Northcote climate Q & A video now available

Video is now available from a Climate Change Q & A held last Monday at Northcote Town Hall for local candidates in the 2010 Victorian State election. The event was organised by Darebin Climate Action Now, where links to all the Q & A presentations have now been published.


Climate Change Q & A - Darren Lewin-Hill from DarebinCAN on Vimeo.

The presenters included Labor's Northcote MP and 2010 candidate, Fiona Richardson, the Liberal  Northcote candidate, Steve Moran, myself, the Greens candidate, Anne Martinelli, and independent Upper House candidate for the Northern Metropolitan Region, Adrian Whitehead. 

Read the original post about the event, and, if you like, my presentation notes. There are also lots of posts about climate change available on this blog.

Of course you may then like to read Fiona Richardson's Goldilocks theory about the Victorian Government's climate action plan, or my analysis of Labor's tactics for communicating about climate change.

Finally, don't forget to read about my other policies as well!

Help launch the 100% Renewable Community Campaign

Tomorrow, Sunday 2 May, will see photo-shoots take place across Darebin to support the 100% Renewable Community Campaign for Clean Energy. Come along and be part of the crowd to help send a clear message to our politicians about clean energy.

1.00pm Alphington Railway Station - Rowe St side
1.30pm Fairfield Railway Station - Wingrove St side
2.00pm Northcote Town Hall - 189 High St, Northcote
2.30pm Thornbury Village - Corner Normanby and High Sts
3.00pm East Preston Primary School - Corner Sylvestor Grv & Dean St
3.30pm Reservoir Railway Station - High St side
4.00pm Martin Ferguson's Office - 159 High St, Preston

Each shoot will require only a short amount of time, but will help to send an important message!

The photo-shoots are being organised by Darebin Climate Action Now to support the campaign.

Inquiries to anna.haygreen@gmail.com, mobile 0466 210 959 or see the flyer for contacts at each location.

Costello muddles climate with politics

Yesterday's edition of The Age carried Peter Costello's muddled opinion piece dismissing the climate crisis because he thinks it has fallen below the prime minister's pragmatic political radar - as if climate were an expendable pawn in a cynical political game.

Costello's argument rests on an egotism that suggests an issue's importance or lack thereof is decided at the often uninformed whim of politicians, not based on the objective evidence - in this case, the compelling scientific argument that climate change is happening and impacts are already with us.

While political posturing is plainly irrelevant to the relentless physical processes of the atmosphere, it is sadly true that political action is crucial to framing climate solutions. Costello should therefore consider the real-world consequences of muddling climate with politics.

Today The Age published my letter responding to Costello. Here's a slightly longer, unedited version, in which I also address Costello's weak swipe at Earth Hour.

Dismissing the urgency of climate change, Peter Costello obviously hasn't read Rajendra Pachauri's piece (30/3) on the failure of denialist challenges to undermine the fundamentally compelling body of climate science. He also appears not to have read the recent 'State of the Climate' report jointly released by the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology. Both add to the already convincing case that climate change is happening and that impacts already being felt will worsen if we fail to curb our spiralling carbon emissions.

Instead, Costello's lack of reading allows him to consider the climate inaction of the Rudd Government as some kind of objective measure of the urgency of the climate crisis. Perhaps it is the egotism of the political class that can say 'If I don't think it's important, it's not important', despite what the international scientific consensus clearly says. Nor should we be distracted by asking which of the major parties is stronger on policy in this area, when the reality is that both are closer to denialism than they are to the receding possibility of a safe climate.

As for Earth Hour, no-one who was sitting outside Martin Ferguson's office on Saturday night thinks the climate issue can be switched on and off like the lights. Darebin Climate Action Now will be following the Batman MP and resources and energy minister with a sustained campaign all the way to the ballot box.

Your hat won't be in the ring come election day, Peter, but at least you could do some reading - especially if you have grandchildren.

Comments welcome.

International climate action brings local message to Ferguson

The 350.org International Day of Climate Action has seen more than 5200 actions across 181 countries drive home the need for urgent action on climate change - in particular a rapid global reduction below 350ppm of carbon dioxide.

At Darebin Parklands, in the local electorate of federal energy and resources minister, Martin Ferguson, the community sent a clear message that he is failing them on climate - especially in his misguided support for fossil fuels at the expense of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.

DarebinCAN 350 Event from DarebinCAN on Vimeo.

