https://share.google/1CwTO1kJx4rIo8iew

This documentary premiered at Parliament recently; here is the press release from that event, featuring Jenny Patrick OBE, the author of the historical novel, “Denniston Rose”:

https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/resources/denniston-rose-author-backs-petition-stop-mega-coal-mine

Forest and Bird have launched a national petition that asks for more than just stopping the mine; it demands a permanent solution, calling on the Government to reclassify the public conservation land on the Denniston Plateau as a Scientific Reserve.

This is the only rational, long-term solution to protect its unique ecosystems and ensure we are not fighting this same battle every decade.

• Please sign and share the petition here: https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/petitions/make-denniston-scientific-reserve

Bathurst’s proposal for open-cast mining of the Denniston Plateau and Mt. Frederick is already on shaky ground. They face significant financial hurdles, and are in litigation with their business partner, Talley’s, in what seems like an attempt to get money out – Talley’s are aware of the risks if Bathurst spend a bunch of money developing these new mines and then soft demand results in Bathurst going belly-up, with nothing for Talley’s.

Globally, the coking coal market is turning. This year, China announced it will not consent new coal-powered steel foundries, and the global coking coal price has softened in response to oversupply.

It doesn’t take many of these factors stacking up to make the entire operation economically unviable.

WITH YOUR HELP, WE WILL WIN THIS!

Kia Kaha,

Coal Action Network Aotearoa

The post The Save Denniston campaign kicks into high gear appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

The good news is that we have a short window of opportunity to make it clear that this Bill cannot pass in its current form. But we need to act now – we have only three days to make submissions on the Bill!

Coal Action Network Aotearoa, 350.org and Oil Change International have put together a submission guide to help you have your say on the COVID-19 Response (Fast Track Consenting) Bill.

Check out our guide and write a submission today, sharing your thoughts on the Bill

Last week, nearly 1000 of us sent messages to David Parker, calling for transparency, citizen engagement, and environmental protection in the COVID-19 Recovery (Fast Track Consenting) Bill. Clearly, he hasn’t yet taken our demands into account:

• If passed in its current form, this piece of legislation would enable the Minister for the Environment the power to fast-track the approval process for infrastructure projects without considering the implications for the climate and with limited oversight from the public and other stakeholders.
• The Minister would hold this power for 2 years from the enactment of the Bill, extending this power beyond the election and through to the next government.
• It also restricts hapū, iwi, and citizens’ rights to appeal approvals which pose an unacceptable risk to our communities and our environment.

The government has given us less than a week to make public submissions on the Bill. We need to use this moment to call for significant amendments to ensure that any fast-tracked infrastructure projects do not come at the expense of transparency, citizen engagement and protection for our environment and climate.

Will you take 5 minutes to make a submission, calling for the climate change implications of infrastructure projects to be bottom-line criteria whenever fast-tracking is considered?

We’ve included some key points in our submission guide that you can include when having your say on the Bill. These include ensuring that potential harmful climate impacts are a bottom line when assessing projects, protecting the public and other stakeholders’ rights to give feedback on applications, restoring the right to appeal risky approvals and ensuring that power isn’t concentrated in the hands of a few.

Together we can send a clear message to the government that these are vital amendments that need to be made before this Bill can pass!

CLICK HERE TO MAKE A SUBMISSION NOW

Your participation in this Environment Select Committee process is important to ensure that climate action and public engagement in decision-making are core values in our government’s recovery from COVID-19. We’re working with other climate change organisations to push for key amendments to make this Bill fit for a just recovery from COVID-19.

If hundreds of us come together, we can demonstrate that there is overwhelming support for key changes to the Bill that ensure that the rights of citizens and mana whenua to protect the environment are upheld.

Recovering from the impacts of COVID-19 requires the government to act boldly and rapidly. But in the process, mana whenua must be involved as Te Tiriti partners, and citizens must be included in decision-making, particularly when billions of dollars and decades of infrastructure development that could set us on course to make or break our climate change commitments are at stake.

Please take the time to have your say on the Fast-Track Bill today.

Together we can send a clear message to our government that it can’t ignore.

Thank you for taking action.

