northern Land Council (NLC) nominated the site for a national nuclear waste storage facility, say members of four other clans who are against it.
In 2007 the NLC nominated the site to the commonwealth and agreed on a package of $9m to be held in a charitable trust, $2m for a road on Indigenous land and $1m for scholarships over five years. A $200,000 payment was made to a narrow group of Indigenous families, which Nabarula dismissed as dirty money.
She told the court her Milwayi people had principal claim to the land, and that the Ngapa dreaming just passed through it……..http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/09/indigenous-elder-speaks-out-nuclear-waste-dump-trial
June 10, 2014
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aboriginal issues, legal, Northern Territory |
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Tony Abbott seeks alliance to thwart President Obama on climate change policy Mark Kenny, The Age June 10, 2014 Tony Abbott is seeking a conservative alliance among “like-minded” countries, aiming to dismantle global moves to introduce carbon pricing, and undermine a push by US President Barack Obama to push the case for action through forums such as the G20.
Visiting Ottawa for a full day of talks with the conservative Canadian Prime Minister and close friend Stephen Harper, Mr Abbott flagged intentions to build a new centre-right alliance led by Canada, Britain and Australia along with India and New Zealand………
The combined front would attempt to counter recent moves by the Obama administration to lift the pace of climate change abatement via policies such as a carbon tax or state-based emissions trading……..
The uncompromising attitude of both leaders suggests neither is inclined to yield to pressure from the US to revive the issue of climate change ahead of next years’ climate summit, nor back any international coordination such as additional regulations or a trading scheme…….
US officials have also been pushing Australia – so far unsuccessfully – to include climate change on the agenda for November’s G20 meeting in Brisbane.
……..Opposition Leader Bill Shorten took aim at the Prime Minister’s ”flat-Earth views”, accusing him of being out of touch with Australians and world leaders such as Mr Obama. He told Fairfax Media that climate change was ”not just an environmental issue, it is a security issue and it is absolutely an economic issue”.
But Mr Shorten said that Mr Obama, along with other world leaders, had clearly recognised that clean air, low pollution and new technologies would be good for the global economy and job creation. He said Mr Abbott ”shouldn’t shirk the issue when he meets President Obama later this week, and he shouldn’t shirk the issue at the G20 later this year”.
While mooted as a potential member of Mr Abbott’s new coalition, British Prime Minister David Cameron has been vocal about the need to tackle climate change, describing it in February as ”one of the most serious threats that the world faces”. Britain, through membership of the European Union, and New Zealand both have emissions trading schemes in place.: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-seeks-alliance-to-thwart-president-obama-on-climate-change-policy-20140609-39t93.html#ixzz34Ih3hcqc
June 10, 2014
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Tony Abbott missing signs of world’s switch to carbon trading, experts say, Tom Arup, Environment editor, The Age June 10, 2014 The world’s two largest economies – China and the US – are increasingly adopting carbon trading to cut greenhouse gas emissions, contrary to suggestions by Prime Minister Tony Abbott that other countries are not introducing schemes.
Speaking in Canada, Mr Abbott said carbon taxes and emissions trading were the wrong way to address climate change.
He said the debate was not about the existence of climate change, but the best approach to respond to it and he backed ”direct action measures” such as improving energy efficiency and planting more trees.
Asked if direct action was preferable to an international emissions trading scheme, Mr Abbott said: ”There is no sign – no sign – that trading schemes are increasingly being adopted. If anything trading schemes are being discarded, not adopted.”
Kobad Bhavnagri, Australian head at analysts Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said it was wrong to claim trading schemes were being discarded. He said China started six regional emissions trading schemes in the past year – building towards a national scheme expected to be in place this decade.
n the US, he said the recently announced emissions limits on coal-fired power plants – expressed as targets imposed on the states by the Environment Protection Agency – would likely lead to more states adopting emissions trading to deliver required cuts.
”Apart from Australia I don’t think any other country has plans to unwind an emissions trading scheme. That assertion they are being discarded is incorrect,” Mr Bhavnagri said.