Organised by Darebin Climate Action Now, the Darebin Parklands event highlighted the local connection between Martin Ferguson as the local MP for Batman and Martin Ferguson the keen listener to the fossil fuels lobby. In a rapidly greening electorate, that's not a link that Ferguson will be keen to have made, but it's a necessary one if we are to get effective action on climate change by the Australian Government.

We simply can't take our scientifically unjustified climate position to international climate talks in Copenhagen. That's because, even if they were adopted by every other developed nation, our current policies would simply have no impact on catastrophic global warming.

Good on you, DarebinCAN!

Darebin Safe Climate Forum

Last Thursday night I attended the Safe Climate Forum organised by Darebin Climate Action Now. At the forum David Spratt gave an engaging and quite compelling presentation on the impacts of climate change in the Himalayas, as well as more broadly here in Australia. The light wasn't great, but I capatured the following video of David's talk. Further video will appear here shortly.



Also speaking at the event were engineer, Tim Forcey, on energy solutions, and climate-savvy comedian, Rod Quantock, who was very funny on Penny Wong shortening the AFL footy season, John Howard spoiling our Ashes chances with his terrible climate policies, and why we should eat New Zealand meat-promoting actor, Sam Neill. I got some video of Tim, but the battery on my green-power charged video camera conked out before Rod came on - sorry about that, folks.

Update: I've now got Tim's video done, and here it is - enjoy.

Video from Earth Hour at Darebin Parklands

Here's the promised video for last night's Darebin Parklands Earth Hour event, organised by Darebin Climate Action Now (DarebinCAN). Understandably, with all the climate-friendly darkness, it was tough to film, so these are just some of the highlights. Please note that what light there was came from renewable sources (supported by The Environment Shop), and that my video camera was recharged with 100% green power.



As mentioned in the video, DarebinCAN met this morning with Martin Ferguson, whose office was the scene of a DarebinCAN community demonstration last Friday. I wonder if Martin switched off for last night's event?

Finally, last night also featured an excellent short animation on climate tipping points called 'Wake Up, Freak Out - Then Get a Grip' by Leo Murray. Certainly worth a look!

Earth Hour sends a community message

Tonight's popular Earth Hour event at Darebin Parklands (Victoria, Australia) sent a grass-roots message to the nation's politicians - especially Prime Minister Rudd and Federal MP for Batman (and energy and resources minister), Martin Ferguson - that Australia needs to take stronger action on climate as we head towards post-Kyoto negotiations for an international climate agreement in Copenhagen this December.

The Alphington Community Centre event was organised by Darebin Climate Action Now (DarebinCAN). It followed the Friday 27 March protest at Martin Ferguson's office, and preceded a meeting between the fossil fuel industry's favourite MP and DarebinCAN scheduled for tomorrow.

Video from the event, which included music, presentations and an animated short film on climate change, will be posted here shortly. A highlight was the presentation from a Year 11 student at the local Santa Maria College - a hopeful sign that young people will lead change on this critical issue for the planet's future.

Grassroots hope in a climate of defeatism

It's good to see The Age focusing on climate change, analysing the gloom and doom big-picture of the defeatist Rudd Government and pathetic Opposition leavened with the small-scale hope of increasing grassroots responses.

Today's edition focuses on Garnaut's own critique of the Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) White Paper. The professor is still sticking to his weak line on targets, but he does critcise the White Paper position that precludes Australia taking a stronger position than 15% cuts on 2000 levels by 2020 even if a better international deal is reached at Copenhagen next year.

Garnaut is also critical of the flaws in the emissions trading scheme (ETS), with its billions in compensation and free permits for energy generators and trade exposed emissions intensive industries. As well as criticising these ridiculous hand-outs to the (coal-fired) generators, Garnaut says the ETS threatens to over-compensate the trade exposed industries because it doesn't take into account the increasing carbon constraints on international industries in its proposed five-year cap on permit prices in Australia.

The basic point is that Australian prices should increase as overseas industries become more carbon-constrained and lose any claimed competitive advantage they may have previously enjoyed over Australian industries because of lower constraints on their emissions. Garnaut also points out that the White Paper approach to free permits and compensation for big emitters means that more ambitious targets would ultimately see industry relief eating into funds for research and development, as well as relief to households facing increasing carbon prices.

The capped permit prices and inappropriate compensation measures therefore reinforce Rudd's weak 2020 5% target by putting a brake on more ambitious goals. Shouldn't the ETS facilitate the targets indicated as necessary by the science (at least 40% reduction on 1990 levels by 2020), rather than having the targets constrained by the ETS?

