Browsing: NGO campaigns

Plans for a protest at Victoria's coal-fired Hazelwood power station have prompted State shadow attorney-general Robert Clark to call for urgent action to protect Victoria's coal-fired generators from disruption.

WWF chief Greg Bourne has hit out at big emitters ‘crying poor’, releasing new research showing ten firms – including BP, the company he used to run in Australia – will receive free permits worth $1.86 billion in 2012-13, despite making $868.5 billion in profits over the past five years.

Generating 1,500MW of electricity from wave power by 2020 would create about 3,200 jobs and create enough power for 1.2 million households, but developing the industry might require changes to the renewable energy target scheme, says a WWF report released today.

• NRMA and ACF urge ministers to act now on fuel efficiency
  
• Ferguson seeks CCS proposals
  
• Senate sets deadline for inquiry submissions
  
• Wind presents unique grid challenges, NEMMCO says
  
• 'Ridiculous workplace relations rule will hinder climate change action'
  
• SA approves second wave energy plant

Chair of the Senate trading bills inquiry, Labor Senator Annette Hurley, has poured cold water on an ACF suggestion that a further round of legislation could be passed before mid-2010 if the current bill fails. Plus Colonial First State on the different messages firms can give to politicians and to investors, and more Senate testimony.

If the CPRS legislation fails under the weight of relentless, 'cynical' lobbying by industry associations, then no politician will have the courage to try again in the near future, warns WWF chief Greg Bourne.

Australia should substantially reduce its skilled migration program and stabilise population at a sustainable level, says the ACF's Budget submission. The 2009 Budget 'will be a test of the Government's commitment to implementing a Green Budget', the ACF says.

Australia's response to climate change offers an opportunity to create more than half a million new 'green jobs' in six emerging industries over the next 20 years, according to a report jointly commissioned by the ACTU and the Australian Conservation Foundation.

Coal-fired generators need free permits equivalent to 'as few as 10 to 15% of the total emissions permit pool', according to the National Generators Forum. Meanwhile, Greenpeace has issued a musical anti-coal video to pressure the Rudd Government not to give money or free permits to fossil fuel-fired power stations.

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act should be amended to include a climate change trigger that encompasses fossil fuel exports, says an Australian Conservation Foundation submission to a Senate inquiry into the Act.