”In the world’s two biggest economies – and the world’s two biggest emitters – we are seeing quite a deliberate move towards carbon pricing and emissions trading, not away.”………. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-missing-signs-of-worlds-switch-to-carbon-trading-experts-say-20140609-39t8q.html#ixzz34IeDi0Z9
June 10, 2014
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Muckaty Station: Federal Court hears Indigenous clan’s cultural stories at proposed nuclear waste dump site, ABC News 10 June 14 By Robert Herrick A traditional land owner has yelled and sworn during a Federal Court hearing examining plans to build a nuclear waste dump in Central Australia. Bunny Nabarula, a Milwayi woman, stood up and cursed before the court as she vented frustration over the kind of legacy a facility for storage of low and intermediate-grade nuclear waste at Muckaty Station, near Tennant Creek, would be for future generations.
She told a special sitting of the court, on country, that she was passionate about keeping her land pristine and a $12 million compensation package was “dirty money”.
The court is holding a rare hearing on country as it considers a challenge to plans to build a nuclear waste storage site on the remote station.
The Northern Land Council nominated the site on behalf of members of the Ngapa group, but four other clans have laid claim to the land and say it is adjacent to a sacred site……..
Traditional owner Kylie Sambo says a hearing on the station gives the Federal Court a real understanding of the land’s cultural significance.”I reckon its very important because they need to see how how we feel about the country and how the country is to us and actually be out here on country and getting the feeling and knowing and understanding that we have,” she said.
Another traditional owner Dick Foster pointed out the culturally significant parts of the site, important for passage to a sacred area where men’s business takes place. Paddy Gibson from the Jumbunna House of Learning says many traditional owners have been given the impression the waste is not very harmful.
“Some of the most dangerous waste in the world is a spent nuclear fuel rod and that’s what from day one has been the issue that’s in contention here, that they want to use this as a dumping ground for some of Australia’s most toxic industrial waste,” he said……http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-09/muckaty-station-federal-court-hearing/5510346
June 10, 2014
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Supercritical Solar Steam Could Rival Fossil Fuels http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=4338 10 June 14 A breakthrough by CSIRO scientists could see solar energy replace fossil fuels in the most advanced power stations in the world. A research program at the CSIRO Energy Centre in Newcastle focused on using solar power to create supercritical steam – super-hot, pressurised steam – to drive electric turbines in large-scale power plant.
The CSIRO team broke a world record for heating and pressurising steam using only solar thermal power in May. The work has been hailed as a coup for the renewable energy industry. Previously, only coal or gas-fired plants could achieve temperatures high enough generate supercritical steam.
Conventional solar thermal power plants currently generate subcritical steam – but CSIRO believes if these plants could be converted to supercritical steam power, the overall cost of solar electricity would be significantly lowered. “It’s like breaking the sound barrier; this step change proves solar has the potential to compete with the peak performance capabilities of fossil fuel sources,” said CSIRO Energy Director, Dr Alex Wonhas.
“Instead of relying on burning fossil fuels to produce supercritical steam, this breakthrough demonstrates that the power plants of the future could instead be using the free, zero emission energy of the sun to achieve the same result.”
Researchers used CSIRO’s test solar thermal plant in Newcastle to break the world record for solar steam, reaching temperatures of 570 degrees Celsius, at a pressure of 23.5 megapascals (a measure of force per unit area). It is this combination of enormous pressure and heat that makes the breakthrough such an important milestone for solar technology.
The CSIRO says the breakthrough was made possible through a $5.68 million research program supported by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and collaboration with researchers from solar thermal giant, Abengoa Solar.
ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht said that while work remained before supercritical solar steam technology would rival fossil fuels, “This breakthrough brings solar thermal energy a step closer to cost competitiveness with fossil fuel generated power.”