My own view is that some industries simply need to go out of business, and in those cases compensation should be directed to the workers, not the owners of massive corporations with a history of contributing to the problem. A big part of this should be re-training for new jobs in the green economy.

Penny Wong's line, now echoed by the Australian Workers' Union - that the Government position is about jobs - can only mean it's about old jobs that will leave the workforce ultimately unprepared for the changes that must come if we are to save our climate. In effect, then, the Rudd Government is betraying workers' futures for the benefit of the owners of dinosaur polluting industries. The ETS will perpetuate these industries and any transition, however minimal, will take place according to timelines the climate simply cannot afford.

Friday's coverage was both depressing and hopeful. Tim Colebatch reported on another flaw of the ETS - that domestic reductions would in effect make room under the emissions limit for heavy-polluters to increase their own emissions. Together with Government inaction on solar panels, this threatens a big disincentive to personal emissions reductions, which may come to seem futile if they will merely be soaked up by the big emitters.

Yet Suzy Freeman-Greene pointed to another compelling motive to continue personal action: collectively, it sends a political message to Government that is currently being demonstrated by the proliferation of local climate action groups. Today, The Age published my letter on the Colebatch and Freeman-Greene articles:

With typical cogency, Tim Colebatch highlights a flawed emissions trading scheme that will in effect allow big polluters to increase their emissions by the amount saved through domestic reductions. While this may dissuade some from personal efforts to reduce their emissions, Suzy Freeman-Greene offers a compelling reason our efforts should continue even as we fight to have them properly recognised by the trading scheme: collectively, they send a strong signal for change at a political level.

It is heartening to read that in Victoria alone there are some 50 climate change groups, with Darebin Climate Action Now just one I am aware of in my own neighbourhood. Together they are sending the message that, while Rudd is set to hand out billions in free permits to big polluters, millions of us care about the climate and have a permit to vote.

The Victorian state and federal elections aren't far away, and electoral pressure may be the best way to put the heat on the politicians before they put it on us through their cynical neglect and pandering to industry on the climate change challenge.

Climate recognition for survey response

It was pleasing to open my email this morning and find that I'd received some welcome recognition for my stance on climate change, and in particular my response to a candidate survey by Darebin Climate Action Now (DCAN). The email stated in part:

"Congratulations! Recently you completed a survey about Climate Change and the upcoming Darebin Local Council elections. Your responses have achieved a Gold Award from the Darebin Climate Action Now (DCAN) group."

DCAN has been very busy fostering local action on climate change, and was a recent participant in the Walk Against Warming. I thank them for their acknowledgment, which should go some way to show that there is no political monopoly on concern for climate and advocacy for urgent action.

Back to my campaign website

New Darebin Council must act on climate

I was pleased to respond to the recent candidate survey on climate change sent by Darebin Climate Action Now (DCAN). That's because the survey highlights a key area for Council action over the next four years and beyond. While Council appears to think it has climate well under control with its current initiatives, there is much to be done that can benefit our local communities, and encourage further collaboration with neighbouring Councils to find viable solutions.

One idea I'm proposing as part of my climate policy for the next Council is a Darebin Climate Framework to be used in assessing all Council proposals for their impact on climate. There are obvious areas where this might apply such as the environmental performance of Council buildings and new developments (see below), but also less obvious ones, such as an example I encountered in my own workplace.

There a smart decision was made to prefer a certain type of computer chip over another because, over thousands of desktop machines, the cumulative savings of energy made a big difference. There are lots of decisions like that which together can start making a big difference to our impact on climate.

Another idea I have for Council is to allow developers who go the extra mile in building sustainable apartments to market those as 'Darebin Climate Friendly' provided they satisfy very strict criteria on environmental performance beyond the current 'environment lite' approach we're now getting. That sort of thing can help to set benchmarks and allow people to make better choices about where they choose to live. Naturally, I would expect such developments to adhere to the standards of community consultation and participation I have outlined in my planning policy.

In short, what I'm offering to Rucker Ward voters is the potential for an independent Councillor switched on to climate. Not only do I have a climate policy, but at the end of it are links to my submission to the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Green Paper consultation, and my other writing urging strong action to address climate change. Climate change is real, the need for action is urgent, and I invite you to send questions my way to put me through my paces on this important issue.