Climate blockade at Australia’s biggest coal power station.

Four people have chained themselves to the main conveyor belt at Bayswater power station this morning to stop coal feeding into Australia's largest coal fired power station. They are joined by more than thirty other protestors who are occupying the stations coal stock-piles.

Protestors, from climate action group Rising Tide Newcastle, are locked onto machinery, stopping the conveyor belts that carry coal to Bayswater’s furnaces in protest against the Federal Government’s failure to stop Australia’s greenhouse pollution rising.

Spokesperson, Georgina Woods, said,

“Australia’s greenhouse pollution is still increasing and our addiction to coal-fired power is the main cause. We are here because every day we hesitate, we are killing the Great Barrier Reef.”

In 2006/07, Bayswater Power Station created approximately 14 million tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution, making it equal greatest single source of greenhouse pollution in the country and among the top 100 polluting power stations in the world.

The Federal Government is expected to announce medium term greenhouse emission reduction targets at the end of the month, but protestors say that 2020 is too late, and want a commitment that 2010 will be Australia’s “peak emissions” year.

The Bayswater power station near Muswellbrook in the Upper Hunter and the adjacent Liddell power station together supply around 40% of NSW’s electricity.

The protestors say power stations like Bayswater will need to be shut down over the next few years: “Where is the plan to phase out facilities like these? Why are we twiddling our thumbs?”

“The nation and the world are watching and we will not get another chance. The people that are here today are parents and grandparents, professionals and tradespeople. We are demanding a commitment from the Government today: Australia’s greenhouse emissions must start dropping from 2010, we must do whatever it takes to save the Barrier Reef from wipe-out and the world from devastating runaway climate change.”

The fight for the climate is far from over; the need for people to protest our failure to reverse greenhouse pollution is greater than ever.

Further comment: Georgina Woods 0438 223 771

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Coalfinger (like Gold Finger but worse)

A nice piece of creative work from Greenpeace. I always like there ideas but the execution is sometimes weak...however i think this parody really works. I really like the fact that EON are discovered to be behind the villainous activities.

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48Hrs of Action Against EON and New Coal

FRIDAY 28TH AND SATURDAY 29TH OF NOVEMBER 2008

The UK Government is calling for an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, we are calling for 48 hours of action against EON and new coal NOW.

It’s easy enough to set a target that’s 42 years away, but we don’t stand a rapidly melting snowball’s chance of achieving it if the government give the green light to new coal fired power stations (7 are in the planning stages, with E.ON’s new Kingsnorth being first up) and keep dishing out subsidies to new coal mines. Coal is the dirtiest fuel there is, so while the government continues with business-as-usual through the last 100 months we have to make a difference on climate change, we call for 48 hours of action against new coal – now!

Join us in saying ‘No to New Coal’: get your friends together and plan an action for your area. Go stickering, blockading, serving direct action warning notices at supply chain premises, organise an awareness raising talk, hang a banner, get creative on the streets, the options are endless. Get together, get creative, and plan an action!

On Friday you could visit the Coal Authority, E.ON offices, UK Coal offices or Global Coal Management offices, to name but a few. Or take aim at their investors or parts of their supply chain. On the Saturday you could take action at 2nd round FA Cup matches sponsored by E.ON. Together, we’ll raise awareness about killer coal, and we’ll say loud and clear that we won’t stand for new coal - at Kingsnorth or anywhere else.

For more information visit - http://www.e-onf-off.org.uk/ - where a list of potential targets, action ideas and plenty of resources will follow shortly.

This day of action is supported by The Camp for Climate Action, Rising Tide, Plane Stupid and Campaign against Climate Change.

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EON Recruitment Proves Tricky

Huge energy company E.ON AG (EOA.DE)are going around careers fairs stating that 'climate change is a central issue for us not just something to tack on' meanwhile they are pushing for the first new coal plant in the uk for more than 20 years! There recruitment stalls have been followed around many univsersities in the UK including Imperial College London today...2min video:



Action on a grander scale in Manchester

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Climate Bill Debate Live from 3pm

At the link bellow you can watch the climate change bill debate live as it happens from 3pm GMT

http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Live.aspx

Have a look and see what your mp is up to!

