-T.S. Eliot

The UN-sponsored Conference of Parties (COP) was conceived as the world’s best hope for reducing the impact of climate change, those hammer-blows of fire, flood and drought that are steadily increasing their prevalence and fury across the planet.

During the fortnight that COP26 was held in Glasgow, several billion tonnes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG) wafted skyward from power stations, vehicle exhausts, cleared forests, drained wetlands and the burping of a billion cows. Meanwhile, more than 500 sharp-suited fossil fuel lobbyists stalked the conference halls, reassuring national delegates that things aren’t as bad as they seem, and not to forget about the economy (and their careers) before doing anything rash.

The billions of dollars invested in such lobbying paid off when India, supported by the medieval kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Russian mafia state, and the coal-crazed Australian government, threatened to tank the final resolution unless a goal of “phasing out coal” was changed to the meaningless “phasing down coal”.

Incredibly, this is the first time, in 26 years, that coal has even been referenced in a COP resolution; we’d best not hold our collective breath until oil and natural gas also rate a mention!

There was progress, however, at least on paper; wealthy countries such as New Zealand formed international alliances and pledged to reduce methane and deforestation, as well as to provide financial aid to those developing nations who are being hit hardest by climate change, notwithstanding their own minimal emissions of GHG.

Unfortunately, Climate Change Minister James Shaw made it clear that New Zealand will take little real action to reduce our own emissions; the government will not revisit it’s desultory 2021 GHG budget, nor will it accelerate efforts to reduce methane emitted by agriculture. His post-conference press release continue to make the easily-debunked claim that we will halve our emissions by 2030, when, minus several misleading accounting tricks, the true net-net figure is about 21%, much of which will be purchased overseas.

Our poor performance on the world stage was rewarded by a humiliating “Fossil” award at Glasgow, but it could have been worse – at least we aren’t Australia, whose Prime Minister claimed that Australia’s emissions would drop 35% by 2030, despite offering zero Governmental intent or action to reduce one of the largest per capita carbon footprints of any nation. Australia also opposed a resolution to keep global warming below 1.5 C, which is essential to the survival of small island states such as the Maldives and the Marshall Islands, who’s delegate expressed “profound disappointment” with the COP26 outcome.

One delegate, from a small island state, showed journalists photos of water bubbling up from the ground during king tides; another said that any global temperature increase over 1.5 C would be a death sentence for her people. Be that as it may, based on current (“NDC”) pledges, we can expect about 2.4 C of global warming by 2050.

A recent survey of climate scientists, by the prestigious “Nature“ magazine, found that a majority of them expect catastrophic climate impacts within their lifetimes, driven by an expected 3 C rise in the average global temperature. The survey also shows that many climate scientists are struggling with grief and anxiety.

Another recent survey, of 10,000 young people across the planet, found that they, too, are profoundly concerned. As the survey team leader told the BBC in September, “…the young feel abandoned and betrayed by governments.” A significant number (40%) are hesitant to have children, and nearly half reported feeling distressed or anxious about the climate in a way that was affecting their daily functioning: eating, concentrating, going to work, sleeping, spending time in nature, relationships, playing and having fun.

So, how can we avoid a grim future? There are no magical solutions, no industrial technologies to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere at scale, and the fossil fuel companies still are manufacturing doubt, distraction and denial as we push our planetary life support systems toward potentially irrecoverable tipping points.

All we can do, is simply do everything we can, at whatever level we can, to promote community resilience and climate leadership. Get active, join and support community and environmental groups, educate yourself on the solutions, talk to your neighbours and friends, take part in group action, reduce your own consumption of fossil fuels, eat locally, write submissions, and generally make as much of a nuisance of yourself as you can!

After all, what have you got to lose? A sustainable and equitable world is still possible, if we are willing to work for it. As New Zealand’s former PM Helen Clark wrote recently, in the introduction to “Climate Aotearoa”:

“…as the Covid-19 crisis shows, when the ‘team of 5 million’ acknowledges the need to act, it does so, to great effect. That is the sense of urgency with which the climate crisis now needs to be addressed.”

The post Thoughts on the 26th UN Climate Summit, COP26 appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Here is a range of views that our organising committee recommend as interesting and informative:

Russel Norman, Greenpeace: “A sellout of monumental proportions… we have to go back to the streets because this government has now failed on climate change… what other choice do people have when the government rolls and adopts the polluter’s plan?”

