Australia's 2014 summer breaks more records

Reading the climate Council latest report on the Angry Summer 2013/2014 (PDF) I was struck by the extent and rapidity of the changes in temperature we are seeing now.

The angry summer we have just experienced comes on top of 2013 being the hottest year on record for Australia, with temperatures off the charts setting new temperature records. A risk attribution study found that 2013 record temperatures could be clearly attributed to climate change with 2013 temperatures not found in 13,000 model years of simulations under a natural only scenario.

More heatwave, more action required on climate change and adaptation

Melbourne and much of south east Australia is again suffering a heatwave this week. The temperature reached 41.2C in Melbourne today with a cool change bringing down temperatures on Wednesday to 25C before rising into the low to mid 30s for the rest of the week.

Inland towns get no such reprieve from the heat. Sunday in Melbourne is forecast to be 41C again, with the Bureau of Meteorology having a heatwave forecast in place.

In the first week of 2014 temperatures climbed towards 50C in a heatwave focussed on WA, Northern Territory, Queensland and NSW. It was so hot that thousands of bats fell from the trees from heat exhaustion.

The heat from Central Australia brought heatwave conditions across south east Australia, from the 13th January. Melbourne had four consecutive days of temperatures exceeding 41C, a new record for the city. The Victorian Premier Denis Napthine warned that the electricity grid was stretched to the limit and up to 100,000 people may lose power for a time.

Victorian Premier warns 100,000 premises may lose power during extreme heatwave

Original story by me at Climate Action Moreland

The Premier Denis Napthine warned Victorians that 100,000 premises may lose power during the extreme heatwave due to demand on the state's electricity grid. Thank you Premier, for your incompetence at managing electricity generation in Victoria.

Climate scientists have been warning of the increased frequency and intensity of heatwaves, with a long term trend of increasing temperatures and 2013 being our hottest year on record. (See this 2009 study by Alexander and Arblaster - Assessing trends in observed and modelled climate extremes over Australia in relation to future projections (PDF))

Much of the electricity system is about managing peak demand through ensuring adequate generating capacity in the network. Victoria's continued reliance on aging brown coal fired generators with impediments to diversification through renewables has let down the electors and residents of Victoria, badly. We are now seeing the results of poor climate and energy policy at the state level.

Hundreds rally to oppose brown coal allocation and export from Victoria

Hundreds rallied outside the Victorian Parliament House opposing plans for brown coal allocation and development for a coal export industry from the La Trobe Valley and Gippsland.

Currently 13 billion tonnes of brown coal is being considered for allocation by the Napthine conservative state Governmnet, despite the impact of this in carbon emissions on climate change and increasing temperatures and extreme weather. As well as the allocation of coal licences, $90 million of Federal and State subsidies are also up for grab. Does subsidising brown coal make sense when we should rapidly be transitioning to renewables?

Already 8,000 people have signed a petition against the coal allocation and coal exports, with 3,000 of those signatures being given to Labor to table in parliament later this week.

Flinders Street Station Banner drop tells Vic Premier to get off the coal train

Climate activists this morning were up early, scaling the front of Melbourne's Flinders Street Station to do an anti-coal and pro-renewables banner drop above the iconic clocks at the station.

Quit coal activists abseiled down the building's facade unfurling the large banner addressed to the Victorian Premier Denis Napthine, "Get off the coal train and on track for Renewables!".

The climbers have been charged with trespass and other offenses. They have all been released from police custody.

Reversing Victoria's anti-Wind Farm regulation could boost regional development

Victoria has a new Premier with Ted Baillieu falling on his own sword, with Denis Napthine, the member for South West Coast, being appointed into the role of Premier of Victoria. Just in time as new economic statistics show that the Victorian economy is in recession. Restoring sanity to planning regulations for wind farm development could boost regional development and the Government's very low environmental credentials as it faces re-election in 2014.

Related: Petition - Let's get Victoria back on track: clean energy, protect our farms

Update 14 March 2013: Sadly, Denis Napthine in conversation with Jon Faine on ABC Radio 774 Melbourne on 14 March scotched the prospect of reversing the anti-wind farm planning regulations as breaking a promise from last election in 2010. I don't know what that has to do with it, as the coalition Government has already broken several environmental policy promises as well as policies on maintaining TAFE and increasing salaries of teachers.

Friends of the Earth have highlighted one small policy change that could make a substantial difference in Victoria's regional economy and employment and also provide substantial climate emissions reduction. We are talking about reversing Baillieu's drastic planning law VC82 for wind turbines whereby anybody within a 2 kiloneter radius of a proposed wind turbine can veto the development.

"There is no doubt that Ted Baillieu was ideologically committed to opposing wind energy" said Friends of the Earth renewables spokesperson Leigh Ewbank. "The new Premier, Denis Napthine, does not have the same ideological baggage."