Thanks to Phil England of the 300-350ppm Show for letting me know about this.

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Latest UK Climate Bill Developments

The UK Climate Bill will be the first legally binding national piece of legislation on carbon emissions. Initiated due to a lobbying effort by UK environmental organisation friends of the earth the Bill has since recieved strong support both by opposition parties and by a whole range of environmental and development organisations including the Stop Climate Chaos coallition.

Initially the target proposed was a 60% cut by 2050 based on 1990 levels. This target was assumed to exclude international aviation and shipping. The official reasoning behind this has always been the difficulty of allocating carbon emissions to international travel and the lack of global agreement. In reality it comes down to considerations of national economic competativeness. Whatever the reasoning, this approach has been continuously assailed by large sections of politically active society. These attacks have been strengthened by both a supportive stance from opposition parties and the govornment wish to base targets rhetorically at least on the latest climate science. Clearly having loopholes of any significant size is not compatible with policies based on the urgent neeed for emissions reductions; the potential lack of any progress on uk emissions if aviation is excluded has regularly attained prominance.

Now at last it looks like international aviation and shipping are to be included within, or considered by, the climate bill. We will have to wait for the debate to conclude this afternoon before the exact wording is known but at present it looks like good news for the UK's commitment to reducing climate change. The climate bill was also toughened up recently to achieve 80% rather than 60% cuts.

The other issue which has been hotly contested is the ability of the UK govornment to use the EU emissions trading scheme to achieve its targets. In other words does the UK really have to reduce emissions 80% or can it simply pay for other nations to take the low carbon route. From a practical point of view this is a very important decision as all the uk climate campaigns on unabated coal, aviation expansion and road building, will be a lot easier to fight if we can show flat contradiction rather than simply the added expense of emissions permits. At the moment there is a great deal of uncertainty about the degree of EU ETS credit purchasing that is going to be allowed.

Other interesting ammendments include proposals that the climate change and energy department set limits on co2/Kwh that new power generation facilities produce, provisions for companies opporating inside the uk to disclose there carbon footprint and allowances to be made for unions to have a workplace environmental spokesperson. Clauses covering the civic estate are also included. All of these ammendements can be followed on the Climate Bill page.

Related News Articles:

• BBC
• Business Green
• Northern Echo
  

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Kingsnorth: What's going on with that?

From the words of John Hutton at the Labour party conference it looked like labour where going to go ahead with new coal. That looks less certain with Ed Milliband in charge of the newly created department for energy and climate change. But the question remains, why would they do that?

Externally they seem likely to present this dastardly deed as a sensible energy policy that will benefit the UK as it exports the newly developed CCS technology to china. This is arrogant, most new plants in China are more efficient than ours and Chinese development skills are growing fast. It also seems to be countered by there lack of urgency. What lack of urgency I hear you say, didn't Malcolm Wicks say that we use CCS or loose that battle against climate change? That sounds urgent. Well, unfortunately it looks like that was just publicly acceptable rhetoric.

The July 2008 Environmental Audit Committee report on CCS had several conclusions including the very simple

“We are extremely disappointed by the lack of [government] progress on ccs”.

It also stated that:

“CCS may itself have contributed to the resurgence of coal”.

This cross part group of MP's seem to think that CCS is just an excuse, they even war against this cynical policy making:

“The possibility of ccs should not be used as a fig leaf to give unabated coal-fired power plants an appearance of environmental acceptability”.

But in that case what are the government doing? I`m afraid they are doing exactly the same thing as they are trying to do with the UK Climate Bill. They want all of the climate bill quotas to be subsumed within the EU ETS. They are trying to make coal or no coal, climate bill or no climate bill, irrelevances. They want to rely entirely on the EU ETS. They are deeply rooted to the free market doctrine that has been imploding in the financial markets over recent weeks.

“Any new coal plant will have no impact on the overall emissions effort by the EU as it will operate within the EU ETS cap so neither ccs nor carbon emissions would be part of any application”

Throwing all your eggs in one basket like this involves great hubris and more than a little disregard for the reality of how real societies differ from economic models.