PS. If you would prefer a PDF version of our submission guide, you can download a copy here.

The post Three Days to have our Say on the Fast-Track Bill! appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Jeanette Fitzsimons trying (and failing) to get arrested at Fonterra’s Clandeboye dairy factory in Canterbury, 2017.

On Wednesday night 4 March we held our fortnightly Zoom call for an hour and a half, a standing CANA meeting for the last ten years. Jeanette was on the call, as usual, her sunburned farmer’s face beaming at us from Pakaraka farm.  24 hours later she was gone.

This blog has taken a while to post: her death took our collective breath away. It’s a long read, but we felt important to set out the important work Jeanette has done on coal.

We have been talking with each other in the days and hours since, and know that her death has motivated all of us with renewed conviction to continue her work, and her (and our) goal for the end of coal in Aotearoa, and no new coal mines.  Keeping the coal in the hole. We have huge shoulders to stand on, a legacy that we have to continue. Not just for Jeanette, of course, but for us and the future generations she cared so much about.

In this blog we attempt to summarise her extensive work with CANA. We will be posting again in the coming days with more personal takes from our team, because we all have our own memories, and stories to tell.  And because she was so dear not only to us but to the wider movement.

When she stepped down from her role as co-leader of the Green Party, the climate activist movement in Aotearoa was Jeanette’s lucky beneficiary: her stated “retirement” goal was to stop coal mines in New Zealand.  I put “retirement” in inverted commas because of course she was anything BUT retired.

When climate scientist Dr James Hansen visited in 2011, Jeanette toured the country with him, reaching out to all her contacts across Aotearoa, tapping into her extensive networks.  Hansen, the man who alerted the US Senate about climate change in 1978,  carried a strong message about the need to act on climate, and the need to stop burning coal as soon as possible.  At that point, with the support of the National government Solid Energy was planning to exploit the dirty lignite coal under fertile Southland farmland, and she was determined to stop it.

Jeanette with climate scientist Prof. James Hansen at the end of the 2011 NZ tour

By the end of the tour, hundreds had signed up to get involved with stopping coal. Being Jeanette, though, she didn’t want to set up a central group that coordinated all the others: she wanted each to have their own autonomy to act as they saw fit. SO typical of Jeanette’s philosophy of inspiring local activism.  [Extra:  Jeanette’s interview with Sustainable Lens during the tour]

It is also a testament to her that she refused to be the main spokesperson for CANA at the beginning: she didn’t want to take the limelight off CANA and onto herself: her image was still very much that of the Green Party and she didn’t want that to undermine CANA.  So she took a back seat, but was very much a driving force behind all our work, mentoring us all.

One of her aims in setting up our coal “action” group was to get arrested. Indeed she told me the only reason she had accepted her NZ Order of Merit was so that this would make an even bigger splash when she chained herself to a bulldozer.  We collectively failed her.

Jeanette was always a step ahead of all of us. Her research skills brought so much credibility to our work: her “can you make steel without coal” paper is still one of our most popular on the website (we are in the process of updating it).

Launching the Jobs Without Coal report.

She led our “Jobs without coal” report (and its update), and went to Blackball to launch it – the CANA call for a “just transition” was picked up far and wide, and her leadership in this area kick-started a national conversation.  She undertook some great research for that paper: going through the census figures and finding that indeed coal did not keep small communities alive: indeed, it was the opposite – she found the communities around coal mines are largely much poorer compared with the national average.

In 2013 Solid Energy was struggling, and as part of its divestment in order to keep itself afloat, it dumped its Southland lignite plans. It limped on, with major layoffs from its mines in the two years preceeding, and the following year Jeanette’s piece in the Dominion Post was prescient, calling for a Just Transition for Solid’s workers.

Our campaign against Bathurst Resources’ plans to mine on the Denniston plateau became our next big focus.  Forest and Bird’s fantastic legal challenges delayed Bathurst’s Denniston plans long enough for them to coincide with the coal price tanking, and while the company managed to clear the “overburden” at the mine, it couldn’t develop the resource, as we predicted, and was itself teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

Forest and Bird’s campaign was a national one, and we joined with all the other coal groups in urging the government to step in and stop the mine.

