Excess Gas strikes Prime Minister

September 17, 2020

We knew there were problems with the National Covid Recovery Committee (NCC) suggesting gas pipelines from WA to the eastern states as part (or all?) of their covid-19 recovery plan,
but it seems the PM has suffered Gas attacks as well:

That backwards slide has continued throughout this year, primarily through Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor’s “Gas fired recovery” efforts. The crux of this project is a massive expansion of Australia’s fossil gas extraction, transport and burning within Australia, sure to result in an extremely significant increase in Australia’s domestic and exported emission footprint, both of which have grown primarily due to gas over the past years.

Let’s be blunt.

In any other universe, recovering from one public health crisis by worsening another would spark immediate backlash. An “asbestos led recovery” would be career-ending; as would a “tobacco led recovery” or a “AK-47 led recovery”. But fossil fuels have locked their harm so deeply into our lives that we have become desensitised to this incredible, radical significance of proposing to hurt humans as a pathway to helping them. What is happening here is simultaneously deadly and ludicrous.
— Ketan Joshi, renew economy, Sept 15th, “Morrison casts dark shadow over energy transition with massive gas intervention”

there is nothing accidental or haphazard about the Coalition’s latest threat to the energy industry; the attempt to force-feed more gas generation into Australia’s main grid and the massive government subsidies promised to extend its infrastructure and open up new gas basins. It may not make much sense, on any level, but that just makes it all the more sinister.

Morrison has made clear he wants the post-Covid recovery to be led by gas, and appointed gas lobbyists to direct the recovery plan. Taylor is seeking to hijack the two key renewable energy bodies to support gas and CCS, and has spent two years erecting bollards trying to slow down the clean energy transition.

… Read more >>

Adelaide FoE Notes

Plans for a Just Transition: FoE Adelaide Zoom meeting Sept23rd

September 17, 2020

Join Friends of the Earth online as we look at Plans for a Just Transition

While the government focus is on a gas-led recovery,
the need for quick, effective transition
becomes clearer each day.

We invite you to join us for the online meeting
from 6 to 7:30 on Wednesday, Sept 23rd.
We’ll hear from our guest speakers,
take a tea break and engage in discussion.

Our guest speakers are Cam Walker,
Friends of the Earth Australia,
talking about the Transforming Vic document

and Philippa Rowland,
MultiFaith SA, talking about
the renew WA document and looking
at the principles involved.

Please book your ticket at eventbright:
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/121472247763
(you will receive Zoom details shortly after you book)

After we’ve heard from our guest speakers,
we’ll discuss what we can do to create a
Just Transition document for SA.

 

Time: Wednesday, Sept 23, 2020 6pm – 7:30pm Adelaide
Part 1: 6:00 – 6:40pm Talks by Cam & Philippa
<10 min tea break @ 6:40>
Part 2: 6:50 – 7:30pm Q & A and discussion

Documents of Interest:

Adelaide FoE Notes

GreenCities

September 10, 2020

Reprinting the Adelaide Green Cities Handbook

The original Green Cities Handbook was first published at the end of May, 1991 by FoE Nouveau.

It as meant to be a discussion starter on how we might change cities to be better for people and the environment.

It was published a year before the Ecocity 2 conference held in Adelaide, and was inspired by ideas from Peter Berg (Planet Drum Foundation), Richard Register (from Urban Ecology in the US, convenor of the first ecocity conference), and Peter Newman, who identified the benefits of a low energy, car-free city.

Paul Downton, architect of Christie Walk, a fragment of eco-city, was involved with the Green Cities Project team, comprised of students from the Mawson Graduate Centre of Environmental Studies at the Uni of Adelaide.

The Handbook has been out of print for the last two decades, and the only copies available were photocopies of photocopies. Adelaide Friends of the Earth decided they would reprint the original, as a start to revising and updating the handbook for the new millenium. We scanned the original copies, OCRed the scans, then edited and corrected the resultant text. We’ve tried to format it similar to the original, as close to the 1991 version as possible. Some things have changed since it was published, but a lot of the information in the Handbook is still relevant.

We invite you to peruse the original, and share your thoughts on how we might improve and update it. Adelaide FoE will be holding a number of workshops to discuss the update: let us know if you’re interested in getting involved.

View the reprint here: GreenCities Adelaide draft

Clean Futures, Climate, FoE, Green Cities

Principles for a Just Recovery from the COVID-19 crisis

September 3, 2020

from FoE International 25 August, 2020

The COVID-19 crisis is the result of an economic system that prioritises profits over peoples’ rights and the environment.

The systemic, inter-related socio-ecological crises we face — climate, biodiversity, food, water, economic and care — and this global coronavirus pandemic share the same root causes: a capitalist, patriarchal and racist system designed for capital accumulation and neoliberal, corporate-led globalisation.

This is why Friends of the Earth International believes that a “just recovery” built on environmental, social, gender and economic justice is urgently needed to comprehensively address the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.

Recovery does not mean going “back to normal”. This is the time to prioritise the sustainability of life, peoples’ rights, and the protection of livelihoods and the planet.

We propose four principles for a just recovery:

1. Abandon neoliberalism and austerity and immediately put in place policies and measures founded on justice, recognising ecological limits.

The State must play a fundamental role in guaranteeing peoples’ rights and environmental justice.

Public recovery packages must:

  • Support people directly, first of all indigenous peoples, black and afro-descendant communities, people of colour, migrants, women at the grassroots, and the working class.
  • Include policies for the redistribution of wealth, women’s autonomy, tax justice, and specific support for small businesses, as well as pathways away from extractive industries and fossil fuel dependence, including support for workers to transition to new jobs.
  • Not pay for corporate financial loss with public money or bailout transnational corporations, especially those most responsible for systemic crises such as fossil fuel and mining companies, agribusiness, airlines and companies based in tax havens.

Governments must:

… Read more >>

Clean Futures, Climate, FoE