100% Renewables by 2020

PUBLIC FORUM

How We Can Do It.

Matthew Wright campaigner & researcher from Beyond Zero Emissions

& Paul Petit - CLEAN activist

WEDNESDAY 22 JULY

Napier Building Lecture Theatre 102 Adelaide Uni

6.00 Refreshments---6.30 Start

We already have a global climate disaster.  There are predictions that on our current emissions trajectory, the summer ice extent in the Arctic could be completely gone by 2013.

This could trigger a climate catastrophe. This leaves us with one simple option - we must reduce our greenhouse emissions and we must do it now. The  call  for 100% renewable energy by 2020 is being taken up around the world. Existing renewable energy is available now, at the necessary scale & capacity & has proven reliability.

So why do Australian political leaders lag behind what is clearly necessary & possible?

 This forum will examine how we can move forward into a safe climate future.

A CLEAN public forum. All welcome!  To find out more about the

Climate Emergency Action Network ph  0400 754 559

cleansa@yahoo.com.au  www.cleansa.org.au

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National Climate Emergency Rally Adelaide June 2009

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Flying shoes mark emissions protest

Greens supporters in Adelaide, have thrown their shoes at a mock Kevin Rudd, to protest against the Federal Government's emissions targets.

See the video click here http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2008/12/16/2448161.htm

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Climate Emergency Activists Target Wong’s Office demanding

“Serious targets to maintain a safe climate”

It has become increasingly apparent that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong are not serious in their commitment to  really tackling  climate change.   Today, the Federal Government  releases its White Paper on its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. This paper will announce Australia's emissions reductions target for 2020.   All reports indicate that the targets will be in the range of a 5-15% reduction on 1990 levels.

The overwhelming majority of climate scientists agree that such small targets do not give us a chance of maintaining a safe climate for current generations let alone  future generations.

“We are declaring a state of climate emergency.  The scientific consensus  is very clear-  we are well down the road to widespread ecological destruction and we  need serious action now.  South Australia’s  Climate Emergency Action Network  (CLEAN SA) advocates serious targets which aim for the maintenance of a safe climate and an emergency conversion to renewable energy starting today.

Rudd and Wong like to claim they have a “balanced” approach to the climate change debate but there is nothing balanced about setting weak targets which commit ourselves and  future generations to climate catastrophe – it is a totally irresponsible position for government to take” CLEAN media spokesperson, Jenny Bain said.

“This is a global and national security emergency of critical importance for future life on this planet.  There are a range of economically viable, job creating, renewable technologies and industry opportunities  available now.  For instance, we can use  the Future Fund, divert massive public subsidisation of polluting fossil fuels into renewables, and cease the  propping up of unviable industries so that we can have a future” Ms Bain said.
Monday December 15th   12 noon at Penny Wong's office, 81 Carrington St, Adelaide

Press Release from Christine Milne Tasmanian Green Senator Sunday 7 December 2008  re ALP and climate warming talks in Poland.

Wong takes Howard tactics to Poznan; Marathon demands huge effort from beginning to end


The Australian Greens today warned that the Rudd Government's Howard-era negotiating tactics at the Poznan climate conference risk scuttling any effective global climate change treaty.

The Australian delegation in Poznan is continuing to chair meetings of the "Umbrella Group", the negotiating bloc including the USA, Canada, Japan and Saudi Arabia, which is the main grouping holding back progress towards an effective agreement.

The Rudd Government's refusal to commit to the minimum negotiating range of 25-40% emissions cuts by 2020 is already being seen as a blockage to a successful outcome.

"When Australians elected the Rudd Government 12 months ago, they were voting for an end to Howard-era climate politics," Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Climate ChangeSpokesperson, Senator Christine Milne, said.

"Those voters will be deeply troubled to find out that Australian
negotiators are in fact continuing Howard-era tactics in the global treaty negotiations.

"It is well past time for Australia to abandon the Umbrella Group's
sabotaging tactics and move into the progressive side of the global climate negotiations."

Senator Milne also expressed concern about Minister Wong's dismissal of the urgency of climate action on ABC TV's Insiders program this morning, saying that climate change is a marathon, not a sprint.

"Minister Wong is wrong to say that climate change action is a marathon - it is actually a sprint since we are in a global emergency and we only have until 2015 for global emissions to peak.

"But regardless of whether you see it as a sprint or a marathon, Minister Wong seems to have a disturbing view of what the metaphor might mean for what we have to do.

"You don't win a marathon or a sprint by dawdling at the back of the pack, pretending that the race isn't that hard, and all the while attempting to sabotage those who are in the lead.

"You win both races by making sure you are in the leadership group from the start, acknowledging how serious the challenge is, and giving it your all from beginning to end."

Tim Hollo
Media Adviser
Senator Christine Milne
0437 587 562

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Many Scientists are "frantically, hysterically worried"  Lateline 23rd Oct 2008

To read the transcript of this Lateline Program visit http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2008/s2399646.htm

To watch the video visit http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/includes/lateline_20081001.htm and scroll down to  Action on climate change more urgent than ever

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Here are some selected quotes

LATELINE 23rd Oct 2008 Thursday night.

"MARGOT O'NEILL, REPORTER: Meet three of Australia 's, and the world's, top climate change scientists. Each of them shared in last year's Nobel Prize for their work with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. And each is usually most comfortable with cautious, measured public discussion. Well, not any more.

PROF. ANN HENDERSON-SELLERS, MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY : A lot of people like myself, and I believe many, many scientists now, who are frantically, hysterically worried.

PROF, DAVE GRIGGS, MONASH UNIVERSITY : Another one of these facts comes in that catches even you unawares and you think, "Oh shit! Not another one! I wasn't expecting that."

PROF. DAVID KAROLY, MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY : The only way that I could see the climate system in 50 years time or 100 years time being cooler than at present is if the earth got hit by an asteroid and basically human civilisation was destroyed.

MARGOT O'NEILL: Australia 's climate change scientists are stirring, goaded by inaction in the face of a potential cataclysm, they're picking up megaphones because they need everyone to know it's speeding up.

From the loss of Arctic sea ice to early signs of melting permafrost, to sea level rises, to carbon dioxide emissions. Many of the projections contained in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just a year ago are being overtaken.

ANN HENDERSON-SELLERS: It is not true that all scientists agree with everything that is in the IPCC fourth assessment report. Some of us, including me, think that it is worse, it is more frightening, more dangerous, happening faster.

We've now said for four reports the world is getting warmer, this is a serious concern. The world really is getting warmer. This is a quite serious concern, and the time for action has already passed. What will we say in the fifth IPCC report? I simply don't know, I have no idea how we can couch the terms anymore. What degree of anxiousness can you add to that?

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25 arrested at NSW power station protest

Sydney Morning Herald http://news.smh.com.au/national/25-arrested-at-nsw-power-station-protest-20081101-5fs1.html

ABC Online  http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/01/2407554.htm?section=australia

RIsing TIde website http://www.risingtide.org.au/

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40 SCIENTISTS WRITE: CLIMATE DISASTER, AN URGENT CHALLENGE