Wahine Toa: Jeanette, Catherine Delahunty and Debs Martin on the Denniston Plateau in 2014. Photo: Pete Lusk

We joined with 350.org and launched a campaign against their bankers: Westpac.  Jeanette was there at our launch outside Westpac’s main branch in Auckland.  (Not arrested). Jeanette also loved a good sticker, and we were very proud of our little Westpac logo-turned-coal-truck ones.

Jeanette at the Westpac campaign launch

Jeanette saw the writing on the wall and started to look at what was keeping the coal industry alive, and Fonterra was in her sights.  If we wanted to stop Bathurst, and the expansion of coal in Aotearoa, we would have to go after its clients, and by far the biggest was Fonterra.

Indeed it was Jeanette’s work that led us to the conclusion that Fonterra burned more coal than Huntly power station – it was our second-largest coal user in the country.  This is now an accepted fact and quoted by many.  (She was wearing her Fonterra Quit Coal T-shirt on the day she died.)

In 2015 Fonterra announced it was planning to develop its own coal mine at Mangatangi – or Mangatawhiri in the Waikato, and Jeanette was out at the weekends with Auckland Coal Action – and meeting with Fonterra to discuss the madness of this scheme.  The protests drove Fonterra to dump the idea as it managed to persuade Solid Energy to re-open the old Rotowaro mine.  We found out about this in March, and Jeanette’s blog announcing it drew ire from Fonterra and Solid Energy who denied such a thing. By September, the company confirmed what we’d announced for them in March.

She took part in a day of action with pamphlets and little bags of woodchips at the big Waikato Fieldays event just outside Hamilton. Again, she wasn’t arrested.

Jeanette at the Fieldays With Auckland coal action. Photo: Mark Taylor, Fairfax.

Of course Jeanette wasn’t just going to focus only on the coal use – she dove in deep, seeking out agricultural economists and other experts and looked at the bigger picture, advocating a reduction in cow numbers, with the solid argument that it would have little economic impact, but a big impact on reducing emissions.

In 2016 Fonterra applied for a consent to build two more coal-fired boilers at its dairy factory at Studholme, in North Otago just outside Waimate.  Jeanette led CANA’s very strong opposition, rallying experts on both the size of dairy herds, and on biomass, and giving our main submission.  We were partially successful” halfway through the hearing, Fonterra reduced its application from two to one boilers – quite a big victory for us.

Our leaflet on the Fonterra coal boiler plans at Waimate, written by Jeanette.

Jeanette was scathing of Fonterra’s statements to the Studholme hearing that it only had enough wood waste to co-fire only 20 percent biomass in each boiler. Her ire was only exacerbated when they reduced their application to one boiler – yet still maintained that number of 20 percent – one would think that would be increased to 40% with only one boiler, right?

At the end of the day: today, we forced Fonterra to first announce it would stop building coal-fired power plants by 2035, then to up that to state it would not build ANY new coal plants from now on.  It has a special page on its website about coal (see my rebuttal of that here), and is now tinkering around the edges of its climate policy to give the impression it is taking a lot of action.  It even managed to get EECA to pay for some of its coal conversion, which outraged Jeanette, EECA’s founder.  She died without having written her promised next letter to Fonterra, but it’s ok, we’ve got this Jeanette.

There is so much else to say about her work with CANA, and so much we have missed out,  such as the campaign against Christchurch Hospital’s planned coal-fired boiler (it’s now building a biomass boiler), the action at Clandeboye dairy factory in 2017, our CANA Summerfests, and the special times we as CANA spent on the farm with her and Harry at our regular hui.

But the Zero Carbon Act does deserve a mention, along with the policies she was advocating around climate change.  We submitted as CANA but Jeanette made her own carefully thought-out submission. She was totally right when she argued that the ZCA would not prevent a single emission: it is merely a framework into which policies must be inserted. She hated the ETS (instead favouring a coal price), and in her last days and weeks was absolutely furious at the government’s latest infrastructure spending announcement that had such a huge focus on roads.  None of us could understand how this had gotten past the new “climate lens” through which all big decisions made by the Government would be viewed, announced by James Shaw during the latest climate talks.

