Meet the U.S. People’s Delegation at COP23

November 10, 2017

 ECO is the environmental NGO newsletter produced daily at international negotiations. While The US president has found a reason not to attend, there is certainly a US presence. This excerpt from ECO 4 describes the US People’s delegation

ECO welcomes a new delegation at the COP this year.

The delegation represents a country whose people are deeply committed to climate action. A country with universities, businesses, cities, and states that are pushing forward with plans to achieve bold climate targets like 100% renewable energy. A country that believes in science, respect, and the importance of the global community. A country that currently has a President and Administration who believes in none of these things.

Meet the U.S. People’s Delegation, a delegation of climate activists and community leaders from across the United States who have come to COP23 to represent the true spirit of the nation and to push for bold climate action that goes above and beyond the Paris Agreement.

The U.S. People’s Delegation is stepping in to fill the void left by the Trump Administration, which announced its intention to exit the Paris Agreement. This administration is here at the climate talks not on behalf of the American people, it seems, but on behalf of their friends in the fossil fuel industry (the main side event hosted by the “official” U.S. delegation this year is an infomercial for “clean” coal).

Instead of speaking for this fossil fuel driven and dirty past, the U.S. People’s Delegation will be at COP23 to represent the clean energy future. Members of the delegation include youth leaders who have successfully pressured their universities to divest from fossil fuels. It includes Indigenous leaders who have fought against major fossil fuel projects (e.g. Dakota Access Pipeline) and are building their own renewable energy solutions on tribal lands.

… Read more >>

Adelaide FoE Notes, FoE

NEG: A rushed job that takes us backwards, not forwards

November 10, 2017

South Australia energy minister Tom Koutsantonis has slammed the federal government’s proposed National Energy Guarantee, saying it is nothing more than an attack on renewable energy, and cannot be supported.

“This is of great concern to South Australia,” Koutsantonis said while addressing a conference [South Australian Smart Energy Summit] in Adelaide. “We cannot support the National Energy Guarantee …. And the reason is because at its core, it is an attack on renewable energy.

“The National Energy Guarantee assumes that renewable energy is the problem … it assumes that renewable energy has done harm to the grid and must be stopped somehow.”

“It’s not a National Energy Guarantee at all, it is a guarantee for coal. It is an attempt to subsidise and keep alive coal fired generation in the largest state in country.

“Our fear is that it will do the opposite of lowering prices  …. and entrench monopoly behaviour (of fossil fuel generators).”

Koutsantonis’ comments reflect widespread and growing concerns about the nature of the NEG, its failure to address emissions, its modeling that suggests renewables will be stopped in their tracks, its likely impact of raising prices rather than lowering them, and entrenching the power of the incumbent generators and their coal assets.

[…]

“This guarantee …. spells dirty coal. How can any jurisdiction support that?

“It doesn’t meet our needs. It doesn’t meet the Paris agreement … all it is is a nod and a wink to the coal industry. And we can’t support it.”

— excerpts from an article by Giles Parkinson at reneweconomy.com

Adelaide FoE Notes, FoE

Films from Don’t Dump on SA video night

November 9, 2017

 Some very informative short films were shown on the Info night:

We Say NO!

The Flinders Local Action Group (FLAG) initiated this spectacular 3.5 minute film to show the breadth and depth of opposition to the waste dump. We Say No (3:36)

Nuclear Waste Land 

Journalist Timothy Larges from Reuters International visited Yappala in the Flinders Ranges last year and made this documentary film which was recently screened at the Berlin Film Festival:

 

Leave the Poison Alone

This is a short documentary about the proposed nuclear waste dump in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, located on traditional aboriginal land. The Adnyamathanha and local communities are expressing their concerns and telling us why this should not be imposed on them. It was filmed by some french tourists who were in the area and horrified to learn what was proposed so took it upon themselves to make this great film. By Alexis Charles.

 

South Australia says NO to nuclear waste dumps!

AEU film showing South Australia saying NO to nuclear waste dumps!

3,000 plus rallied outside Parliament House in Adelaide on October 15, 2016 to express their strong and unrelenting opposition to proposals for nuclear waste dumps in SA!

Adelaide FoE Notes, Nuclear

ICAN wins Nobel peace Prize

October 20, 2017

Congratulations to ICAN, the group behind the recent treaty to ban nuclear weapons, for winning this year’s nobel peace prize.

ICAN Asia-Pacific director Tim Wright said the group was elated by the honour and hoped it would mount pressure on countries to join the movement to end the human destruction caused by nuclear weapons.

“We hope this will only boost our campaign and put pressure on countries who haven’t signed the treaty yet, including Australia,” he said.

“The Australian government, not only failed to participate in negotiations, but it actually tried very hard to stop the talks from taking place. We’re calling on Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to change Australia’s opposition to the treaty and sign just as our neighbours in south-east Asia and the Pacific have done.”

“If there is any time to prohibit the use of nuclear weapons, the time is surely now. This is a very dangerous moment in time and there is a very real risk that the situation could spiral out of control. We need to act now before these weapons are ever used again.”

— comments by Tim Wright in The Age

 

Nuclear, Old_Notes, Weapons proliferation

Nuclear Power’s Deepening Crisis

October 20, 2017

More disastrous news for the nuclear power industry. In 2017 alone:
– clear signs of a major nuclear slow-down in China – the last remaining hope for the industry.
– the US nuclear power industry is in the middle of a full-blown crisis
– a seriously anti-nuclear government has been elected in South Korea
– Taiwan has reaffirmed a nuclear phase-out by 2025
– the South African nuclear power program was ruled illegal by the High Court and probably won’t be revived
– Switzerland voted in a referendum to phase out nuclear power (while all of Germany’s reactors will be closed by the end of 2022 and all of Belgium’s will be closed by the end of 2025).
– huge problems in the UK and France
– India’s nuclear power program is going nowhere and the government has implicitly acknowledged that plans for French EPR reactors and US AP1000 reactors will likely be shelved
– Japan’s nuclear power program remains in a miserable state
– Russia’s Rosatom has acknowledged that the pipeline for new reactors is fast drying up
Meanwhile, the growth of renewables has been spectacular and will grow even faster over the coming years. Renewables will be producing 3 times as much electricity as nuclear power by 2022.

Jim Green, FoE Australia’s anti-nuclear campaigner,  goes into more detail in this recent article for online opinion.

Clean Futures, Old_Notes