Climate Change not on Abbott’s South Australian #bushfire agenda but should be

Photo: Adelaide bushfires, as seen from the airport. Copyright: eosdude/Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

This article originally appeared at Nofibs.com.au

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has visited the bushfire stricken communities in the Adelaide Hills outlining disaster recovery and short-term income assistance payments to bushfire victims, but refusing to be drawn on whether climate change has influenced bushfires. I investigate some of the recent science into the links between bushfire and climate Change for South Australia and the climate of denial being put forward by the Abbott government.

You can read a report of Abbott's visit to the fire ravaged area by Shalailah Medhora at the Guardian: Adelaide bushfires: PM announces cash payments for people left homeless.

The Adelaide Hills Sampson Flat bushfire has burnt more than 12,000 hectares, with up to 38 houses and numerous sheds, livestock, including destroying the Tea Tree Gully Kennels and Cattery with the loss of life of many family pets.

30,000 rally in Melbourne and more in regional Victoria for action on climate change

A beautiful spring day brought out the crowds to attend the Peoples Climate Melbourne rally. But the hum had been in the air that this was going to draw a large crowd. As it turns out, over 30,000 people turned up and marched from the State Library of Victoria to the Treasury Gardens through Melbourne's streets demanding greater action on climate change .

There were short speeches outside the State Library of Victoria by Labor's Shadow Minister for the Environment Mark Butler MP (Watch video), Senator Christine Milne, leader of the Australian Greens (Watch video), and Professor Tim Flannery of the Climate Council (Watch video).

Double dissolution trigger: Greens and Labor challenge Abbott on climate, clean energy

The Labor Party and Greens have defeated for a second time in the Senate a bill by Tony Abbott's Government to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. This gives a first trigger for the Government to call a double dissolution election.

"Prime Minister Abbott if you really believe that this is absolute crap and that the Clean Energy Act is going to wipe Whyalla off the map, how’s that working out?" he told the Senate.

"If you really believe that renewable energy can't deliver, then here is the double dissolution election trigger you’ve been waiting for."

"The world is starting to move, in fact parts of the world are well ahead of Australia, we’re lagging and the hour is late, so if its an election you want then bring it on." explained Senator Ludlum.

Watch Western Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlum challenge the Abbott Government to bring on a 'globalwarming' double dissolution election.



The Clean Energy Finance Corporation was established by the Gillard Labor party in consultation with the Greens and Independant MPs in 2011 to help fund renewable energy projects through assisting private funding. As an investment catalyst, it has actually proved a successful business generating about $200million annually to aid the budget, while also helping establish clean technologies in existing businesses.

Australian political responses to Obama's climate change Inauguration speech

The parliamentary leaders of the Labor Party, Liberal Party and the Greens all responded to Barack Obama's statement on the necessity to act on climate change made during his 2013 inauguration speech.

The Prime Minister Julia Gillard welcomed the statement and also reiterated government policy on carbon pricing, and the trend for more extreme weather events due to climate change as articulated by climate scientists.

Tony Abbott was more combative, attempting to use his press conference question for taking a cheap shot at President Obama not being able to get climate legislation passed through congress, and attacking the Government's carbon pricing policy.

Greens leader, Senator Christine Milne, also welcomed the change in priority on climate change by the US administration and said that "the proof of President Obama's commitment will be in what the US does in the global negotiations" over the next two years.

Greens Leader says 'Look at the damage to humanity being caused by people who bankroll coalmines'

Jonathon Moylan's ANZ Bank hoax letter over the Maule's Creek Project open cut coalmine continues to produce reverberations. Greens Leader Christine Milne has now come out in his support arguing that we are in a climate emergency and we need to have a very serious 'Look at the damage to humanity being caused by people who bankroll coalmines'. Independent Economist Rod Campbell implies that the real hoax being perpetrated on small and institutional investors in Whitehaven coal is by Gillespie Economics and NSW Planning Department who massively overestimated the benefits and underestimated the social, environmental, health and climate costs of the project.

Jonathon Moylan may become Australia's first high profile climate civil disobedience activist jailed as a result of an ASIC investigation. A somewhat similar case ocurred in the USA in 2011 when climate activist Tim DeChristopher was jailed for two years and fined $10,000 for climate civil disobedience for exposing the rorts in an auction of public lands for mineral exploration. Clive Hamilton on The Conversation website article - ANZ imposter takes up new climate tactic - also draws our attention to the parallels with the Tim DeChristopher case.

Take Action: Sign the ANZ Stop the Loan e-petition

Environmentalists: Fuel Emission reduction policy well behind world's best practice

Policy Plans released by Julia Gillard and her Climate Change Minister Penny Wong for mandatory vehicle fuel efficiency standards and a $2000 rebate for trading in pre-1995 cars for new fuel efficient vehicles, were cautiously welcomed by environmentalists while being criticised for not going far enough and being funded by cuts to other climate change action programs such as Carbon Capture and Storage and solar energy. "Under this plan, Australia's fuel efficiency standards for new vehicles will be about a quarter of a century behind China's when they are eventually law. We must make our cars cleaner quicker." said Don Henry, Australian Conservation Foundation executive director.

Australian emission standards are currently voluntary. Under the envisaged mandatory standards emissions from light vehicles would reduce by 14 per cent by 2014 and 30 per cent by 2024 based upon 2008 emission levels. While Government modelling suggests a significant fuel saving - a typical motorist could save around $600 per year on fuel costs - the estimated amount saved could prove elusive due to the threat of peak oil to affect major increases in petrol prices in the next decade. The government has not released petrol price modelling to check their figures.

The car industry has welcomed the $394 million plan to give motorists a rebate on trade-ins between January 2011 and the end of 2014.

The Australian Conservation Foundation questioned why the 30 per cent emission reduction would not be introduced until 2024 when many countries already have mandatory fuel emission requirements. "Australians want healthier cities and more efficient cars, but the standards announced today are weaker than European standards and certainly not world's best practice," said Don Henry. "Europe, the United States, Japan, China, Taiwan and South Korea have all had mandatory fuel efficiency standards for new cars for years. China's new car fleet was already more efficient than Australia's in 2002."

Greens Climate Change spokeperson Senator Christine Milne welcomed the initiative but criticised the Government for cutting back renewable energy programs to fund it, and the lack of a carbon price mechanism being set to fund such initiatives. "Prime Minister Gillard's refusal to legislate for a carbon tax means that she does not have a source of funding for climate initiatives and it is completely wrong to take money out of Australia's renewable energy future to pay to take clunkers off the road." she said.

"The Greens would take the money from coal via a carbon tax, or from fuel excise, whereas the Prime Minister's rhetoric on climate change is becoming even more hollow as she prepares to attack the solar industry one again. Prime Minister Gillard seems to think that nobody cares if only two of the 52 applications in the solar flagship program are funded, but she will find that Australians do care about the solar industry and will not look kindly on this daylight robbery from the solar sector." said Senator Milne.

Sources

• Australian Labor Party Policy News, July 24, 2010 - New emission standards for cars
• Media Release - Australian Conservation Foundation, July 24, 2010 - Make cars cleaner quicker
• Media Release - The Greens, July 24, 2010 - Labor steals from solar to pay for old clunkers