Climate Action Centre

talk climate : SHOULD WE FLY? air travel and climate change

6.30 pm Thursday March 25
Climate Action Centre
Lvl 5, New Building, Victorian Trades Hall
Cnr. Victoria & Lygon Streets, Carlton South

Aircraft emissions are one of the fastest growing sources of carbon pollution, yet little is being done to curb their growth.
Activist Louise Matthiesson examines the political economy of air travel and asks the question: can we still fly and stop climate change?

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Local community climate groups back Greens carbon price

Media Release

Over 30 local community climate groups have thrown their support behind a fixed carbon price, supporting a statement that rejects the government and coalition policies and calls on the Parliament to back the Greens' plan.

The plan, also supported by Ross Garnaut, seeks to break the Senate deadlock on climate change by setting a interim $20 a tonne carbon price for the next two years. The Greens are currently negotiating with the government on the plan.

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Abbott joins Rudd on sinking sand

MEDIA RELEASE

Tony Abbott might be trying to stake out new electoral ground but he has only succeeded in pitching his tent on the same sinking sand as the Rudd government, the Victorian Climate Action Centre said today.

The Coalition's climate fund is too small and their target, like the governments, is too low to make a meaningful impact on the climate crisis.

“Tony Abbot's announcement is long on rhetoric and short on detail,” Damien Lawson Coordinator of the Victorian Climate Action Centre said today.

“While the policy of direct government incentives or investment could be a viable alternative to Labor's international carbon trading, the size of the fund is pitifully small and there is no detail on what and how investments will be prioritised.”

“As it stands under Mr Abbott's policy coal fired power stations would be eligible for funding if they burned coal more efficiently.”

“Real direct action would mean buying out the owners of Victoria's Hazelwood power station, one of the world's dirtiest, and closing it down. This would be cheaper pollution abatement at $5 per tonne than either Kevin Rudd or Tony Abbott's plan.”

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Action Alert : CPRS back in parliament

We say we oppose the CPRS, now is the time to be heard

SEE BELOW for sign-on statement from climate action groups: deadline 10am Tuesday 2 February

The CPRS debate returns to Canberra this week with the resumption of Parliament. Short of a Double Dissolution (unlikely), there is almost no chance of the CPRS legislation (as negotiated between Labor and Liberals under Turnbull) being passed.

But it is important that when it fails to pass Parliament again, our voices in opposing it should be loud and clear in the public arena, so that the failure of the legislation is not portrayed simply as a victory for the deniers in the Opposition and more broadly.

It is also important that the only positive alternative on the Canberra agenda, the Green's proposal for a flat price $23 tonne price as an interim measure, be supported to demonstrate the need for effective action now.

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"Glacier gate" - how the Murdoch press have got it wrong on the Himalayan big melt

Climate Action Centre Briefing Note, 20 January 2009

Recently, the Murdoch press have continued their campaign of climate denial and delay by giving front-page prominence to a five-day-old story attacking the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predictions of glacial melt in the Himalayan-Tibetan ranges by 2035.

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A CLIMATE CON - ANALYSIS OF THE "COPENHAGEN ACCORD"

Submitted by Admin on Mon, 12/21/2009 - 15:23

Climate Action Centre Briefing Note, December 21 2009
Prepared by David Spratt and Damien Lawson

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Failure at Copenhagen

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd must take a large share of responsibility for the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks.

The Copenhagen Accord has little substance and is a death sentence for the climate. It is really just a face saving exercise rather than a plan to save the planet.

From day one, these talks were in trouble as rich, high-polluting countries, including Australia, tried to strong arm developing countries.

Kevin Rudd will try and spin the outcome and blame developing countries for the failure of these talks, but he must take a large share of responsibility for the failure.

Kevin Rudd and Australia, as a "friend of the chair" was a central part of the controversial push by developed countries to override the Kyoto protocol, the only enforceable international climate agreement, and replace it with self-regulating targets that could only fail.

Australia, along with other other developed countries, has failed to put large pollution cuts on the table or sufficient funding to help developing countries deal with climate change. While over 100 countries called for a target of 1.5 degree and cuts to below 350 ppm CO2-e, Australia continued to push for two degrees and a 450 ppm CO2-e target, while offering cuts that would not even fulfil them.

Kevin Rudd talked 2 degrees but his lack of action is more like 4 degrees.

Kevin Rudd, successfully pressured Pacific and African countries to accept what they described as a "death sentence.

The real measure of the worth of this accord is that Tuvalu, the "climate conscience" of the world rejected it.

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