Jeanette always had other projects on the go – all of us were very busy at CANA and with our lives, yet we were only one part of her busy life.  We’d get a little glimpse into it on our fortnightly calls as we did our “round” at the beginning of each call.

She was heavily involved in the Supreme Court case challenging the RMA’s ridiculous clause that ruled out anybody considering a project’s impact on the climate during the consenting process: unfortunately the West Coast Environment Network lost the case, but she never let up on that front.

The demand on her time from across the country was huge. She diligently responded to every single email she received: one thing she is now relieved of is her ongoing battle with her inbox.  She loved hosting the Young Greens at the farm every year and, before she died, had just finished a youtube series for the Greens on the history of the party.

The CANA team at our hui on Pakaraka farm, 2013.

And during all of this she was doing what she loved best – her day-to-day work on the farm with her beloved Harry:  milking the cow every morning, picking chestnuts, making chestnut flour, selling their wares at the Thames market every Saturday morning,  picking olives and making that delicious olive oil, swimming in the gorgeous Kauaeranga River, practising the violin and spending as much time with her grandchildren in Wellington as she could.

This blog barely touches on who she was: her nurturing of others, especially the young, her wisdom, her ideals and ability to think outside the box, her gentle but forceful self.  Suffice to say we at CANA are heartbroken that we have lost our taonga, our wahine toa, our friend.  We will carry on the fight for you, Jeanette.

Haere ki te po, e te wahine whakaaro nui.

Go into the night, wise woman.

The post Jeanette Fitzsimons, the coal campaigner appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Writing in Newsroom, Jeanette Fitzsimons and Cindy Baxter of CANA have exposed a major impediment to reducing NZ’s carbon emissions.

The post A major loophole threatens the Zero Carbon bill appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

I hope these comments will help you make your own submissions, the deadline for which is September 20

– Jeanette Fitzsimons

The Minerals and Petroleum Resource Strategy document is about our overall approach to mining of both fossil fuels and other minerals. It is crucial to get this right as it will govern coal mines and oil and gas, and therefore climate change, and whether or not, and how, we phase out fossil fuels, for the next ten years. It is absolutely what we are about and your critique is essential.

Our Declaration says

Reduce the extraction and burning of fossil fuels to 50% by 2025 and to zero by 2030:

(i) prevent all new and expanded coal mines and coal burning plants;

(ii) end deep sea oil exploration and fracking for oil and gas.

The draft Strategy instead proposes reducing them somewhat, but envisages continued mining and burning of fossil fuels for many decades, with no suggested end point. This is ecocide, and we must call it that.

The draft Strategy is at Responsibly Delivering Value: A Minerals and Petroleum Resource Strategy for Aotearoa New Zealand: 2019-2029.

You can contribute in two ways:

1. Read the Strategy and write your thoughts and send to the address given for submissions.

2. MBIE prefer that you go to their website and click on “Complete our submission form”.

The second seems very limiting – the questions are all multiple choice from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” – but you can choose to ignore some of them and there are lots of spaces for you to give reasons and disagree, etc.

I’ve decided to do it this way and make their form, which they will take notice of, work for my ideas.

The main points, as I see it, are:

