Clean Futures

COP 24: Time is running out. We must build an alternative energy future for the people

roman December 14, 2018

Dipti Bhatnagar, Climate Justice and Energy Program Coordinator for Friends of the Earth International, said:

“This year was supposed to be a major year for the climate – pledges made in Paris three years ago were to be ratcheted up to meet the need for early and steep emission cuts. Thanks to a weakened Talanoa Dialogue, climate ambitions are severely threatened, in addition to the dismantling of equity and the egregious fact that fossil fuel companies are sponsoring the Conference. We need a just transition away from fossil fuels and dirty energy to a just, clean, peoples’ energy system. We need to push for gender justice and for a world free from oppression and inequality.”

Dec 3rd: Friends of the Earth International is in Katowice bringing solutions to the climate crisis. We are launching People Power Now: An Energy Manifesto – 10 demands for a just energy transformation. If implemented these demands provide a pathway to a new, clean energy future for all, that contributes to keeping global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees.

But time is not on our side – inaction by successive governments at the UN and among national governments has left a narrow and shrinking window for action. Friends of the Earth International has, for decades, warned of the consequences of delay. There is deep frustration with this endless talking shop where polluters freely influence the debate, rich countries block the radical action needed for fossil fuel phase out in the North and finance for the South, while the planet warms and people live with the consequences.

Read more from the FoE International article

Clean Futures, Climate, Old_Notes

Show Labor you want a fossil-free future! Rally this Sunday (16th)

roman December 14, 2018

This weekend Labor is holding their National Conference in Adelaide.

While Labor have been making the right noises over renewables, the Leader of the Opposition has been relatively quiet about Adani coal and fossil fuels in general.

Groups concerned about the proposed nuclear dump in SA, the continued government support for fossil fuels and oil exploration in the Bight want to show the ALP that they need to adopt sensible policies if they want our support.

South Australians are putting climate change on the agenda.

Join the rally outside the ALP National Conference at the Adelaide Convention Centre from 1-2pm on Sunday 16 December.

Labor’s climate plan must include moving Australia beyond fossil fuels to clean renewable energy.

That means:

Stop Adani
Stop oil exploration in the Great Australian Bight
Stop fracking for gas
Phase out the export of oil, gas and coal

This Conference is where the ALP will commit to the policies they’ll take to the Federal Election next year.

Join Friends (of the Earth) for a fossil fuel free future! Come along this Sunday to the Convention Centre on North Tce

Schedule of activities:

8.30-10am Anti-Poverty Network’s Rally to Raise Newstart, No Dump Alliance & AYCC Stop Adani – Adelaide Convention Centre top of escalators

12:30 – 2pm No More Fossil Fuels Rally (say you’re coming and share with your friends on Facebook)

12:30pm – Uluru Statement from the Heart, led by former Uluru Working Group Co-chair Thomas Mayor.

2pm – Carols Against Coal (more info and livestream on Facebook)

The No Dump Alliance will have a table at the event

Adelaide FoE Notes, Clean Futures, Climate, Nuclear

SA predicted to reach 100% renewables by 2025

roman September 17, 2018

South Australia – the state that has become the punching bag for anti-renewable rhetoric, and the basis of the Coalition government’s National Energy Guarantee – is likely to source the equivalent of 100 per cent of its electricity from renewables by 2025.

That, at least, is the assessment of the Australian Energy Market Operator, which makes this prediction as part of its Integrated System Plan, its 20-year blueprint for the integration of renewables into Australia’s electricity grid.

The prediction contrasts dramatically with the modelling prepared for the NEG by the Energy Security Board, of which AEMO is a member.

The ESB modelling suggests that South Australia will reach 75 per cent renewables by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2022 – and then it somehow imagines the state installing not a single added megawatt of large scale solar or large scale wind until after 2030.
— from reneweconomy.com, 17 Sept, “South Australia will be at 100% renewables by 2025 – market operator” by Giles Parkinson
Read the article for more about the Integrated System Plan which the COAG state energy ministers are keen to implement.

Clean Futures, Old_Notes

Feds out of touch on climate issues

roman September 17, 2018

A growing number of Australians are concerned about the impact of climate change, and more than half of a survey of 1,756 voters believe the Morrison government needs to stay in the Paris agreement, despite Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US.

A study tracking voter sentiment for more than a decade, funded first by the Climate Institute and now by the Australia Institute, finds 73% (up from 66% in 2017) of respondents concerned about climate change, and a clear majority, 68%, believes the government should set domestic targets to comply with our Paris commitments.

An increased 67% want coal-fired power to be phased out within 20 years, up from 61% in 2017.

The findings suggest the Morrison government is politically vulnerable on climate change at the next federal election. The prime minister has declared Australia will not pull out of Paris but also abandoned the national energy guarantee that imposed an emissions reduction target on the electricity sector.
— from The Guardian, 17 Sept, “Climate poll shows Morrison politically vulnerable as more voters back action”

Clean Futures, Old_Notes

Snap Action: No UCG at Leigh Creek

roman September 17, 2018

Alert from Conservation SA

Tuesday September 18, 2018, 9am
SUPREME COURT OF SA
1 GOUGER ST, ADELAIDE, SA

Government plans for an Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) plant at Leigh Creek.

“We’re very concerned because people live in that area and it’s time for healing of the site, not any more destruction. Leigh Creek is the basis for our law this must be stopped.”
Vince Couthard, Adnyamathnha Traditional Lands Association.

Local community say NO WAY and, with people around the state, are urging the Marshall Government to dump plans for UCG at Leigh Creek and ban this risky and extreme technology.

UCG was banned in Qld after it caused the biggest pollution disaster in that state’s history.
If it’s banned in Qld, why is it coming to SA?!

On Tuesday September 18, 2018, Adnyamathanha Traditional Owners are seeking an injunction on the UCG trial on their lands at Leigh Creek.

Can’t make the snap action? It only takes a few minutes to call Mining Minister Dan Van Holst Pellekaan on 08 8642 3633.
Urgent action is required to bring this dirty plan to a halt!

Show your support and take a stand against dirty and unwanted gas projects in our state.
— Conservation SA

Actions, Clean Futures, Old_Notes