Simon Wilson: “Not good enough, but still good… Jacinda Ardern is right to hail the new agreement. It’s a world-first and should, could, be the start of something big… right now the targets don’t matter as much as the process. This is an emergency and we’re just at the start of it.”

Rod Oram: “A turning point 20 years in the making, bringing us into line with more than 20 other jurisdictions around the world (that) have set similar long term climate goals, and established independent climate commissions to oversee the carbon budgets and policy … Above all, such systems give business the required long term certainty.”

Extinction Rebellion: “Either we make history, or we are history… we must draw the line on fossil fuels before it’s too late.”

The post The Zero-Carbon Act and the amended Emissions Trading Scheme appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

• Don’t need any convincing to sign on? Go straight to http://dotheparispledge.org/

BankTrack, the international NGO tracking the investments of private sector banks and their effect on people and the planet, has recently launched a major new campaign calling on banks to sign a pledge to quit coal, in time for the Paris climate conference in November. Coal Action Network Aotearoa has signed on to support this growing movement to tell banks to take this pledge and quit financing coal – and you can too.

The campaign is called “Banks: Do The Paris Pledge” and is part of BankTrack’s long-running campaign to build pressure on banks to exit the coal industry, based on its severe impacts on climate and health. Banks are invited to pledge to produce a phase-out plan for ending their financing for the coal industry (both mining and burning).

Please check out the website at http://dotheparispledge.org and consider signing up as a supporter, and encouraging your friends and networks to do likewise. There are options both both individuals and organisations to sign on.

The post Tell Banks To Do The Paris Pledge To Quit Coal appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Cartoon by Murdoch for the Christchurch Press. Reproduced by permission of @domesticanimal.

We took action last Sunday…

Heads in the Sand last Sunday, in which a thousand or so New Zealanders at 12 beaches around the country put their heads in the sand to symbolise the Government’s failure to act on climate change, was a great success.

It was covered on TV1, on NZ’s leading Chinese-language TV station, by a German TV crew, on Stuff, in the Herald, on Scoop, by radio  channels including Newstalk ZB,  in the International Business Times and in the “The Ecologist” magazine. And it clearly rocked Climate Change Minister Tim Groser, who was forced to defend his Government’s awful record on climate change and ludicrously inadequate climate negotiating position just as he prepared to leave for the COP 20 climate talks in Lima.

You can see videos, photos and reports from Heads in the Sand here:

https://coalactionnetworkaotearoa.wordpress.com/?s=head+in+the+sand

…Now let’s follow up this coming Monday

Thanks to Generation Zero

But the climate movement isn’t finished with the Government yet over its woeful failure to deliver real action on climate change.Generation Zero has an excellent action called “Cut the Gap” coming up on Monday. They are asking people to sign up to visit their local National Party MPs on Monday morning, between 8 and 9am, to either congratulate them for pledging new action on climate change in Lima, or showing our disapproval if they don’t act. The list of confirmed actions is at the bottom of this post.

If you’d like to sign up to take part in this action, there’s lots more info and a simple signup form at

http://www.generationzero.org/cutthegap

You can also sign up on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/303466363175497/

And you can watch a Firstline interview with Paul Young of Generation Zero: http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/how-can-nz-save-its-green-reputation-2014121011#axzz3Ldx3e311

Coal Action Network Aotearoa thinks Generation Zero’s Cut the Gap is a great sequel to Heads in the Sand. We hope you’ll decide to take part.

LATEST NEWS

The list of MP visits on Monday has now been announced – if there’s one near you, please come along. (Please note that start times vary):

Tim Jones

The post We put our Heads in the Sand last Sunday. This Monday, it’s time to tell National MPs to Cut the Gap on climate change. appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Tarsh at the talks

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been working to avert climate disaster for over two decades.

While there are a myriad of challenges in attempting to get nations to agree to an action plan to save our planet, there is one major flaw in attempts to date.

UNFCCC negotiations have dealt only with emissions; governments are required to produce emissions reduction targets, and market mechanisms are aimed at making it more expensive to emit.

What is glaringly absent from the discussion is any mention of ceasing to extract the fossil fuels that have gotten us into this mess.

The problem with solely pursuing climate policies which seek to reduce fossil fuel demand is that even when they are successful, they simply push fossil fuel prices down, creating a cheap energy supply that is hard for renewable energy sources to compete with.

There needs to be a simultaneous push from the other side, cutting off the supply of fossil fuels and creating a strong impetus for change.

The science is telling us that the majority of our known fossil reserves must stay in the ground if we are serious about keeping within two degrees of warming.