If we add to this convenient mindset the very real challenge that the UK has, namely an energy gap of perhaps 20GW by 2020, then we can see a little pressure on an slippery energy minister is likely to lead in the direction desired by e-on.

In conclusion. I think that a tactic of now new coal without ccs makes sense. However it is also important to address the other points; security of supply (renewables intermitancy), cost (of renewables) and the complete reliance on the EU ETS. Overregulating, idealists without alternatives is going to be how we are painted.

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Alistair Darling Goes Keynesian

The economy is weakening, should we cut back on public services? For some the answer to that is obvious, the logic is summed up nicely by the phrase 'live within your means'. For others, the picture is more complex. As the state guarantees at least a basic income for everyone it obviously docent pay for government spending to be slashed if it is only going to lead to job cuts and therefore more expenditure in terms of benefits. Job loss also causes a decline in tax revenues leading to more public sector job cuts, etc., etc.,

The alternative to this situation is increased govornment spending in weak times. This expenditure increases public debt but also strengthens the economy, fewer people loes there jobs and homes in the short term and in the long term the debt can be repaid from the tax revenues of a stronger economy.

A recent telegraph article suggests that Alistair Darling believes in this deficit expenditure, taking his academic lead from John Maynard Keynes. I suspect that this is a clear economic differentiator between the two main UK political parties.

The only question is where will this money be spent. Some of us believe that repowering our carbon fuel based energy sector, and carrying out massive energy efficiency retrofits should be high on that agenda. Housing efficiency spending makes particular sense in terms of jobs creation, cutting energy bills and fighting climate change.

UPDATE: The Governments Failure with Renewables May be Leading to the Same Conclusion

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Climate Change Bill

The climate change bill has been progressing through parliament for some time now. I`ve just found the web page where it is being tracked so you can see what is going on and what decisions have been made.

Climate Bill Webpage

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Obama to Declare Carbon Dioxide Dangerous Pollutant

If Obama is Elected as US president he would declare C02 a dangerous pollutant and start regulating it appropriately.

From Bloomberg,

If elected, Obama would be the first president to group emissions blamed for global warming into a category of pollutants that includes lead and carbon monoxide. Obama's rival in the presidential race, Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, has not said how he would treat CO2 under the act.

Obama ``would initiate those rulemakings,'' Grumet said in an Oct. 6 interview in Boston. ``He's not going to insert political judgments to interrupt the recommendations of the scientific efforts.''

Placing heat-trapping pollutants in the same category as ozone may lead to caps on power-plant emissions and force utilities to use the most expensive systems to curb pollution. The move may halt construction plans on as many as half of the 130 proposed new U.S. coal plants.

The president may take action on new rules immediately upon taking office, said David Bookbinder, chief climate counsel for the Sierra Club. Environment groups including the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council will issue a regulatory agenda for the next president that calls for limits on CO2 from industry.

`Hit Ground Running'

``This is what they should do to hit the ground running,'' Bookbinder said in an Oct. 10 telephone interview.

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Tougher climate target unveiled sans Aviation & Shipping

From the BBC

Ed Miliband is the first climate change and energy secretary

The government has committed the UK to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by middle of this century.

Climate change and energy secretary Ed Miliband said the current 60% target would be replaced by a higher goal.

He told MPs the government would not "row back" on green issues in the light of the current economic crisis.

He also warned the big energy companies they face legislation if they did not end "unfair" pricing policies in his first statement to MPs in his new job.

Mr Miliband told MPs the government accepted all the recommendations of the report from Lord Turner's Committee on Climate Change.

The target does not include aviation or shipping emissions.

It's odd that Milliband 'accepted all of the reccomendations' but failed to include aviation or shipping. I say odd because one of the reccomendations was that:

"The CCC also advised that the UK’s climate change strategy, and the 80% target, should include international aviation and shipping." (press release, pdf)

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Climate Rush = Awesome

Yesterday it was 100 years to the day after the suffragettes rushed parliament and demanded universal suffrage. Yesterday a woman dominated group of protesters gathered to hear women speakers from the Green Party and the Women's Institute among others, before attempting to rush parliament.

