Greenpeace today unveiled a message for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: a banner on the iconic Sydney Opera House saying: "Stop the Politics - Climate Treaty Now". Five Greenpeace activists scaled one of the sails of the Opera House to do the banner drop.
The banner drop occurred at 9.20am with police quickly sealing off the area to tourists and the banner was taken down by 10am. The activists have each been charged with trespass.
Greenpeace chief executive officer Linda Selvey told the ABC World Today program "With only four days to go with Copenhagen, it is a critical time to get across the message that Australians want strong action on climate change... the most important thing that is happening in the world's history is happening at the moment at Copenhagen and with only a few days to go, we need to do what we can to get a message across to world leaders that we need strong action on climate change." she said.
In a Sydney Morning Herald report Linda Selvey said "Basically, (Prime Minister) Kevin Rudd and other world leaders seem to be focusing more on politics than they are on getting the outcome which is what we need for the planet.
"The fossil fuel industry is very cashed up and has been spending a lot of money to get the ear of politicians. We feel it's very important to use whatever tactics we can to get our message across on behalf of Australians." she said.
Greenpeace is running a campaign for Australia to put stronger commitments on the table at the climate negotiations in Copenhagen. Their demands include:
* Emissions cuts for industrialised countries 40% by 2020 (based on 1990 levels) * Emissions cuts for developing countries 15-30% of projected greenhouse pollution growth by 2020 * Commit to end deforestation by 2030. Deforestation causes 20% of greenhouse pollution worldwide, so climate change can't be stopped without protecting forests. This must be done in a way that protects indigenous communities and biodiversity. * Commit $US140 billion a year to help developing countries
In March 2003 on the eve of the invasion of Iraq two peace activists, Will Saunders and David Burgess, painted 'NO WAR' on the Opera House. They were sentenced to nine months' periodic detention for malicious damage, and ordered to pay $151,000 in clean-up costs. Many fundraisers were held to help the two meet this cost.
Takver is a citizen journalist from Melbourne who has been writing on Climate Change issues and protests including Rising Sea Level, Ocean acidification, Environmental and social Impacts since 2004.
Copenhagen. Dec 14, 2009. Australia and Japan are currently blocking movement on legally binding emissions reductions for rich countries, which has precipitated in the G77 group of 130 developing countries walking out of climate negotiations unless talks on a second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol are prioritized ahead of broader discussions under a second LCA track. A Flashmob of support by civil society for the African and island nations walkout was held in the convention centre.
Industrialised countries have not tabled any meaningful commitments around mitigation and medium - long-term financing and are pushing for a new agreement to sideline the Kyoto Protocol.
A huge crowd estimated in news reports at 40,000 people, participated in the Walk against Warming in Melbourne to send a message to Australian Climate Change Minister Senator Penny Wong and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at the Copenhagen COP15 UN Climate Change conference. Around the globe (350.org) people protested for an ambitious , fair and binding climate treaty, many calling for higher emission reduction targets to stabilise carbon in the atmosphere at 350ppm to avoid dangerous climate change.
In Sydney an estimated 15,000 people marched from Martin Place to the Botanical Gardens. They chanted "Climate Treaty Now - Don't Ditch Kyoto" for a video screened in Copenhagen.
Brisbane's King George Square was a sea of banners and protest slogans with an estimated 10,000 people. Organisers extended the route at the last minute to accommodate the large turnout.
Thousands of people rallied at Adelaide's Rymill Park after marching through the city.
Rallies were also held in Tasmania's Upper Florentine Valley, Perth, and many regional towns such as Geelong, Newcastle and Wollongong.
In Melbourne Spokeswoman Tricia Phelan said "It's vital that in the coming week our world leaders make a commitment on climate change," she said.
"We need a strong commitment and a commitment that looks like rich countries like Australia slashing our emissions, and helping to fund poorer countries to develop in a cleaner way, and avoid the mistake that we've made." she told ABC news.
Two Firefighters who were involved in the Black Saturday (Feb 7, 2009) devastating fires that killed 173 people spoke at the rally at the Melbourne State Library, linking the extreme catastrophic fires to extreme fire weather conditions and climate change.
The rally in Melbourne heard from Leah, a 24 year old Australian citizen from Tuvalu who gave a an account of the frontline of climate change on the atolls of Tuvalu which supports a population of 12,000 people with the highest point above sea level at 1 metre.