The International Energy Agency has said that “no more than one-third of proven reserves of fossil fuels can be consumed prior to 2050 if the world is to achieve the 2 °C goal,” and Carbon Tracker estimates that 65-80% of listed companies’ current reserves cannot be burnt.

While estimates may vary slightly, the consensus is in. We cannot burn all of our known reserves, and thus, further exploration for new reserves is morally reprehensible.

This week New Zealand’s climate change minister Tim Groser arrived in Lima for the United Nations COP20 climate conference. Prior to his arrival, Groser assured a reporter that in New Zealand we are “absolutely doing our fair share” to address climate change.

The following day, energy minister Simon Bridges announced fifteen new oil and gas permits, seriously undermining this statement. This announcement flies in the face of any real intention to engage with climate change action at the international level, ignoring the reality that to continue with fossil fuel exploration means to accept the possibility of over four degrees of warming, a frightening prospect.

It is time that leaders come to term with the fact that they simply cannot exploit all the fossil fuel resources in their territories and still expect to pass on a liveable planet to their kids.

Governments simply cannot continue to consider their  model of economic development apart from their commitments to tackle climate change. The longer this divide exists, the more the problem worsens, and we will only become further locked into dirty energy infrastructure. Nations need to face up to the crux of the climate problem and address the issue of continued extraction.

The post The Imperative to Leave it in the Ground appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Christchurch

Invercargill

Bethells Beach, West Auckland

You can also watch Wellington’s pre-event promotional video:

and video from the Wellington event at Oriental Bay:

More Media Coverage

Chinese-language TV channel World TV (available on Freeview 28) devoted nearly five minutes to the story last night – you can see this from 0.00-4.45 in this video (link kindly provided by World TV):

http://vod.istars.co.nz/watch_video.php?v=3RN13MR2R2OU

The International Business Times (Australian edition) has also covered the story:

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/575201/20141208/climate-change-new-zealand-protest-beach-peru.htm#.VIZCkGck9Xp

The post Heads In The Sand: Video appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

You can read about the reasons for Heads in the Sand and see yesterday’s selection of images. Here is some of the excellent coverage of the event, plus a further selection of photos – this time, going south to north.

UPDATE: NZ’ers in Lima for the climate talks weren’t near a beach, so they did this instead!

Doing the best we can to support the Heads in the Sand campaign over here at the conference in Lima! Unfortunately there’s no sand onsite. From the New Zealand Youth Delegation and other NZers. Photo: Maddie Little

Coverage of Heads in the Sand

Here’s a selection of the coverage we’ve seen:

One News (6pm news, Sunday 7 December): http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/critics-claim-government-burying-its-head-in-sand-over-climate-change-6194669

Stuff.co.nz: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/63915759/Heads-in-the-sand-in-climate-change-protest

NZ Herald: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11370436

Radio New Zealand: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/261126/climate-activists-bury-heads-in-sand

Scoop: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1412/S00101/heads-in-the-sand-in-response-to-govt-climate-policies.htm

350.org: http://350.org/new-zealanders-bury-heads-in-sand-just-like-their-government-on-climate-change/

Taranaki Daily News: http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/63927132/Climate-activists-bury-their-heads-in-sand

Climate Justice Taranaki: https://climatejusticetaranaki.wordpress.com/2014/12/07/heads-in-the-sand-what-climate-change/

Wellington Scoop: http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=73667

More Images from Heads in the Sand

From south to north:

Invercargill – Oreti Beach

In the far south of New Zealand, on Oreti Beach, #HeadsInSandNZ was also a climate crime scene. Photo: Jenny Campbell

Dunedin – St Clair Beach

Santa took time out of his schedule to take part in #HeadsInSandNZ in Dunedin yesterday. Photo: Metiria Turei MP

Bonus Dunedin picture – since that one doesn’t show much of the crowd:

The Oil Free Otago flag flew proudly at the Dunedin #HeadsInSandNZ event. Photo: Ruby Harris

Christchurch – New Brighton Beach

In Christchurch, 220 people put their #HeadsinSandNZ on New Brighton beach. Photo: Alan Bishop

Nelson – Tahunanui Beach

People getting ready to put their #HeadsInSandNZ at Nelson’s Tahunanui Beach. Photo: Sara Cooper

Motueka – Kaiteriteri Beach

A beautiful scene at Motueka’s Kaiteriteri Beach for #HeadsInSandNZ. Photo: Babs McGee

Wellington – Oriental Bay

#HeadsinSandNZ participants provide the colour on a wet Wellington day. Thanks Ashlee Gross/Harvey Molloy