Source
June 10, 2014
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New South Wales, solar |
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Beyond Nuclear initiative By Padraic Gibson 6 June 14Dr Donoghue continued submissions for the Commonwealth for most of the morning session. He restated an argument that both the Northern Land Council and Commonwealth have used in the lead up to this trial during Directions Hearings; that the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act (2005) had been clearly designed to shut down legal avenues for Aboriginal people wanting challenge the nomination of their land for a
waste “facility”. Dr Donoghue explained that the Commonwealth had been attempting to establish a remote “facility” since the 1980s in numerous locations. But consistent opposition, including successful litigation, had prevented them from doing so. With this in mind, the Howard Government went out of it’s way to ensure Traditional Aboriginal Owners were explicitly stripped of their rights in the 2005 Act.
Dr Donoghue cited a number of legal avenues explicitly closed to anyone wanting to challenge a national radioactive waste dump, including the exclusion of procedural fairness and a clause allowing nominations on Aboriginal land to remain valid even if a Land Council had not complied with obligations under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (NT) 1976.
If this argument is accepted by the court, the nomination of Muckaty as a nuclear waste dump will stand even if the Traditional Owners are found never to have consented to the nomination. Or, as Dr Donoghue put it, “the fact of consent being validly given is not legally relevant”.
This line of argument, not to mention the Radioactive Waste Management Act itself, demonstrates the extreme contempt in which the Commonwealth holds the rights of Aboriginal people.
Another attack on Land Rights contained in the Act also became clear in the course of the Commonwealth submissions. So far, arguments in court have focussed on whether the NLC followed proper process in nominating the particular site now earmarked for the waste dump. The quality of consultations with other Traditional Owners, said to hold responsibility for land on Muckaty that is required for transport of the radioactive materials, has also been discussed. But Dr Donoghue made it clear that if the nomination of the waste dump site is allowed to stand, Aboriginal owners of adjacent lands would lose any rights to stop developments on their land needed to facilitate the dump. The Act gives power to the Commonwealth to simply compulsorily acquire any further land that they need to allow the dump to operate…….
three scandals are undeniable. Firstly the Commonwealth held impoverished Aboriginal communities to ransom, withholding funding for essential services unless they accepted a nuclear waste dump. Secondly, as Dr Donoghue made clear yesterday, they did so using legislation which strips Aboriginal people of their actual rights to land. And thirdly, a major Aboriginal Land Council has, from the outset of this case, been hiding behind an argument which says a nuclear waste dump should proceed at Muckaty even if it is found that Traditional Owners do not consent. This is a sad indication of the extent to which Land Rights in Australia were seriously pushed back under the Howard Government. www.beyondnuclearinitiative.com/blog
June 9, 2014
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Australia should be nuclear dumping ground, says Bob Hawke Dump nuclear waste in Australia says former Prime Minister, Bob Hawke: “The one thing this country ought to do is have the disposal of nuclear waste in remote areas.” Australian Times, By Estelle Vosloo on 5 June, 2014 In an address to the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, Bob Hawke said Australia’s remote areas should be used as a nuclear dumping ground for the rest of the world.
The former Labor prime minister elaborated on his statement while speaking to members of the Australian Press Club, at an event marking their 50th anniversary. Former Liberal prime minister John Howard also spoke at the event……..
Currently approximately 80% of the waste produced at Lucas Heights, Australia’s only nuclear reactor, comes from the production of nuclear medicine items like containers, gloves, plastic and equipment.
Friends of the Earth (Australia) stated that, “Any used fuel is currently stored in permanent storage facilities in France, the UK and the US but will be returned to Australia in 2015 as intermediate-level waste.
It is argued that Australia has a responsibility to accept waste arising from the processing of uranium exports. However the larger share of the responsibility lies with the countries that make use of Australian uranium,” their statement says.