There where several novel aspects to this event. It wasn't either a simple protest or a purely direct action event. There was a definite predominance of women and a significant presence of children. It was certainly the first time that many people there have taken part in any sort of confrontation with police and many feel that it was an inspirational event that will help to build up the direct action movement against coal, aviation and all the other government sanctioned projects that are destroying peoples lives.

It was awesome to have a speaker from the Women's Institute, and so many women and children at the doors of parliament. There is a potential with this kind of grouping that just doesn't exist with a typical protest crowd. And i don't think these people are going away anytime soon.

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CLIMATE RUSH: PARLIAMENT 5;30 MONDAY 13TH

www.climaterush.co.uk

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Nature loss 'dwarfs bank crisis'

According to a new report comissioned for the European Union the global biodiversity crisis is costing vastly more than the current credit crisis.

Via the BBC:

The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to an EU-commissioned study.

It puts the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.

The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide.

The study, headed by a Deutsche Bank economist, parallels the Stern Review into the economics of climate change.

It has been discussed during many sessions here at the World Conservation Congress.

Download the Report:

• The Teeb Review on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodivesrsity

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London City Airport Expansion Gets Go Ahead

Yesterday i trekked across London to Newham town hall in East Ham. We held a rather disorganised flash mob all wearing red STOP AIRPORT EXPANSION t-shirts. After this and a brief photo-opp we headed inside.

Overall democracy works in a very interesting way. It starts off by getting a free ticket to the event, walking past perhaps 15 police officers and heading for the rubbish bins. Once you are past the rubbish bins you notice that you are in a dank back alley with little light but a small door is open as your way 'out' or in fact in-to the public galleries. Once you go through this door its just a matter of trying out the first door you come to, which reassuringly opens, rather un-reasuringly it opens onto breeze blocks. The next door is more successful, this leads you into the gallery where you can look over--but not interact with--the planning session. A sign notes that silence is requested from the galleries, it doesn't say anything about not filming but the Chair of the meeting does! Isn't there meant to be something about a free media, or transparency in how democracy works? From the vantage point you can now look down unhindered by use of recording equipment and enjoy acting as a bystander in proceeding--as soon as you finish being insinuated against as an anarchist element that is. It's quite a heady experience, looking down on these clowns--or more appropriately jesters--if you are ever down at Newham town hall then please to check out the coat of arms which has the colours of a jesters hat!

The good bit is when the council spokespeople get started,some nice ideas some hilarious non-secateurs and diversions. A couple of my favourite arguments where, firstly, that air pollution models aren't accurate but from current modeling a couple of roads looked likely to be impacted in an unacceptable manner. Not good, you would think, however the boroughs already poor air quality comes to the rescue. We are told that since this level of air pollution isn't anomalous it is nothing to be worried about! However the pice de resistance was a consultant brought in to talk about the carbon management plant the airport where working on. There was talk of the fact city businessmen who mainly use the airport where coming in by tube--so that's green, the airport operators where doing ISO14001, which i`m sure you all know is a sustainable management code, and at one point i expected him to tell us about the aerating faucets they used to save energy and water. Come on people get real! Flying is the most environmentally destructive thing you can do--unless you own a forest which you can burn down. The oddest bit of this testimony was the talk of fiscal measures and--wait for this--carbon capture and storage! What in gods name does possible government responses to climate change have to do with this hugely polluting plan. He could have just shouted--look over there nothing of interest going on here. It was a joke.

By this time it was getting late and i had to leave despite no objectors or proponents having spoken. I hear that democracy only got better...

It was clear what the council position was, and it wasn't going to be easy to shift as the widely criticised aviation white paper was there to help them, as was the support of London mayor Boris Johnson. So the council position focused the issues narrowly, looked farcical on sustainability, relied to a terrible white paper and advice from the deputy prime ministers office. It is clear that a generally pro-aviation stance exists within government and that local democracy has very little to do with how events proceed.

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ENVI documents european climate policy.

Some major decisions have come out of Europe on Tuesday 6th. Decisions which none the less have to pass national govornments before comming law. These decisions where taken by Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and all of the documents that they where discussing along with the ammendments can be found on there website.

If anyone knows where you can read the actual decisions i`d like to know!

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EU Propose Old Coal Ban, sets long term climate targets, decides on some auctioning.