Taranaki – Oakura Beach

19 bums in the air at Oakura for #HeadsInSandNZ. Photo: Nicola Patrick

Auckland – Bethells Beach (West Auckland), Mission Bay, Waiheke, and Browns Bay (North Shore)

Signs of the times at Bethells Beach for #HeadsInSandNZ. Photo: Liz March

An aerial (UAV) photo of #HeadsinSandNZ at Bethells Beach. Photo: Chris Jackson

Getting ready to blow the whistle on climate change at Mission Bay. Photo credit: Curnow/Leigh

Heads in the sand, saluting the sun: Waiheke Island takes part in #HeadsInSandNZ. Photo: Peter Rees

The sun shines on #HeadsInSandNZ at Browns Bay. Photo: Jean McElhaney

The post Heads in the Sand: News Roundup and More Images appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Our Government, with its relentless focus on minerals extraction policies and addiction to dairy, has got its head in the sand on climate change.  We’ve had enough of its weak, “let everyone else go first” attitude on climate, and its ongoing minerals extraction programme that threatens our beaches, our water, our coastlines and our Maui’s dolphins.

So we’ve decided to organise a Day of Action at beaches around the country on Sunday 7 December, to send a message to the Government that we think it has its head in the sand on these issues. *** Browns Bay event now added – get to it if you’re on the North Shore!  ***

The date coincides with the beginning of the second week of the international climate change talks in Lima, when our Ministers will be either there, or getting ready to leave.

We now have events set up in these places (links are to Facebook page events)

Invercargill:      11.30 Oreti Beach
Dunedin:           12.00 St Clair Beach
Christchurch:     12.00 New Brighton Pier
Nelson:               11.30 Tahunanui Beach
Wellington:        11.30 Oriental Bay (meet on Oriental Parade by the water fountain)
Taranaki:            16.00 Oakura River Mouth (Corbett Park)
Auckland West Coast: 10.00 Bethells Beach
Auckland Central: 11.30 Mission Bay
Browns Bay:    11.00 Browns Bay Beach
Waiheke:          12 noon, Little Palm Beach
Ahipara:             Time tbc, Ahipara Beach

Lima: a small team of kiwis will carry out this action on Lima’s Miraflores beach.

If you want to hold an event at your own beach, create a Facebook event and post it up on our main event page, and we’ll promote it for you. We’ve set up a Facebook page as an overall event page.   Also please let us know – email coalactionnetwork@gmail.com

It’s a really easy event to do – on our overall Facebook event page we have details of the “how to” (with health and safety guidelines, plus media guidelines) and we think it’ll send a strong message.  This event was done in Australia as a message to Prime Minister Tony Abbott but, to be honest, our Government is no better.  We’ll also have a media plan to go with it and instructions to support you.

Please help us promote this event by sharing on Facebook and with your friends and, of course, taking part.  

BONUS CONTENT! Heads in the Sand has now inspired a poem by Harvey Molloy that’s been published on an international poetry site!

The post Heads in the Sand! Join Us On Sunday 7 December appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Yep, we made it to The Guardian Environment’s front page – for all the wrong reasons.

Our charming Prime Minister – and Minister of Tourism – has excelled himself with his latest video promoting drilling, fracking and the general digging up of our beautiful country and its offshore marine environment. The video was released last week.

While we could go on – and on – The Guardian’s summed it for us – . Blogger Graham Readfearn points out the irony of the moves by our Government to exploit what Key calls “our natural resources” – an irony that hasn’t escaped many of us here in NZ.

Some of the comments on the blog are telling:

Clearly tourism in NZ exists outside of the Lord of the Rings phenomenon. It is, after all, a fantastic country to visit.
However, how long will the tourism last if it ruins its environment through mineral extraction? And how long do you think those minerals will last? What then?

and

I really can’t understand why all these right wing politicians can only think of environmentally destructive and socially divisive ways of providing employment and earning money when their are so many environmentally constructive and socially enhancing alternatives.

To those who have visited our shores, the prospect of digging up NZ to sell it off to the highest international corporate bidder is clearly as bizarre a concept as it is to us.

The post Fellowship of the Drill? What was our PM thinking? appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

In which expert advisory work from the PCE illustrates why the ETS in its present form risks a massive lignite subsidy, and Tim Groser — quite rightly — observes that this would be “ridiculous” and “incoherent”

Read On….

The post PCE and Groser: fix the ETS by Claire Browning appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.