Her speech in full:
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Today I am talking on behalf of Make Poverty History.
Climate change is happening. It is real. We don't have time to argue with skeptics. While we waste time debating in our parliament and in our media, millions of the world's most vulnerable and poor people are being hit hard by it's effects despite being the least responsible.
I know this, I was born in Tuvalu. It is a small nation of 9 low lying atolls. At only 1 metre above sea level we are feeling the effects of the rising tides and the changing weather patterns.
Our food crops are being destroyed by saltwater seeping up through the coral, and the king tides that wash across our small atolls are becoming more common and increasingly severe. This threatens our local food supply and our ability to live off the land.
For us, continuing with business as usual means that within the next 10 to 20 years our land will become uninhabitable and our population of 12,000 people will be forced to relocate. This threatens our identity, our culture and our very existence. We are not the only ones. All over the world countries are being affected by climate change. Only in poor countries where money and resources are scarce it is difficult to adapt.
It is estimated that the number of people affected by climate related disasters is likely to increase by 54 per cent to 375 million people in the next 6 years. And while the poor suffer rich countries like Australia do nothing for fear that in reducing emissions it will hinder economic growth. For Tuvalu this is not a question of economics. It is a question of survival, of injustice, of human rights. This is life and death.
In Australia our Government refuses to respond with the urgency and leadership required to halt climate change and turn this around. We need to commit to reducing our emissions by at least 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. We need to apply substantial funding to support affected countries in adapting to climate change and to develop a low carbon pathway and to a sustainable future.
Copenhagen must deliver a fair, ambitious and legally binding climate deal to prevent catastrophic climate change and minimise the affect on poor countries.
The Australian Government is supposed to represent its people, and we are not being represented. We need to send a strong message that we will not stand for this inaction any longer.
There is hope for Tuvalu and for all nations affected and it lies with us. Gandhi said 'be the change you want to see in the world'. We can be that change. We must be that change. We can turn this around but we need to act immediately and effectively.
Please, research the issue surrounding climate change and arm yourself with knowledge. Learn more about what is at stake and talk about it in your workplaces, your schools, your community. Take direct action, reduce your own emissions, write to your local MP, live local, ride your bike, grow your own food, vote with your dollar, consume less. Inspire others to do the same.
There is hope. Look around you. Look at all the people here today. And during today introduce yourself to other people and thank each other for being here, because we have an enormous challenge ahead of us and we need to support each other to create the change necessary to secure a safe climate for us all.
Thankyou
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See a Video of the speech at Engagemedia (5:58) or Youtube (4:15)
Bolivia's ambassador to the United Nations, has responded strongly to the US position on Climate Debt, saying "We are not assigning guilt, merely responsibility. As they say in the US, if you break it, you buy it."
He was responding to Todd Stern, US Special Envoy for Climate Change, who said in a press conference on 10 December: "We absolutely recognize our historic role in putting emissions in the atmosphere up there that are there now. But the sense of guilt or culpability or reparations - I just categorically reject that."
Australia is also ducking it's responsibility - we are the largest carbon polluter on a per capita basis. And it appears our negotiators are part of the cabal trying to minimise our carbon debt to developing countries. By the in-action of Australia we are sentencing countries like Tuvalu to innundation by rising sea levels that we have partly caused.
Pablo Solon said "Admitting responsibility for the climate crisis without taking necessary actions to address it is like someone burning your house and then refusing to pay for it. Even if the fire was not started on purpose, the industrialised countries, through their inaction, have continued to add fuel to the fire. As a result they have used up two thirds of the atmospheric space, depriving us of the necessary space for our development and provoking a climate crisis of huge proportions.
"It is entirely unjustifiable that countries like Bolivia are now forced to pay for the crisis. This creates a huge draw on our limited resources to protect our people from a crisis created by the rich and their over-consumption.
"In Bolivia we are facing a crisis we had no role in causing. Our glaciers dwindle, droughts become ever more common, and water supplies are drying up. Who should address this? To us it seems only right that the polluter should pay, and not the poor."
"We are not assigning guilt, merely responsibility. As they say in the US, if you break it, you buy it."
Bolivia's chief climate negotiator, Angelica Navarro said that "Twenty percent of the population have actually emitted more than two-thirds of the emissions. And as a result, they have caused more than 90 percent of the increase in temperatures," Navarro says. "We are not begging for aid; we want developed countries to comply with their obligation and pay their debt."