1. There is no distinction made between fossil fuels, which must go to zero as fast as possible because they are driving climate change, and other minerals which should be assessed on their environmental impact. There is no distinction made between aggregates, rock used for roading and concrete which are abundant and can be mined with very low impact, and minerals like gold which cause major environmental disruption. Metals essential for the transition to a zero carbon economy (eg lithium, cobalt) should be given priority over those which are merely “nice to have” (eg gold – there is enough gold already above ground for essential industrial uses.)
2. The draft Strategy is not consistent with the Government’s policy on climate change, which is to achieve zero carbon by 2050 under the Paris Accord. Everything in the Strategy must fit within the framework of the climate emergency, and the need to change the ways we do things. BAU is not an option anymore. Reference this to recent science if you can.
3. It is not good enough to say (Principle 1) that ecosystems and biodiversity must be “respected”. So we say a little prayer and carry on as in the past? We should insist on the word “protected”.
4. Principle 10 (continuing production and exploration under current permits) puts the property rights of miners ahead of the transition to zero carbon. It means renewal and expansion of existing oil drilling licences even when there is a ban on new oil drilling. We should not accept any form of Principle 10 for fossil fuels, and for other resources it should be dependent on environmental impact.
5. Gas is NOT a sustainable bridge to a low carbon (let alone zero carbon) economy. It’s carbon dioxide emissions are more like 60% of coal rather than the 50% often quoted by industry, and we have to add to that significant methane releases from all parts of the production and use cycle. They know this! Particularly, any new gas wells or infrastructure will be used for decades and take us backwards from the zero carbon future. It should be phased out in the same way as coal and oil.
6. The Strategy should set a timeframe for the phase out of fossil fuels, starting with no new coal mines or oil and gas wells, and protecting essential uses of these fuels (eg steel making) for as long as possible, while closing down uses for which there are good substitutes, like electricity generation, promptly.
7. There is lip service paid to a circular economy, which is good, but no steps to take to start the difficult journey to get there. This needs a strategy on its own.
8. The diagrams beginning on page 17 are very useful for people who have not previously engaged with the process; but the section on mining techniques doesn’t even mention fracking! This is the most destructive of techniques and needs to stop as part of the phase out. It is only used for oil and gas.
9. The Strategy proposes “balancing impacts across all 4 capitals”. This is not OK! Climate and environmental protection must take precedence over revenue to the Crown, for example.

Thank you for reading this. I hope these comments will help you make your own submissions, the deadline for which is September 20

– Jeanette Fitzsimons

The post Model submission on the Minerals and Petroleum Resource Strategy appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

On Sunday the CANA organising group, along with many other wonderful people, had a great day protesting a coal mine near Huntly.

The protest across the two main gates of the Kopako1 mine at Maramarua

Firstly: What is this coal mine?

It is a recently reopened mine, with the purpose of getting coal for Fonterra to evaporate milk to send to China and pretend its better for Chinese babies than breast milk. While Fonterra recently has been applauded for not renewing their permit for the Mangatangi coal mine, they have instead just restarted this less visible one. Sneaky sneaky!

Secondly: Why Sunday?

The New Zealand and Australia Minerals conference was being held in Tauranga this week, and the weekend included some optional field trips to visit the surrounding gold and coal mines. Conferences, as we all know, are best spent eating lots of free food and trying to meet influential people in your field so you can name drop them on later occasions. These conference-goers spent their weekend looking at blights they’ve made on lovely landscapes and getting yelled at about it at every single one they tried to go to.

Thirdly: What happened?

The CANA team spent a pleasant morning eating scones at a lovely nearby cafe, waiting for the call to head out. Once it came we raced off to the mine, and, along with others from Auckland Coal Action, Peace Action and 350.org, set ourselves up with a multitude of banners.

The conference-goers arrived shortly after, drove up to the gate, stopped for a while to figure out what to do, then turned around. There was another entry!

CANA’s Mel (in the flowery hat) and other protestors at the second sneaky gate as a Bathurst employee tries to unlock it.

We followed them over and, while they were doing whatever they were doing in the coal mine, spent a pleasant afternoon chanting at them through megaphones. One couple with a camper van had ingeniously rigged it up as a giant speaker, which echoed all down the valley (the residents of the house they parked in the driveway of were reportedly quite excited at the goings-on in their quiet rural road). Interspersed with the eloquent heartfelt speeches of the protesters, there boomed out vivid pre-recordings of an angry mob and a siren followed by a brilliantly serious “evacuate…evacuate…this is a climate emergency.”

When eventually the coal viewers tried to leave, they came driving out in their mostly single occupancy cars like good little fossil fuel proponents.

They moved very slowly due to the enthusiastic blockades by protesters further up the road, so I got chatting to the last guy out who was quick to make clear that he was “just there to have a look” and didn’t disagree with what we were saying. He reportedly was very into tree planting and ocean cleanups. His eagerness to not be associated with being ‘one of them,’ (and the very miserable faces of the rest), pleased me enormously.

Perhaps, at last, fossil fuels are negatively received.

