Albanese

Coalmine approvals in Australia this year could add 150m tonnes of CO2 to atmosphere

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Coal loader P4393. Part of the coal loading facility at Kooragang Island, NSW Australia. Image by eyeweed, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Emissions added by coalmine expansions this year are equivalent to one-third of the country’s annual climate pollution. Image by eyeweed, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/02/coalmine-approvals-in-australia-this-year-could-add-150m-tonnes-of-co2-to-atmosphere

Expansion of metallurgical coalmine in Queensland will add 31m tonnes alone with activists accusing Albanese government of being reckless

Coalmine expansions and developments approved in Australia so far this year are expected to add nearly 150m tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere over their lifetimes – equivalent to nearly a third of the country’s annual climate pollution.

The Albanese government this week gave the greenlight to an expansion of the Gregory Crinum coalmine in central Queensland. It produces metallurgical coal, used in steelmaking.

According to an analysis by the Australia Institute, it is likely to extend the development’s life by 11 years – until the mid-2030s – and add about 31m tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere once it is burned. That equates to 6% of Australia’s annual emissions. The owner, Sojitz Blue, will have until 2073 to decommission the mine.

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Climate and conservation groups accused the government of recklessness and hypocrisy given its promise to act decisively on the climate crisis, pointing out it had the power to change the environment law to give it the power to block new fossil fuel developments if it chose.

The Climate Council’s chief executive, Amanda McKenzie, said the mine expansion approval showed Australia’s environment laws were “absolutely broken”.

“The Albanese government has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to arrest this decline,” she said. “Strengthening our national environment law, with climate at the heart of it, will safeguard our health, grow the economy, and protect our treasured natural places.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/02/coalmine-approvals-in-australia-this-year-could-add-150m-tonnes-of-co2-to-atmosphere

Albanese Government’s stunning hypocrisy: coal mine extension gets the go-ahead

THE CLIMATE COUNCIL has labelled the decision to approve an extension to the Gregory Crinum coal mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin until 2073 as ‘stunning hypocrisy’.  

Just one week after Climate Minister Chris Bowen toured the Pacific to promote Australia’s climate credentials, and with all warning sirens blaring about a climate change-fuelled summer of extreme heat and fires ahead, it beggars belief the Albanese Government has thrown a lifeline to a fourth highly-polluting fossil fuel project. 

The approval was granted under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC), Australia’s key national environmental law, which ironically fails to deal directly with the main threat Australia’s environment now faces: climate change. 

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Continue ReadingCoalmine approvals in Australia this year could add 150m tonnes of CO2 to atmosphere

Adam Bandt urges Australians to ‘embrace’ civil disobedience and join climate protests

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Adam Bandt, leader of the Australian Greens on the right to protest. Video is 3 months old.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/30/adam-bandt-urges-australians-to-embrace-civil-disobedience-and-join-climate-protests

Greens leader says Albanese government is ‘hellbent on opening more coal and gas mines’ and people must ‘fight back’

The Australian Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has called on people to join disruptive climate protests to pressure the Albanese government to stop opening new fossil fuel mines, saying he plans to help blockade the country’s largest coal port.

He has also written to the leaders of 16 Pacific Island nations suggesting they should make any support for an Australia bid to host a UN climate summit conditional on the government “taking stronger climate action”.

Speaking to climate activists in Melbourne on Wednesday night, Bandt said Labor was “hellbent on opening more coal and gas mines”.

He said more people needed to “get in behind” groups that engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience, naming Disrupt Burrup Hub, Rising Tide and Extinction Rebellion.

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“The Liberals and Nationals were kicked out of office for thumbing their nose at the climate crisis … but with Labor it’s somehow more disappointing because you know they know what they’re doing is wrong,” he said, according to speech extracts shared in advance.

“Some Labor MPs might not get into politics to help out [oil and gas company] Woodside, but sure enough they end up there.

“Now we need to embrace the importance of protest and civil disobedience. We must come together and fight back.”

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Bandt said the “law is often complex, but the morality is simple”.

“We might not all want to climb a coal bridge or sit in the foyer of Woodside, but we need to back the right of people to do so, and celebrate and feel joy from their action,” he said.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/30/adam-bandt-urges-australians-to-embrace-civil-disobedience-and-join-climate-protests

Continue ReadingAdam Bandt urges Australians to ‘embrace’ civil disobedience and join climate protests

Too hot to handle: climate crisis report so secret Albanese government won’t even reveal date it was completed

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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/30/office-of-national-intelligence-climate-crisis-security-threats-report-anthony-albanese-labor-government-refuses-to-release

Image of a kangaroo.
Image of a kangaroo.

Anthony Albanese continues to reject calls to make even a sanitised version of the assessment public

The Australian government is refusing to release its secret report on how the climate crisis will fuel national security threats and is also refusing to say when it was completed.

The government insists the date, too, is classified. The approach has sparked claims of a “cult of secrecy in Canberra”.

Anthony Albanese ordered the Office of National Intelligence (ONI) last year to investigate national security threats posed by global heating, in line with an election promise.

When it notified the United Nations of Australia’s stronger 2030 emissions reduction target, the government trumpeted its commitment to “an urgent climate risk assessment of the implications of climate change for national security”.

So far, however, the government has rebuffed calls to release the assessment – or even a sanitised public version, as it did with the defence strategic review.

In a new response to Senate questions on notice, the prime minister confirmed the ONI’s climate assessment was finalised “within the last 12 months”. But Albanese added: “The specific timing of the assessment board is classified.”

Five other questions from the Greens’ defence spokesperson, David Shoebridge, were answered with an identical response: “The content and judgments of the assessment are classified.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/30/office-of-national-intelligence-climate-crisis-security-threats-report-anthony-albanese-labor-government-refuses-to-release

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Continue ReadingToo hot to handle: climate crisis report so secret Albanese government won’t even reveal date it was completed