Pablo Solon was interviewed by Friends of the Earth radiomundo real world news on 9 December- "They want to kill the Kyoto Protocol" - where he outlined "there is an attempt for this negotiation process we've been working on for over two years, to be suddenly replaced with a document written by a few countries, that will appear on the last days of the COP".
According to Salon the developed countries, including Australia, are pushing for a new deal that will force countries like China, India, Mexico and Brazil, which are part of the G77, to reduce their emissions. "These are not the formal negotiations and we want a transparent negotiating process, where all the member countries are reflected and without last minute agreements". he said.
"Bolivia thinks the developed countries want to erase the footprints of the climate debt they owe to the developing countries, to the humanity as a whole, and to Mother Earth. For this reason they want to erase the Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change", said Solon.
"We shall firmly oppose any attempt to avoid or eliminate the historical responsibility that they (the developed countries) have", he claimed.
"Bolivia brings a key issue to the COP 15. If we want to solve the issue of climate change here, we have to reestablish a harmonic relation of the human beings with nature, which has been broken by the capitalist system. Unless we manage to change the capitalist system, we will not be able to reestablish the balance between human beings and nature, hence the causes that lead to greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems in the world, will continue".
Solon applauded the key role of social movements in keeping the pressure on Governments and negotiators to avoid an agreement drawn up by the industialised countries that penalises the developing world: "If social movements keep the pressure and the eye on the governments and the delegations, and if they are watching them with proposals, there are more chances of reaaching an agreement that puts the interests of humanity and the interests of Mother Earth first". he said.
========================================= David Ngatae, Cook Islands, said 100 other countries have got behind Tuvalu's proposal. Australia is not one of them. Tuvalu wants a legally binding agreement, with emission reduction actions that will preserve its sovereignty: backpeddle to 350ppm and aim for no more than 1.5 degrees of warming. If industrialised countries fulfilled their commitments under Kyoto Protocol and Bali roadmap of 25-40% emissions reductions on 1990 levels by 2020 we would achieve the Tuvalu targets. All it takes is political will.
Takver is a citizen journalist from Melbourne who has been writing on Climate Change issues and protests including Rising Sea Level, Ocean acidification, Environmental and social Impacts since 2004.
COPENHAGEN. Dec 9, 2009.Extinction of Coral reefs and 10-20% of marine species is likely if greehouse gases aren't brought down to 350ppm, warned Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from the University of Queensland. He gave a presentation at the US Pavilion at the COP15 climate negotiations in Copenhagen about the threat of climate change to the world's coral reefs. Over 500 million people living in approximately 90 nations are dependant in some way on coral reefs.
Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg was a contributing author to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2007, which shared the Nobel Prize with Al Gore.
The UN climate summit in Copenhagen came to a temporary halt on December 9 as the small Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu demanded commitment to a legally-binding agreement while industrialised nations refused to express an opinion.
Tuvalu is demanding a new treaty to run alongside the Kyoto protocol that would set the maximum allowable temperature increase to be 1.5 degrees Celsius, instead of 2 degrees Celsius rise usually put forth by developed countries and big emerging economies like India and China. In addition, they requested that atmospheric carbon levels be set at 350 parts per million (ppm) instead of 450 ppm.
Competition for the Climate Fossil of the Day Award is very stiff at climate talks. The satirical awards are a popular event presented by Climate Action Network activists.Three ‘Fossil of The Day’ awards are given to the countries who perform the worst during the past day’s negotiations at UN climate change conferences. On day two of the Copenhagen Climate talks Australia has shared in a Second Place Award as part of the Umbrella Group for proposing at a Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) plenary that carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects should qualify as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects.
The Clean Development Mechanism generates carbon credits from projects in the developing world which are then sold to companies and countries who can claim pollution reductions against those credits.
The Umbrella Group is composed of Industrialized non-EU countries: Canada, Iceland, Japan, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Norway, Russian Federation, Ukraine, United States and Australia. The chair of the Umbrella group is presently Australia. The Award citation says:
"The brollies have gotten used to subsidizing the coal and oil industries in their own countries-but do they really have to subsidize the same dirty companies in developing countries too? The CDM should be reserved for projects that move developing countries towards actual clean energy solutions. Umbrella Group, good luck capturing and sequestering your Fossil Award!"
