The Blog

It’s time for rich and high polluting countries to step up their efforts and take real action on climate change as world leaders head to the United Nations climate change conference - COP24 - in Katowice in a few days’ time.

When a drilling rig leased by BP exploded 40 miles off the Louisiana coastline, eleven workers lost their lives and pipes deep under the surface of seafloor ruptured. Oil gushed for three months into the Gulf of Mexico, and millions of barrels of oil polluted thousands of miles of marine ecosystems, devastating local communities.

This week Victoria goes to the polls, and the future of renewable energy and the climate is on the line. That’s why it’s absolutely crucial that voters know exactly where the parties stand on the big issues.

Buskers and baristas. Grand final fever and the Great Ocean Road. Idiosyncratic facial hair and indecisive weather. Victoria has it all! But with the state set to go to the polls next week, and the future of clean energy and climate action at stake, what do the voters of Victoria really want?

Equinor has vowed it won’t go ahead with drilling in the Great Australian Bight unless it can be done safely — but its own documents show that safe drilling in the Bight is a myth. The waters of the Bight are wild and stormy, and the proposed drill site is twice as far underwater as the Deepwater Horizon well — all factors that make oil drilling in the Bight extra risky.

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy’s proposal to prop up dying industries that business won’t is a symptom of the fossil fuel fetishisation and climate change denial that plagues the Coalition at state and federal level.

There is a lot we can do on our own, but we need to work together if we want to make substantial change.