Major news from the EU. A coal emissions limit equal to that in California has been proposed from 2015. Coal power plants will have to release less than 500g co2 per KWh. This is thought by many to mean only coal with carbon capture and storage will be permitted. As many believe that CCS is false hope used to deflect attention from the inherent unsustainability of coal, there is general scepticism weather ccs will infact take off. With Russia having its hand on the gas puipeline it looks like renewables and possibly nuclear have the day. Nuclear of course cant proceede without huge safety subsidies and many will question weather it might be wiser to subsidise clean technologies which atleast give us clean and risk free energy.

But coal was only one of the issues voted on this past tuesday (Via Climate Change Corp):

Easy on industry, tough on utilities

On reforming the ETS after 2012, the Environment Committee broadly followed the European Commission's original proposal. However, on the controversial question of auctioning of emissions rights, MEPs said 15 percent of allowances for heavy industry should be auctioned in 2013, rising to 100 percent in 2020. This is a far lighter touch compared with the Commission's starting point for auctioning of 60 percent.

This may represent a weakening of the proposals in some eyes, but Doyle had to break ranks with her own colleagues even to achieve this. Most members of her centre-right European People's Party (EPP) group wanted even more free allowances for industry. Following the vote, German EPP lawmaker Karl-Heinz Florenz was strongly critical, saying “this is going to cost us jobs,” because industry may decide to relocate to lower cost regions.

Other positions on the ETS backed by lawmakers include full auctioning of allowances to the power sector from 2013 (though with some exceptions, for example for district heating), payment of half of auction revenues into an international climate protection fund, inclusion of shipping in cap-and-trade, and a higher exemption threshold for small-scale emitters (up from the Commission's proposed 10,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year to 25,000 tons).

Outside the markets

While the ETS obliges industry to cut emissions, Finnish Green MEP Satu Hassi oversaw proposals requiring EU countries to reduce non-ETS emissions by 10 percent overall between 2013 and 2020. This will contribute to a goal of a 20 percent cut by 2020 compared to 1990 levels, rising to 30 percent if an international climate deal is done. Under Hassi's direction, the Environment Committee added new longer-term emissions reduction targets – 50 percent by 2035, and 60-80 percent by 2050.

Lawmakers also agreed that countries should incur potentially steep automatic fines for missing emissions targets: €100 for each excess ton of CO2, with over-achieving countries able to sell their excess entitlements to laggards. Meanwhile, the use by countries of offset credits from the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) will be more tightly controlled than originally foreseen by the Commission – spelling more uncertainty for CDM project developers.

Speaking after the votes, Hassi declared it “a good day,” though she warned that the question of carbon fines would be “a hard issue” in negotiations with the EU Council.

Coal plants face 2015 ban

The third part of the package was carbon sequestration, a technology that promises much, but has so far failed to get off the ground, largely due to cost. As a boost to its deployment, lawmakers said that from 2015, new power plants should have an emissions limit of 500 grams CO2 per kilowatt hour. This would have the effect of banning new coal-fired power stations, unless they capture and store their carbon. The Bellona Foundation, an environmental group strongly pushing CCS, called the vote “historic.”

Lobbyists and environmentalists will now spend weeks poring over the complex details of the Committee's votes. But the stage has been set for negotiations with the EU Council, and hoped-for finalisation of the legislation before the European elections in mid-2009.

Related:

• Business Green
• EurActive
• Times
  
• BBC
• NYT
• Climate Change Corp
  

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ABC air adds by Chevron but wont air adds by RePower America!

Amazingly, ABC is quite happy to promote fossil fuel energy but not renewables! I just recieved this from the "We" campaign...

Dear Calvin,

Did you notice the ads after last night's presidential debate?

ABC had Chevron. CBS had Exxon. CNN had the coal lobby. But you know what happened last week? ABC refused to run our Repower America ad -- the ad that takes on this same oil and coal lobby.

I sent a letter asking ABC to reconsider their decision and put our ad on the air, but still we haven't heard back more than a week later. I think they need to hear from all of us. Can you help? Please send a message to ABC and tell them to air the Repower America ad this Friday on 20/20.

If this makes tou mad the please sign the protest form and urge ABC to show the advert.