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is not presently a viable technology for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from coal fired power stations and is not expected, even by its proponents, to be commercially viable until at least 2020, and deployment of CCS at utility scale is not expected before 2030, by which time emissions need to have peaked and be rapidly reducing.
A 2008 Greenpeace report - False Hope: Why carbon capture and storage won't save the climate - says that CCS wastes energy by using between 10 and 40% of the energy produced by a power station. At this stage Safe and permanent storage of CO2 cannot be guaranteed with just minor leakage rates undermining any climate mitigation efforts. CCS could lead to a doubling of plant costs, and an electricity price increase of 21-91%., diverting money from sustainable solutions. There are significant liability risks posed by CCS including threats to health, ecosystems and the climate. It is unclear how severe these risks will be.
"Australia must stop pushing this clean coal pipe dream at Copenhagen," Damien Lawson, climate justice spokesperson, Friends of the Earth Australia said today.
"There are already enormous problems with the Clean Development Mechanism. Including carbon capture will only create more loopholes for polluters to claim credits. The Rudd government's own Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute says that it will take at least 20 years for any projects to be economically viable and that is only if the safety and technical issues can be overcome."
"Including CCS in the Copenhagen agreement will have the incredibly perverse outcome that would mean that companies who burn coal will be able to purchase reduction credits from companies that are burning coal with CCS in the developing world."
"This is further evidence that the big polluters, in particular the coal industry, are driving Australia's climate agenda." said Lawson.
In July 2009 Kevin Rudd launched the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute at a G8 event jointly hosted by the President of the United States, Barack Obama and Italy's Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi in L'Aquila, Italy. The Australian Government has committed A$100 million a year to support CCS work and a further A$2 billion to support the construction of CCS demonstration projects in Australia.
Takver is a citizen journalist from Melbourne who has been writing on Climate Change issues and protests including Rising Sea Level, Ocean acidification, Environmental and social Impacts since 2004.
2009 is likely to be the fifth warmest year on record according to the World Meteorological Organisation, with the current decade being the warmest on record, eclipsing the 1990s, which in turn was warmer than the 1980s.
Above normal temperatures were recorded for most regions with North America experiencing conditions colder than normal in some regions. Global warming is producing more weather extremes, at greater frequency and intensity.
With the hacking of emails from the University of East Anglia there have been calls by climate deniers and some commentators like George Monbiot for scientific data to be made more public. In response, the UK Met Office has released station temperature records for over 1,500 of the stations that make up the global land surface temperature record. More data will be made available in the future and placed in the public domain for scrutiny.
The Temperature is Rising
The global combined sea surface and land surface air temperature for 2009 (up to October) was estimated at 0.44°C ± 0.11°C (0.79°F ± 0.20°F) above the 1961-1990 annual average of 14.00°C/57.2°F.
As the atmosphere and oceans warm up, more water vapour can be carried, storms will be more intense and more frequent. We will experience more extreme weather events. We are seeing more extreme weather events, with many precipitation and temperature records are being broken.
The year was the third warmest in China since 1951 and for some regions 2009 was the warmest year. A heatwave in July broke some local temperature records.
In Europe spring was very warm with temperatures 5 degrees above average during April in central Europe breaking several records. The European summer was also warmer than the long-term average. Spain recorded the third-warmest summer, and Italy suffered a strong heatwave in July with temperatures soaring over 40°C, and reaching 45°C at some locations. The July heatwave also affected the United Kingdom, France, Belgium , Germany, and Scandanavian countries setting new maximum records.
The year was marked by climate extremes with devastating floods, severe droughts, snowstorms, heatwaves and cold waves, recorded around the world.
Canada and Alaska experienced a hot July with Vancouver and Victoria setting new temperature records and Alaska recording the second warmest July on record. However, October proved to be the third-coolest October on record for the United States.
In the Southern Hemisphere autumn proved to be exceedingly warm across Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil with several temperature records broken.
China is in its worst drought in 50 years. One the weakest monsoon seasons for India caused severe drought in many districts. Severe drought continues in East Africa decimating crop harvests and livestock, leading to food shortages. Exceptional drought was also recorded during October in Mexico, the US Southwest, and Argentina. The Murray Darling Basin, Australia's food bowl, is in its 9th year of drought. The South west corner of Western Australia and South eastern Australia continues to receive below average rainfall.
The WMO has also warned that the frequency and severity of droughts are likely to increase. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has noted that: "The combination of record heat and widespread drought during the past five to ten years over large parts of southern and eastern Australia is without historical precedent and is, at least partly, a result of climate change."
