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Introducing our new CANE campaigner!

June 27, 2015

We are very pleased to announce that Nectaria Calan has accepted the position of Anti-Nuclear/Pro-Renewables Campaigner with the Clean Futures Collective’s Campaign Against Nuclear Expansion.
Nectaria will work with us on a part time basis over the next six months. She holds a Bachelor of International Studies (Honours) and has previously worked with us as an Anti-Nuclear Coordinator. She brings strong skills and experience in grass roots activism and media.
Nectaria is passionate about environmental issues, and strongly believes that the social and environmental problems the nuclear industry creates far outweigh those it purports to solve.  She was an organiser and spokesperson for the Lizards Revenge event, a week long protest-festival held at the gates of the Olympic Dam mine in July 2012 to raise awareness and protest the mine, its expansion, and the broader impacts of uranium.
Nectaria’s responsibilities will include:
  • – tracking activities of the SA Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission
  • – coordinating FoE responses to the Royal Commission
  • – providing the initial point-of-contact for media
  • – encouraging volunteers to join FoE CFC campaign
  • – coordinating volunteer activities
  • – liaising with other groups working on related issues
Members, donors and friends can keep up with the CANE campaign by signing up to our elist to receive meeting minutes – email robyn.wood@foe.org.au

Clean Futures, Climate, Nuclear, Old_Notes, Renewables, Sustainability

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Ross Garnaut talk: Australia: Energy Superpower of the Low-Carbon World

June 17, 2015

  Professor Ross Garnaut
Australia has the potential to be even more important in global energy
in a low carbon world. Amongst the world’s developed countries, Australia has by far the greatest per capita potential for low-cost production of energy from most of the promising renewable sources: solar, wind, deep geothermal, wave and tidal.
Professor Ross Garnaut

You can read the text of his lecture. The University will post the recording of the session Tuesday the 30th.

Australians get a second chance at internationally low energy costs with the world’s transition to a low-carbon economy. Managed well, the transition to a low-carbon economy will restore and enhance old Australian strengths, this time built on sustainable foundations.  These strengths will be especially important in South Australia.

The Adelaide University 2015 Luxton Memorial Lecture was delivered by the distinguished academic and economist, Professor Ross Garnaut AO. Professor Garnaut is a Professorial Research Fellow in Economics at the University of Melbourne (since 2008). He was the senior economic policy official in Papua New Guinea’s Department of Finance in the years straddling Independence in 1975, principal economic adviser to Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke 1983-1985, and Australian Ambassador to China 1985-1988.

He is the author of a number of influential reports to Government, including Australia and the Northeast Asian Ascendancy (Australian Government Publishing 1989), The Garnaut Climate Change Review (Cambridge University Press 2008) and The Garnaut Review 2011: Australia and the Global Response to Climate Change (Cambridge University Press 2011).

RSVP https://mecheng.adelaide.edu.au/news/luxton-memorial-lecture/

Clean Futures, Climate, Old_Notes, Sustainability

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Activists call on BHP Billiton to Abandon Borneo Coal Mines

May 29, 2015

Submitted by Cam Walker on Tue, 26/05/2015 – 12:57

Melbourne, 26 May 2015. Activists today attempted to unfurl a giant banner in BHP Billiton headquarters containing the names of over 9,000 people who are calling for the company to abandon its plans to build a series of coal mines in some of the last remaining stands of primary rainforest in Indonesian Borneo. The banner – measuring 12 square metres – was to be hung in the foyer of BHP Billiton’s head offices in Melbourne, but was quickly confiscated by BHP Billiton security (image of banner available below). A protest is also planned for BHP Billiton’s London offices tonight, Australian time, and the petition will be formally presented to company management.

The petition calls the series of mines – known as the IndoMet project – a “disaster in the making” and asks BHP Billiton (BHPB) to “withdraw from IndoMet immediately and seek permanent protection for the area.”

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The world is waking up to the $5.3 trillion cost of fossil fuels

May 29, 2015

A report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released on Monday, estimated that global fossil fuel use is subsidised to the tune of US$5.3 trillion a year (6.5% of global GDP).

The striking finding of the IMF, echoing previous work by economists such as Nicholas Muller, Robert Mendelsohn, and William Nordhaus for the United States, is that the third category of costs, smog and particulates, is easily the largest. Within this category, the biggest cost is due to particulate emissions from coal.

Professor John Quiggin, School of Economics at The University of Queensland notes that:

It follows that, even disregarding impact of climate change, the costs of burning fossil fuels outweigh the benefits in many cases. So, a reduction in fossil fuel use, and particularly in coal use makes economic sense.

He suggests rhis will drive China and India to abandon coal.

More details in his article from The Conversation.

 

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Trade deals threatened pesticide ban in Europe

May 29, 2015

EU moves to regulate hormone-damaging chemicals linked to cancer and male infertility were shelved following pressure from US trade officials over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free trade deal, newly released documents show.

Draft EU criteria could have banned 31 pesticides containing endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). But these were dumped amid fears of a trade backlash stoked by an aggressive US lobby push, access to information documents obtained by Pesticides Action Network (PAN) Europe show.

The report in a recent Guardian shows our concern over trade deals such as the TPP are well justified.

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