Perhaps at last the winds are changing, after the recent reports of just how long Mobil and Shell knew about climate change; with wider public realisation of the lies they paid for; of fossil fuel companies’ intensive lobbying to governments to perpetuate a reliance on them.

Perhaps, at last, fossil fuels are losing their social license.

Fourthly: And then what happened?

The coal people left and we regrouped to have a spontaneous picnic. The police arrived and wandered over, saying (with no hint of believing it for a moment) they’d received reports of protesters throwing rocks. We offered them some cake and a hard-boiled egg, which they politely declined and went away and loitered in the corner while we finished making new friends and swapping cakes, and then we all drove off home after a very enjoyable protest.

The post The Kopako1 Protest: A View from the Inside appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

An international day “Rise for Climate,” organized by 350.org, resulted in over 250 000 people, 900+ events, in 95+ countries, organizing local days of action. The events purposely coincided with the Global Climate Action Summit a couple of days later, to display to politicians the strength of the ever-growing public demand for strong climate policy.

Here in New Zealand, events were held in Auckland, Whanganui, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill; with several of them involving Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA) members in organisational / speaking roles.

More summaries are available from 350 Aotearoa (and extensive video footage!), but below are our accounts of the ones we were involved in!

In Wellington, around two hundred people took part in a colourful, noisy superhero themed march from Te Papa to Civic Square. There were speakers from an impressive variety of local climate groups as well as an unexpected cameo from James Shaw, who encouraged further public engagement to push politicians further.

From CANA, Mel spoke about the importance of activism in any societal progress, and Tim read a climate-themed poem and spoke about coal. The afternoon also included a beautiful song from local singer Jess Adams, the wonderfully energetic Pacific Climate Warriors, and even an amazing speech from Urs Signer, all the way from Taranaki.

Sign 350 Wellington’s petition to ban the petroleum conference from Wellington council venues here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/oil-and-wellington-dont-mix?source=direct_link

In Dunedin, around 100 people showed up in force to hear speakers (including CANA’s Rosemary), and a petition was kicked off to demand Cosy Homes Trust Otago to remove NZ Oil & Gas as a funder. The event was a celebration of past achievements (Dunedin City Council was the first in the country to divest from fossil fuels) and a great platform to get a new generation of Uni activists involved.

Sign their petition here: https://www.toko.org.nz/petitions/fossil-free-cosy-homes

CANA’s Jenny down in Invercargill hosted the southern-most Rise event in the world (except for the one in Antarctica!). People brought symbols of what they are doing in their own lives to combat climate change – a wonderful opportunity to share ideas and inspiration.

In Christchurch, CANA’s Tor was one of the organisers, putting huge amounts of effort into creating not one but two events- People gathered in the Transitional Cathedral to hear speeches from locals working in the climate movement, and the next day was a celebration of Christchurch’s amazing food forest movement, with an opportunity to swap seedlings and learn about food forests.

Here’s Fossil Free Aoraki’s petition (and dear to our own hearts) demanding Fonterra to stop using coal boilers: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/fonterra-no-new-coal-boilers.

And here’s a short video of the global event. Quite ridiculously, watching it brought tears to my eyes. This is what it’s all about, this is why we’re here. When it sometimes feels like a David and Goliath-esque battle to be heard, this event showed the strength and breadth of the climate movement. 95 countries. 900+ events. 250 000 + people. And so much further we can grow… What a great day- let’s do it again!!

-Mel and the CANA team.

The post Rise for Climate Report: Aotearoa to the World appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Protesters today greeted mining conference delegates on their field trip to the North Island’s largest coal mine near Huntly calling for New Zealand to rapidly phase out the use of coal to help stop climate change.

The 15 protesters – from Auckland Coal Action, Coal Action Network Aotearoa and other groups, held anti-coal banners and signs, as around 30 mining industry executives arrived at the mine at 10 am this morning.

coal activists at Rotowaro mine 2

The delegates from the AusIMM mining conference, which begins tomorrow in Tauranga, have spent the weekend on field trips to mine sites, being dogged by protesters at every stop. Yesterday, six activists were arrested in the Karangahake Gorge.