While the Copenhagen COP15 talks are underway, meteorologists, climatologists and other researchers are meeting at the University of Nebraska from 8 to 11 December 2009 at the 'Inter-Regional Workshop on Indices and Early Warning Systems for Drought'.
"There is a critical need to establish best practices for drought early warning systems throughout the world. This requires that we develop a better understanding of the tools and data sources that are important components of these systems. Drought is a serious problem in virtually all countries. Projected changes in climate for many regions suggest that droughts are likely to become more frequent, of longer duration, and more severe. Our ability to lessen or mitigate the impacts associated with drought is contingent on putting in place comprehensive early warning systems.", said Dr Don Wilhite, Director and Professor, School of Natural Resources of the University of Nebraska, at the opening of the workshop.
Storms
Intense storms affected Spain and France in January; severe damage by a winter storm in western Europe resulting in serious disruptions to air and rail traffic across the region. Thunderstorms and extreme rainfall events across Europe and Turkey, culminating in a record rainfall in 24 hours for Great Britain in November resulting in flooding and damage to bridges.
In South America heavy rainfall occurred in Colombia at the start of the year, producing landslides and widespread floods. Later, North-east Brazil experienced heavy rainfall and flooding, and in Winter the worst snowstorm for 15 years hit the southern part of Argentina. Intense rainfall breaking monthly precipitation records and flooding ocurred in north-eastern Argentina, southern Brazil and Uruguay in November.
A record number of tornadoes were witnessed in Ontario, Canada, and Canadian avalanches were almost double the yearly average for the past decade. The United States experienced its wettest October in 115 years, with record flooding during March in the northern plains region.
192 people died in El Salvador when an intense storm associated with Hurricane Ida, produced deadly floods and landslides.
Southern India experienced incessant rain resulting in severe flooding during September and October.
A severe snowstorm in Northern China in early November, one month earlier than normal, broke local weather records.
Torrential rain and flooding ocurred in Western Africa, Zambia and Namibia. Burkina Faso experienced 263 mm of rain recorded in less than 12 hours, breaking a record set 90 years ago. Flooding affected over 100,000 people in West Africa and a further 1 million people in southern Africa.
While extreme heatwave and bushfires hit south eastern Australia in February, at the same time large parts of Queensland and coastal New South Wales were subject to torrential rain and flooding. In September and October eastern Australia was affected by dust storms carrying dust from central Australia, reducing visibility.
Arctic Sea Ice
The Arctic experienced its third lowest sea ice extent over the Northern summer, with only 2007 and 2008 being lower.
More importantly, sea ice thickness is also in rapid decline, with much of the purported multi-year ice as detected by microwaves from satellite proven by new research to be 'rotten' ice unexpectedly thin that electromagnetically fools the satellite measurement instruments. The Research was conducted by Dr David Barber, a professor of Environment and Geography and Canada Research Chair in Arctic System Science from the University of Manitoba.
"Our results are consistent with ice age estimates that show the amount of multiyear sea ice in the northern hemisphere was the lowest on record in 2009 suggesting that multiyear sea ice continues to diminish rapidly in the Canada Basin even though 2009 aerial extent increased over that of 2007 and 2009," Dr David Barber concludes in his paper which has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters.
This latest research was conducted In September 2009 by Barber and others in the southern Beaufort Sea aboard the research vessel (NGCC) Amundsen. Much of the ice encountered, sometimes 6-8 metres thick, was so heavily decayed the Amundsen easily broke through the floes. For much of the journey the ship sailed at close to its open water cruising speed of about 25km/h.
"This has significant implications for assessment of the speed of global climate change impacts in the Arctic and for increased shipping and industrial development in the Arctic," said Barber.
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) which covers many of the researchers and academics who work in science, economic modelling and related fields, has called upon the Federal Labor Government and opposition parties to abandon the proposed Emissions Trading System, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) legislation and instead develop a national pollution reduction strategy that does not primarily rely on market mechanisms.
The opposition parties rejected the Government's CPRS legislation in the Senate, however Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has said the legislation will be resubmitted in February 2010 for re-consideration. The new leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott, has publicly opposed this legislation "a giant new tax on everything" and has said his party would deliver similar emission reductions of between 5 and 25 per cent by 2020 based on 2000 levels, but without explaining how.