“Moreover while uranium mining companies arguably ought to take some responsibility for the waste arising from their exports, it is not clear that that responsibility lies with Australia as a whole,” they say, adding that uranium is being mined on Aboriginal land without their consent and that the waste will again be dumped on Aboriginal land. http://www.australiantimes.co.uk/news/news-from-australia/news-in-australia/australia-should-become-nuclear-dumping-ground-says-bob-hawke.htm
June 9, 2014
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Documents showing inspections at Ranger uranium mine go missing, 1057 ABC Darwin, By Xavier La Canna 5 June 14, Despite a big diesel spill at the Northern Territory’s Ranger uranium mine in 1995, an investigation into the operation has found paperwork to show diesel tanks are being routinely inspected has gone missing. On Thursday giving Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) was given the green light to recommence processing operations at Ranger after a one-million litre radio-active spill last year sparked a shut-down.
ERA claimed there had been no environmental damage was caused by the spill, but processing was suspended in the wake of the incident.
It is understood processing operations will recommence immediately following the decision by the federal and NT governments.
But 19 years after a 12,000 litre diesel spill at the site caused bird deaths, the review found problems with the documentation of diesel tank inspections.
“Diesel Tanks A and B are missing documentation relating to their one-monthly routine inspections and five-yearly external inspections,” the review found……..
Dave Sweeney from the Australian Conservation Foundation said he was disappointed Ranger was allowed to recommence processing even though a report into the cause of the failure had not been publicly tabled.
Mr Sweeney said the government had a well-worn path of refusing to comment when incidents happened at Ranger because it could jeopardize the independence of inquiries, then refusing to release the full findings of reports because it was “commercial in confidence”.
Ranger, which began production in 1981, is one of the world’s largest uranium mines and is located within the World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park. http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2014/06/05/4019591.htm
June 9, 2014
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Northern Territory, secrets and lies |
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Abbott says climate not right for tax Sky News 9 June 14, Prime Minister Tony Abbott says any future global agreement on climate change won’t include carbon pricing.
Mr Abbott is the first Australian prime minister to visit Canada since John Howard in 2006, who arrived just months after Mr Harper’s conservative government was elected. The two prime ministers will meet on Monday, local time, when Mr Abbott will receive an official welcome with military honours in the Canadian capital Ottawa.
But speaking ahead of the meeting, Mr Abbott said the re-elected Mr Harper had succeeded in convincing Canadian voters at the last national poll of the perils of carbon pricing. Stephen Harper and I are like-minded on this,’ Mr Abbott told reporters in Ottawa on Sunday……….
US President Barack Obama, who Mr Abbott will meet later in the week, has announced a target of cutting emissions from power stations by 30 per cent by 2030 and wants a global deal on tackling climate change next year.
Mr Abbott said there were no signs that any future global agreement would involve carbon pricing………
June 9, 2014
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AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, politics international |
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Tony Abbott’s global retreat, THE SATURDAY PAPER, 7 June 14 SOPHIE MORRIS As the PM sets off to meet world leaders, his government is withdrawing the nation from international affairs. en Tony Abbott meets Barack Obama in Washington late next week, the president of the United States of America will no doubt want to discuss his ambitious emissions reduction plans.
If the prime minister is being honest, he would have to concede that, from July, there is the real prospect that Australia may have no official legislated climate policy.
The new senate looks likely to abolish the carbon tax but there is no certainty it will endorse the Coalition’s proposed alternative, which has been criticised by economists and environmentalists. And it is not just on climate change that Australia is increasingly seen as being out of step with the international community. As Abbott tours the world, declaring Australia “open for business”, his government is pursuing a range of policies – on the environment, foreign aid and refugees – that see it retreating from an international approach.
This is no accident; there has been a conscious shift. Forget about global citizenship. Our foreign policy is now all about regional security and trade, rather than climate change and foreign aid. It’s about projecting national sovereignty and domestically oriented policy – stop the boats, axe the tax, end the debt – onto a global stage…….
In a speech to the Westpoint military academy last week, President Obama said a “spirit of co-operation must energise the global effort to combat climate change”, describing it as a “creeping national security crisis” that would lead to refugee flows, natural disasters, and conflicts over water and food. “That’s why, next year, I intend to make sure America is out front in a global framework to preserve our planet,” he said.
