Sydney Morning Herald

Most of Australia’s coal reserves will have to be left unburned if the world is to avoid catastrophic global warming, according to a major new report from the federal government’s Climate Commission.

The report puts the key science advisory body on a collision course with some of the nation’s biggest export industries, and marks the first time a government agency has endorsed calls for fossil fuel industries to be phased out because of their contribution to climate change.

Its findings mean that most of Australia’s known coal, oil and gas reserves – many of which are already subject to minerals production licences held by companies such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto – must somehow be left alone if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change.

The Climate Commission acknowledged its conclusions were “sobering” and that the potential for economic disruption could be serious, but said there was no alternative if the world was to avoid dangerous climate change.

“How people react to this is up to the policymakers and governments, as well as investors,” said Professor Lesley Hughes, co-author of the report The Critical Decade 2013 – Climate change science, risks and responses, to be released on Monday.

“It isn’t our job to reconcile the politics of this with the science,” she said. “We are simply presenting the facts as best we know them. Just because the facts may be unpalatable to some people doesn’t make them any less important.”

Australia’s fossil fuel resources are the equivalent of about 51 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases, about one twelfth of the world’s entire “carbon budget” of about 600 billion tonnes – the amount of carbon that scientists estimate can be burned by 2050 if the world is to stop temperatures rising more than two degrees.

If that carbon budget is exceeded, the build-up of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere is likely to trigger dangerous global warming of up to five degrees this century, the report said.

And the world is still eating into its budget far too fast, with average global emissions still rising at about 3 per cent a year, the report said.

“If emissions could somehow peak in 2015, just two years away, the maximum rate of emission reductions thereafter would be 5.3 per cent, a very daunting task,” it said.

“However, if we allow emissions to continue to rise through the rest of this decade and don’t reach the peaking year until 2020, the maximum rate of emission reductions thereafter is 9 per cent, a virtually impossible task unless economies around the world prioritise emission reductions above all other economic and technological goals.”

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said the government’s carbon price had already driven coal use down 7 per cent, and most countries that bought Australian fossil fuels would soon have similar carbon prices.

Countries are responsible for the carbon emissions generated within their borders, a spokesman for Mr Combet said.

“When it comes to exports, the majority of Australia’s coal exports go to Japan, South Korea, China and the European Union,” he said.

“All these countries have introduced, or plan to introduce, a price on carbon through emissions trading schemes or carbon taxes that will apply to coal consumption.”

A spokeswoman for opposition climate spokesman Greg Hunt said he would “consider the report carefully but we do not support shutting down Australia’s major export industry”.

If elected to government at the September poll, the opposition has pledged to abolish the Climate Commission.

“The Coalition has been consistent in arguing that the role of the Climate Commission on providing advice on addressing climate change is best undertaken by a merged department of environment and climate change,” Mr Hunt’s spokeswoman said. “There needs to be a continued focus on reducing emissions as is outlined in this report.”

The opposition plans to abolish the carbon price and replace it with a suite of measures it calls “direct action”, involving paying industries to reduce their emissions.

Both of the main parties have committed to reducing Australia’s emissions to 5 per cent below their 2000 levels by the year 2020 – a target that now looks achievable, but which falls well short of the much deeper cuts outlined in the Climate Commission’s report.

“To stay within the two degrees limit, the trend of increasing global emissions must be slowed and halted in the next few years and emissions must be trending downwards by 2020 at the latest,” the report said. “Investments in and installations of renewable energy must therefore increase rapidly. And, critically, most of the known fossil fuel reserves must remain in the ground.”

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The National Party has been accused of disguising a $770-a-head campaign fund-raiser as a professional development course that NSW lawyers are compelled to attend to renew their certificate.

Speakers at the day-long ”conference” at State Parliament were to include Attorney-General Greg Smith, Local Government Minister Don Page and several Nationals MPs.

But the brochure instructed cheques be payable to the NSW Nationals and the registration form noted that contributions could only be accepted from individuals under the Election Funding Act.

The event raised eyebrows in the legal community because of the high cost and the unusual topics – government policy on coal seam gas, council amalgamations, issues in the taxi industry and the direction of the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Attendance would have allowed lawyers to claim 7½ of the 10 Mandatory Continuing Legal Education points they need to complete each year for their continuing training.