The NTEU has called for ambitious emission reduction targets of a minimum 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions on 1990 levels by 2020 as a step towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions. These targets are more in tune with what scientists are calling for to avoid climate tipping points and dangerous climate change.
The NTEU climate change policy puts the union at odds with the Rudd Labor Government, Liberal Opposition and the ACTU. The ACTU has been fully supporting the Federal Labor Government Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme legislation.
"The settlement between the Rudd Government and the opposition has sadly been driven by business self-interest in many areas, however the basic architecture to drive carbon abatement remains intact," said ACTU President Sharan Burrow in a media release on 25 November.
Along with proposals for a planned transition from coal-fired generators to renewable energy sources, the union proposes re-skilling and alternative employment for affected workers, as well as an urgent public investment program in public transport, renewable energy and the sustainable retrofitting of the nation's housing stock.
The union's NSW secretary, Genevieve Kelly, told the Australian newspaper "Rather than get bogged down with a costly emissions trading scheme that rewards big polluters and will have a limited impact on emissions, the Rudd government needs to immediately invest in renewable energy, public transport and a transition from coal-fired power generation," Ms Kelly said.
The Rudd Government currently promises cuts of 5 to 25% on 2000 levels. At the best a 25% cut only equates to a 10.8% cut on 1990 levels. But they fudge these figures further by including land use and forestry targets and financing the reduction in deforestation in third world countries to offset emissions. This will allow Australia's emissions to actually increase until 2030.
"This policy may place the NTEU at odds with the Rudd government and some elements of the union movement; however, we have an obligation to respond to the deeply held concerns of our members who overwhelmingly want action on this issue," Ms Kelly was reported as saying.
The union is also attempting to include environmental claims in workplace agreements. The union is a member of Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability Association, and is negotiating with universities and TAFE institutes to reducing emissions as part of workplace agreements.
NTEU climate change policy
as published in Advocate, Vol 16 No 3, November 2009
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The 2009 NTEU National Council adopted a policy on climate change that calls on the Labor Government and opposition parties to support:
1. Abandonment of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) legislation and development of a national pollution reduction strategy that does not primarily rely on market mechanisms. 2. A target of a minimum 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions on 1990 levels by 2020 as a step towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions. 3. A planned transition from coal-fired generators to renewable energy sources, including re-skilling and good quality alternative employment for affected workers. 4. An urgent public investment program in public transport, renewable energy and the sustainable retrofitting of the nation's housing stock. 5. Legislation that gives effect to the Just Transition recommendations endorsed by the ACTU and the United Nations Environment Program and ensures the social costs of climate change mitigation and adaptation are not borne disproportionately by households. 6. Development of a national green employment strategy that meets international best practice standards on decent work and measurably reduces greenhouse gas emissions. 7. Development of a national strategy that identifies unsustainable industry and consumer demand levels, and addresses their employment implications. 8. Amendment of the Fair Work Act in line with ALP 2007 policy to facilitate bargaining on environmental claims by industrial parties.
National Council also agreed that NTEU should hold a conference on climate change in 2010, focusing on the climate change policy agenda post-Copenhagen and its relevance for NTEU members and the union movement in general.
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Sources:
* NTEU - Advocate, Vol 16 No 3, November 2009, pp27 (PDF) * The Australian, Dec 7, 2009, Union revolts over ETS * ACTU media release, Nov 25, 2009 - CPRS must now be passed to create jobs and a stronger economy
Takver is a citizen journalist from Melbourne who has been writing on Climate Change issues and protests including Rising Sea Level, Ocean acidification, Environmental and social Impacts since 2004.
Victoria Police have handed over information on Desalination protesters to AquaSure, made up of international and local companies Degremont, Suez Environment, Thiess and Macquarie Capital Group. The 20 page Memorandum of Understanding was signed on August 28 by the Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria Police and AquaSure. Victoria Police have said it was routine for police to sign such deals with organisations building big public projects where there were potential security risks.
In the latest deal Victoria Police have agreed to hand over photos, video recordings and other police records to the international consortium AquaSure to help it ''manage'' protests and potential security threats, to protect the site at Wonthaggi as well as the electricity supply to the project and new pipelines from the plant to Cardinia Reservoir.
Greenpeace today unveiled a message for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: a banner on the iconic Sydney Opera House saying: "Stop the Politics - Climate Treaty Now". Five Greenpeace activists scaled one of the sails of the Opera House to do the banner drop.