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The Climate Change Committee Website

The Climate Change Committee setup to advise the government on the Climate Bill now has a website, this site will be fully up and running by the 1st of December.

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Letter from The Climate Change Committee to Ed Milliband

Lord Turner of the Climate Change Committee has just written to Ed Milliband of the newly formed Department for Energy and Climate Change. This letter--reccomending 80% cuts in emissions by 2050 along with inclusion of international aviation and shipping--has made waves in the news.

Read the letter: (PDF)

This bit on aviation and shipping is interesting:

"The 80% target should apply to the sum of all sectors of the UK economy, including international aviation and shipping. To the extent that international aviation and shipping emissions are not reduced by 80%, either these sectors would have to purchase credits, or more effort would have to be made in other sectors. We therefore recommend that the emissions reduction target for those sectors covered by the Climate Change Bill should be at least 80%."

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Climate Change Committee: Include Aviation and Shipping and make it 80 not 60% cuts!

As part of the climate change bill the government set up and advisory committee, which Gordon Brown tasked with finding a suitable target. Well, they have, and the target is 80% reduction by 2050 including aviation and shipping.

That sort of demand is 10 a penny from the likes of the sustainable development commission, environmental audit committee and various NGO's but this is coming from the very organisation setup to offer advice on the climate bill...it would be odd if the advice where ignored.

• Press Association

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Is CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) a useful technology?

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a technology that when developed would allow the climate changing emissions from large fossil fuel power plants to be prevented from entering the atmosphere and instead pumped underground into some kind of geological formation.

CCS is controvercial for some technical and some broader reasons. In terms of technology, it is yet to be applied at large scale, as it is also a new technology we have very little information about how securely the co2 would be stored. To complicate things, CCS is being strongly promoted by the fossil fuel industry and scientists have generally been in favour of the technology which, if narrowly viewed seems to be a very positive technology.

There has been a lot written about ccs, most notably by MIT, the IPCC and also, the Wuppertal Institute. The Wuppertal Institute report strikes a far more cautious note than the IPCC or MIT and is well worth a read by CCS enthusiasts (could it dampen that enthusiasm?) and critiques (do you need to improve your argument?).

• Report Homepage

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New Energy And Climate Change Department for UK

According to the bbc:

"It is confirmed - cabinet office minister Ed Miliband will be secretary of state at the new energy and climate change department. "

This could be interesting, fingers crossed.

According to epolitix:

The new department will take over the energy brief from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the climate change portfolio from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Green Business has some reaction:

Craig Bennett, director at the Prince of Wales' influential Corporate Leaders on Climate Change group, gave the reshuffle a cautious welcome, but warned there were many potential pitfalls that the new department could face.

"Having a dedicated department for climate change should help move it up the political agenda and having climate change championed in cabinet will be useful, " he said. "But the devil will be in the detail... you could see it working very well, but you could also see it working very badly."

He warned that managing climate change through one department could allow other departments that have a direct impact on carbon emissions, such as transport and food, sideline the issue. "There is also a risk that by putting energy and climate change together you could lose sight of the fact that climate change is not just about energy," he said. "Issues such as adaptation and new technology could get lost if you look at climate change purely through an energy lens."

Friends of the earth where also positive:

Friends of the Earth executive director Andy Atkins also gave the new department a ringing endorsement. "The creation of a single department to overs ee climate and energy policy is a big step forward," he said. "This is a golden opportunity to ensure the UK’s energy and climate policy – so often at loggerheads – work together to tackle both the climate and the energy crisis."

As was the SDC:

The Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), set up by Tony Blair to act as the prime ministerial environmental advisory body, saw the formation of the new department as a step in the right direction.

The commission's vice chairwoman, Rebecca Willis, said it was something that the SDC had been wanting to see happen for a number of years.

"This change will make it far easier to make joined-up decisions in an area which is crucial for the UK and the world," she told BBC News.

"By making the right sustainable energy choices, we can tackle energy security and climate change together, and we look forward to working with Ed Miliband to this make this happen."

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Climate Rush Prelude

On October 13th The Climate Rush is Going to Parliament

A small prellude to this event has just been carried out to get everyone excited about what it is going to look like.







Photos from Amelia's Blog

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