Australia’s biggest private renewable energy firm has attacked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s environmental agenda, saying his green power target is at risk of failing. Continue reading
Interim carbon price would mean a start to action on climate change
We are under no illusions that this solution is perfect. It is clearly a third or fourth best solution. But, unlike the CPRS, there is no way it can hold back climate action.
This deadlock helps no one. The community is denied action on the climate crisis, the business community is denied the investment certainty it craves, the government looks increasingly impotent and the opposition looks like spoilers.
Interim carbon price preferable to time-wasting political stunt Christine Milne: The Australian January 22, 2010 There is a solution to this deadlock, one that Ross Garnaut suggested a year ago in his final report, Continue reading
Facts on Europe’s nuclear waste dumping
How French solves nuclear waste , Jagadee’s English Webblog January 20, 2010 St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
- European utilities dumping uranium wastes in Russia include: OKG – Sweden, Vattenfall – Sweden/Europe, EoN and RWE – Germany, Electrabel – Belgium, EPZ – the Netherlands, British Energy – the UK, EDF – France, Iberdola – Spain, and NOK/Swissnuclear – Switzerland.
- The uranium waste dumped in Russia over the last thirty years belongs to nearly every nuclear power company operating nuclear reactors in western Europe from Spain to Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium. The UK and France have shipped the largest amount of uranium waste from their respective enrichment and reprocessing plants.
- Areva spokesman, Charles Hufnagel acknowledged to Nuclear Fuel of December 5th that the uranium shipped back to Eurodif (France) represents only “10% of the total” sent to Russia. An Areva spokesperson also confirmed to Nuclear Fuel that this uranium would remain the property of the Russian enricher, Techsnabexport (Tenex).
- Greenpeace Russia has filed a complaint against the illegal storage and dumping of uranium wastes in Siberia.Art. 48 of the 2002 law on ‘environmental protection’ prohibits storage or dumping of imported nuclear materials. A next session of the Moscow Court is scheduled for Dec. 8th
- 5. Greenpeace letter to to IAEA’s Director-General Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei can be found here.
The Real Face of the IAEA’s Multilateral Nuclear Approaches: The proliferation of nuclear weapon material & environmental contamination report.
Queensland’s successful solar island
“The Island is now generating 285 kilowatts of renewable energy for the electricity grid through solar systems that local residents host on their property roofs,”
Australia. Solar Island defies energy trend and powers grid BYM Marine Environment News 15 January 2010 Mines and Energy Minister Stephen Robertson today announced an energy transformation in North Queensland, with a pilot project defying the trend and reducing energy consumption. Continue reading
Vital for aborigines to participate in climate change action
Environment jobs vital for aborigines, says UN study, Sydney Morning Herald YUKO NARUSHIMA 15 Jan 2010
ABORIGINES need access to jobs in the environment sector if they are to benefit from any global attempt to curb climate change, says the author of a UN report out today.
The State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples says climate change hurts indigenous people disproportionately, and in some places threatens their existence. Continue reading
World Future Energy Summit displays Solar-powered Aircraft
Sustainable investment fund looks to the long term
The company now has an office in Australia because it sees the Australian superannuation industry as likely to be attracted to its philosophy.
In the wind: America’s drive towards clean technology Sydney Morning Herald ANNE DAVIES, WASHINGTONJ anuary 9, 2010 “….Barack Obama, facing the steepest downturn since FDR’s time, wants to transform America into a green machine, Continue reading
20% renewables by 2020 for Europe
The EU hopes to generate a fifth of its electricity needs from renewable energy sources by 2020, a move which requires new modern energy grids,
Europe’s Ambitious ‘Green Grid’ Plan. To boost new energy sources such as wind, solar, and tidal, nine countries will link up producers through a C30 billion smart grid under the North Sea, Business Week 7 Jan 2010 By Valentina Pop Continue reading
Media ownership in Australia
Media ownership in Australia
28 Dec 2009 Australian media ownership is one of the most concentrated in the world. The last review of media ownership in Australia (1999) found that of 12 capital city and daily papers, seven are owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and three by John Fairfax Holdings. The West Australian and the Canberra Times were the only independently owned dailies, however, the Canberra Times is now part of the Farirfax group and The West Australian is now part of Kerry Stokes’ media group.
The Impact of Ownership on the Dissemination of Information Continue reading
Green energy from the grassroots in South Australia
The greening of SA’s councils Adelaide Now JILL PENGELLEY December 23, 2009 THINGS are greening up at the grassroots level. While climate change is debated on the world stage, local councils in South Australia are directing change………… Continue reading
Australia missing the renewable energy bus
PM’s green power approach ‘a fraud’ Big Pond News December 23, 2009
Glowing future for renewable energy
(USA) Surfing a wave of Californian sunshine as America looks for renewable future The Times December 23, 2009 “………….The US Energy Department has calculated that a 62-square-mile (160 sq km) parcel of the Mojave that straddles Nevada, Utah, California and Arizona receives enough sunlight to power the entire country. Continue reading
Review- Maralinga aborigines and vets, Copenhagen dud…
Review of the past week
Australia: poll shows Australian want renewable energy, not nuclear, and Australian Academy of Science agrees. Maralinga veterans join British vets’ legal action. Aboriginal victims’ health ignored, too, while Maralinga land returned to them. Climate sceptics continue to get media coverage, and John Howard joins Ziggy Sinowski in nuclear push.
International: China- France nuclear deal despite China’s bad record for secrecy and poor safety. Copenhagen a dud, but strong popular movement for action. Russia plans nukes in space. France’s nuclear electricity coping poorly in extreme weather. South African antinuke movement. Renewables going ahead in Scotland, and Taiwan.
Look to the positives beyond Copenhagen
Obama Accord a good thing amid Copenhagen fiasco The Age ROSS GARNAUT December 22, 2009 The United Nations meeting on climate change at Copenhagen was a fiasco. The several months of intense discussion among leading economies that culminated in the Obama Accord in Copenhagen last weekend were not. Continue reading
Nuclear Energy specifically excluded under Kyoto Protocol
Copenhagen, nuclear power, and the Clean Development Mechanism Nuclear Reaction, by Justin, 18 Dec 09
“……..For those who don’t know it,the Clean Development Mechanism the CDM is a system set up under the Kyoto Protocol which allows industrialised countries committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions to earn carbon credits by investing in low-carbon projects in developing countries rather than building more expensive projects in their own countries.
Nuclear energy was specifically excluded from the CDM at the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change conference in 2001. Needless to say, the nuclear industry and its supporters have been lobbying hard ever since for nuclear’s inclusion in the mechanism. Continue reading
South Australia: incentives for renewable energy
Tax break boost for solar, wind projects ABC News Dec 16, 2009
A new renewable energy tax rebate has been announced and the South Australian Government hopes it will boost investment in the industry.
From next July, investors will get payroll tax rebates of up to $5 million for large solar energy projects and up to $1 million for wind power projects.
SA Premier Mike Rann says the rebates will help create jobs.
“We’re aiming to get 33 per cent of our power from renewables by 2020, but I also want to establish South Australia as the renewable energy hub for the eastern seaboard,” he said.
Tax break boost for solar, wind projects – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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