Shadow attorney-general Paul Lynch said the attempt to pass off a fund-raiser as legal education was bizarre. ”The chief law officer coming along to apparently educate lawyers and getting a fair whack of funds for the party – it seems inappropriate,” Mr Lynch said. ”A lot of it seems political commentary rather than educating lawyers.”

Greg Dezman, the Nationals deputy state director, sought to distance the party from the event, even though the brochure carried a Nationals for NSW slogan and gave the telephone number of the Nationals state headquarters for RSVPs.

”That program was proposed by one of our members,” he said. ”It is not something that we initiated from the party. It is not the sort of thing we are interested in pursuing.”

The conference was scheduled for March 22 but was cancelled because of lack of interest. But organiser Stephen Bromhead, the Nationals MP for Myall Lakes, is planning for a different date. His office attributed the lack of registrations to conflicting education seminars being held by the Law Society that week.

Mr Bromhead said the proposed speakers were donating their time free, including ministers, backbenchers and other ”friends of mine”.

NSW Nationals raised $236,080 between 2011 and 2012 from raffles, cake stalls, dinners and golf days. The party’s website says a $770 conference ticket would almost be enough to pay for a billboard in a marginal electorate. But Mr Bromhead conceded it may be ”difficult” to get lawyers to pay $770 from their own pocket for a conference, as required under election funding rules, when their firms usually pay for education seminars that typically cost $100.

Law Society of NSW president John Dobson said lawyers had to complete 10 units of formal continuing legal education each year. “A course must include at least one unit in each of the following fields: ethics and professional responsibility, practice management and business skills and professional skills,” he said.

Seminar providers do not need to be accredited by the Law Society but lawyers attending must justify how the activity meets its rules.

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A STRONG gas industry might one day develop in New South Wales, but one of Queensland’s top gas experts reckons it will never come back to Casino.

When the full force of public opinion railed against Metgasco’s plans for gas extraction near the northern NSW town, west of Lismore, the government responded with tough new legislation leading to the gas giant’s retreat.

GasFields Commission Queensland chair John Cotter said any gas exploration or drilling in NSW would struggle because of the angst it created across the state.

The GasFields Commission – an independent group formed by the Queensland Government – acts as an intermediary between gas companies, Queensland farmers and governments to ensure all sides behave themselves.

Mr Cotter said unlike Queensland, the NSW government would not back the industry, which left it lacking support..

“I think the industry has to go back there and establish its credibility by carefully picking their projects,” he said.

“I believe Santos are doing things in some more regional areas (in the Pilliga, west of Narrabri).

“They have got to start by getting a group on side to say, ‘Hey the world hasn’t ended’.

But for Casino and Lismore, there was no hope.

“Going back to Casino for instance? You’re not going to get investors,” he said.

“When you have some of the dollars needed to go into these industries, (investors) are not going down the road where there’s a challenge to social licence.”

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To prepare NSW cotton growers for future dealings with Coal Seam Gas (CSG) companies, we wanted to reveal the common tactics used by CSG companies when dealing with landholders in negotiating access to properties during this year’s Australian Cotton Tradeshow in Moree.

Our team of CSG law experts have represented more than 500 landholders affected by CSG development in Queensland and will use their experience to help give landholders the tools to identify and manage the tactics used by gas companies during negotiations.

Read Full Article Here

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ON THE back of damning report released this week about the potential health effects on communities across Australia from coal and coal seam gas projects, doctors have called for urgent national reforms.

The Health Factor by Doctors for the Environment Australia reveals the costly legacy unfolding for Australia from under-regulation of the pollution caused by many resource projects.

The Health Factor describes cases where coal projects have been allowed to pollute at levels known to compromise human health and where inadequate monitoring of air quality disguises the dangers.

The report describes how cardio-respiratory and other diseases in nearby communities are likely to be caused or exacerbated by pollution from coal mining and transport.

It also points out the research and regulation on coal seam gas lags well behind these developments, and the degree to which they harm human health is not yet understood.

“It is clear State government approvals of coal and coal seam gas projects are often influenced by potential economic gain without thorough assessment of potential harms,” DEA spokesperson David Shearman said.

“Permitting dangerous pollution is creating a costly legacy for Australia that is being picked up in the healthcare and other sectors.

“The social and financial costs of this pollution are not being measured or factored in when projects are given the go ahead.”

