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Garnaut, climate change and the need for 2020 vision
It is reassuring to hear a respected economist such as Professor Garnaut emphasise the importance of committing to 2020 targets and his warning that as climate change is proceeding faster than predicted, more urgent action is needed. Having been such a devoted laggard on the issue, Australia now has the opportunity to show international leadership…
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Coal industry must remember the reason for emissions trading
This morning, a long-standing assumption of mine about emissions trading was blown completely out of the water. I’d always thought the purpose of an emissions trading scheme was to get industries who are chocking our atmosphere with greenhouse gases to stop – the prospect of heavy financial penalties being the incentive for the industry to…
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Why I helped shut down the Munmorah power station
13 activists, including myself, appeared in court today after we took part in a peaceful Greenpeace protest last year. We shut down coal loading equipment at the Munmorah coal-fired power station and painted the message “Coal Kills” on its roof, in order to highlight the fact that our atmosphere is being choked with greenhouse gases,…
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It's time to put our money where your mouth is, Kevin
Only a few months ago, Kevin Rudd’s election promises echoed in my ears – climate change to be made a priority, signing Kyoto at the Bali climate change talks and encouraging renewable energy targets. I celebrated the end of the Howard legacy and had (somewhat optimistic) high hopes for the new climate-caring Australian government. However,…
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Bangkok Climate Talks
This is the 1st meeting since the Bali talks last Dec. The parties are starting to thrash out the framework and workplan to deliver a 2nd comitment period under the Kyoto Protocol by 2009. There are about 1,000 or so delegates present here in Bangkok, a much smaller number than there was in Bali. Despite…
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Australia fails to live up to climate challenge in Bangkok
Day three of the Bangkok climate talks saw the Australian delegate turn her back on binding commitments and reaffirm the rhetoric of the Howard era by announcing Australia’s support for the USA’s goal of ‘aspiration emission targets’. The Bangkok meetings are the first climate change negotiations since the landmark talks in Bali last December where…
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1am 4th April&negotiations deadlocked
It is 1am of Friday 4th April here at the UNESCAP Centre here in Bangkok. A team of NGO lobbyists just saw the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long Term Cooperation (govt delegates) walk out of the room. It had been a Greenpeace tag team effort since 5pm waiting for the outcomes of negotiations and…
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Bangkok talks go into early Sat morning
It’s 12:31am of Saturday 5 April 2008. The Bangkok climate change talks were to have ended yesterday. This was to be a first meeting after Bali to discuss the work plan for the next 2 yrs which will deliver a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol by Copenhagen in 2009. The plenary has just…
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Greenpeace balloon message: No Future in Coal
This morning, the Greenpeace hot-air balloon paid a visit to a major source of Australia’s greenhouse pollution, flying over some of the Hunter Valley’s biggest coal-fired power stations. We came here to deliver a vital message to the government: there is no future in coal. It was a bleary-eyed start to the morning, as we…
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The Clean Coal Myth Gets A Helping Hand
In case it has slipped anyone’s minds, let me recap why the environment movement campaigns on climate change. We have a few years left to get emissions falling dramatically and in Australia, we need to be looking at at least 40% reductions below 1990 levels by the year 2020. This is if we want to…