Unless Obama is very persuasive when he meets Abbott, it seems likely Australia will not be joining him at the front of this global effort. More likely, we will be bringing up the rear. http://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2014/06/07/tony-abbotts-global-retreat/1402063200#.U5ZrZHJdWil
June 9, 2014
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Australian Prime Minister Praises U.S. Climate Action, While Trying To Kill Similar Program http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/06/3445853/australian-epa-sensible/ BY ANDREW BREINER ON JUNE 6, 2014 AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER TONY ABBOTT TOLD THE PARLIAMENT THIS WEEK THAT THE NEW U.S. CARBON LIMITS ARE “SENSIBLE,” EVEN THOUGH HIS GOVERNMENT IS TRYING TO END AN AUSTRALIAN LAW THAT ESSENTIALLY USES SIMILAR TACTICS TO CUT EMISSIONS. “THERE IS NO EMISSIONS TRADING SCHEME IN THE UNITED STATES,” HE TOLD PARLIAMENT. BUT THAT’S NOT ENTIRELY TRUE.
While the EPA rule doesn’t set up a federal carbon pricing or emissions trading system, those are available and encouraged options for states, and they’re already being used successfully. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative has been going strong for several years in Northeastern states, making money for state governments while cutting carbon. California’s cap-and-trade system, set up in 2006, will likely also provide a model for states looking to comply with EPA regulations. More states are expected to join or create cap-and-trade systems to meet EPA limits.
Abbott says he likes U.S. climate policy, but his real model seems to be Canada, where oil money has stifled recognition of climate change, climate policy, and activism. In Australia, the law and private spying have been used to make protest harder, and climate denial has become common in Abbot’s government.
It’s unclear at this point whether Abbott will be able to repeal the Clean Energy Future laws that establish a price on carbon and emissions trading program in Australia. But there’s no question that his Liberal Party government has beenhostile to climate action and clean energy, and quite committed to helping the coal industry. Meanwhile, Australia is dealing with significant climate change impacts, including record-breaking heat waves and droughts.
June 7, 2014
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Australia urged to aim for 50+% renewables by 2030 REneweconomy. By Giles Parkinson on 6 June 2014 Leading international agency says Australia should become one of world leaders in renewables, arguing that the world could double renewable capacity by 2030, save money and slash emissions in the process.
The International Renewable Energy Agency has finalised its ground making REMap 2030 report, confirming its previous estimates that the world could double its renewable energy capacity by 2030,which would not only save money, it would help avoid climate catastrophe.
The report, released in New York overnight, finds that scaling up renewables to 36 per cent renewable energy by 2030 is not just doable, it is affordable and would lay a crucial pathway to meeting climate goals of capping emissions at below 450 parts per million.
Australia is one of the countries seen in a position of leadership on renewables. As this graph below illustrates, IRENA says that Australia could aim to have more than 50 per cent renewables in its electricity grid by 2030, largely through wind, but also with significant contributions from solar.
Australia is one of the countries seen in a position of leadership on renewables. ( graph ), IRENA says that Australia could aim to have more than 50 per cent renewables in its electricity grid by 2030, largely through wind, but also with significant contributions from solar.
IRENA says the role of variable renewables such as wind and solar is critical, but does not pose any serious technological barriers. Even at a global average of 18 per cent wind and solar, this is less than the share of variable renewables icurrently are integrated into the electricity systems of De mark, Germany, Ireland, Portugal and Spain – and South Australia it should be noted.
“Only a handful of countries – Australia, Denmark, Germany, Morocco, Tonga and the United Kingdom – will reach shares of variable renewables of 30 per cent or higher,” it says………http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/australia-urged-aim-50-renewables-2030
June 7, 2014
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Dr Donoghue explained that the Commonwealth had been attempting to establish a remote “facility” since the 1980s in numerous locations. But consistent opposition, including successful litigation, had prevented them from doing so. With this in mind, the Howard Government went out of it’s way to ensure Traditional Aboriginal Owners were explicitly stripped of their rights in the 2005 Act.