Dr Shearman said Australian resource projects were not operating with “world’s best practice”.

“What we are seeing is a trend to ‘cutting green tape’ without consideration of the consequences,” he said.

“There is room for assessment to become much more efficient by using the same standards in all states.”

The Health Factor describes the failure of governments and resource companies to protect human health and it advocates for health impact assessments to be a mandatory part of the approval processes for any polluting industrial project.

“Assessment of the health impacts of resource projects need to be much more robust and consistent across all States.” Dr Shearman said.

“Governments need to conduct proper health impact assessments before projects are approved to better protect the health of communities.

“Rules for monitoring pollution during the life of the project and beyond must be introduced.”

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Santos today confirmed it discovered the leak in their Jackson oil fields, and brought in international experts to bring it under control late yesterday.

The well, in the company’s Zeus field, is believed to have started leaking either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning last week. The company’s Jackson facility is about 160km west of Thargomindah,

While it was described as a “limited leak” the company said it was generating about 300 barrels a day. A barrel is equivalent to 158 litres.

A Santos spokesman said that now the well had been contained it would be able to access the site and see what environmental damage had been done.

It expected it would have soak up the oil and remove affected soil.

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Herald Sun

TARA residents have clashed with QGC’s coal seam gas employees outside a work camp, with claims that car tyres were slashed and punches thrown.
The so-called ‘Tara blockies’ – people who live on rural residential blocks with few services – had blockaded gas workers from leaving their camp near Chinchilla, north west of Brisbane.

About 300 workers lost about three hours of work because of the blockade on Tuesday.

Protestor Dayne Pratzky said a worker took offence to being delayed and attempted to slash a protester’s tyre and a scuffle broke out which was stopped by other workers.

Mr Pratzky said the worker was then ordered back on the bus and was jeered.

An official complaint has been lodged with the Chinchilla police and QGC are also investigating the incident.

“We have never had an incident like this before,” Mr Pratzky said

“I wasn’t shocked when the workers stepped in as most agree that we have not been treated fairly by QGC/BG Group”

QGC said it could understand the frustration of its workers “particularly when their jobs are threatened by people who do not live in the area and who want to stop development”.

“There was a minor incident this morning in which a contractor allegedly tried to damage the tyre of a protester,” a spokesman said.

“However, we do not condone retaliation of this nature and will ensure the contractor is counselled.”

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In an emotionally charged council meeting last night where some No New Coal campaign supporters were brought to tears, the council greenlit an alternate motion  — council officers did not advise one way or another for the council to support the moratorium — put forward by East Moorabool ward councillor Tonia Dudzik.

‘‘We need to stand up for our community,’’ Cr Dudzik said.

‘‘We need to protect our people in our town and keep them safe, to keep their food safe.’’

Councils including Bass Coast, Colac-Otway, City of Yarra, Moreland, Port Phillip and South Gippsland have already signed the moratorium.

A mining partnership between Mantle Mining and Exergen is currently evaluating the results of a scoping study which could see a coal mine in Bacchus Marsh.

At a packed-out meeting, nearly 50 local supporters of the moratorium broke into rapturous applause when the council voted 5-2 in favour of supporting the moratorium.

Several councillors admitted they’d been recently swayed to support it.

‘‘I came here tonight with a conservative view … now I think it’s a moderate response to the issue,’’ East Moorabool ward Cr John Spain said.

‘‘I changed my mind,’’ East Moorabool ward Cr Allan Comrie said.

Eleven passionate residents got up to speak, including environmentalists, mothers and business people, who implored council to ‘‘show leadership, not management’’.

‘‘Support us, not them,’’ an emotionally visible Parwan resident Kat Tubbs asked the council.

Another resident, Jennie Fraine, said: ‘‘Council is fence sitting rather than showing action.”

‘‘Send a message to government, seize the opportunity and fight for your community … locals should be in charge of local decisions,’’ resident David Farrell said.

West Moorabool ward councillor Tom Sullivan and mayor Cr Pat Toohey voted against the move, saying it would limit council’s ability to influence the process further down the track.

‘‘It could do us a disservice,’’ Cr Sullivan said.

‘‘We could be perceived as biased … it would limit us and put us at a greater risk’’.

Read original article

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Gasfield Realities 2 Community Divisions and the failure of QLD Health

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