The Rotowaro coa mine, near Huntly, is jointly owned by BT Mining (Bathurst Resources Ltd and Talley’s Energy), and supplies the Huntly Power Station, New Zealand Steel and other customers. Other mines in the area supply Fonterra.

“The need to rapidly phase out coal use to protect the environment has now become extremely clear, and is an essential step to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of holding global warming to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels,” said Auckland Coal Action spokesperson, Peter Whitmore.

“New Zealand has an abundance of wind and sun energy that can be captured. With today’s technologies and the advent of wall batteries, more insulation and energy efficiency, coupled with our hydropower, we should be turning away from coal, not digging more of it up – and we should be shutting down Huntly this year, as originally planned.”

Just down the road from the Rotowaro mine is the Kopako1 mine, also owned by BT mining, which supplies coal to Fonterra’s three big coal-fired boilers in the Waikato. The mining delegates will head to the Kopako 1 mine after Rotowaro where they will be greeted by more protestors. 

Fonterra is New Zealand’s second-largest user of coal after NZ Steel.  Kopako1 was re-opened in 2015, after local protests stopped Fonterra from starting its own coal mine at Mangatawhiri.

“Coal mines right around the country are being re-opened or extended because of dairy expansion,” saidCoal Action Network Aotearoa’s Jeanette Fitzsimons. “It feels like we are going backwards on coal, which simply has no role if we want to address climate change.  Our model of industrial farming is unsustainable.”

Both groups called on the Government to put a hefty enough price on coal so as to create a disincentive to use coal, which was still too cheap as the costs of its impacts – from health effects to climate change – are not factored into its price.

A few days ago, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres said in a key speech, “If we do not change course by 2020, we risk missing the point where we can avoid runaway climate change, with disastrous consequences for people and all the natural systems that sustain us… We need to put the brake on deadly greenhouse gas emissions and drive climate action. We need to rapidly shift away from our dependence on fossil fuels. We need to replace them with clean energy from water, wind and sun.”

“We need to listen to Guterres, and the many others who have given this message,” says Whitmore, and start taking immediate and effective action.”

The post Protesters greet mining conference field trip, demanding rapid phase-out of coal appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Mark your calendar – on Saturday 8 September find a Rise for Climate event in a city or town near you (or create one!).

Real climate leadership rises from below. It means power in the hands of people not corporations. It means economic opportunity for workers and justice and dignity for frontline communities that are the hardest hit by the impacts of the fossil fuel industry and a warming world.

This September, cities, states, businesses and civil society from around the world are gathering in California for the Global Climate Action Summit.  Local leaders are now leading the fight against greenhouse gases as governments drag their feet. We need to achieve: a fast, fair and just transition to 100% renewable energy; an immediate end to new fossil fuel projects; reforestation for carbon absorption; and an end to unsustainable land and water use.

Before the Summit, 350.org are planning thousands of rallies in cities and towns around the world to demand our local leaders take effective climate action and Rise for Climate!

We are at a crossroads. By acting together, we can end the era of fossil fuels and save the climate we all depend on.

What’s happening in Aotearoa?
You are warmly invited to the 350 events in the main centres.
Not near a major city? Why not set up your own event?!  350 Aotearoa can give you heaps of support & helpful resources
– contact Claudia Palmer claudia@350.org.nz

Check the 350 Aotearoa Facebook page for the most up-to-date info in all centres.  Links go to their Facebook events.

• Auckland 350 is calling on Auckland Museum not to take dirty money from the coal industry. Rally Sat 8 Sept, 10:30am. Auckland Museum A. The Auckland Domain, Parnell, Auckland
• Wellington 350 is calling on the City Council not to hire out council–owned conference facilities to the Petroleum Summit. Rally Sat 8 Sept 2:00pm. Civic Square, 101 Wakefield St, Wellington
• Nelson 350 is launching a new 350 fossil free action group for Nelson. Rally Sat 8 Sept 12:00pm  Church Steps, 45 Selwyn Place, Nelson
• Christchurch 350 has 2 events, on Friday and Saturday:
  1) Spotlighting Local Climate Leadership – Transitional Cathedral, Friday 7 Sept, 7pm – schools, churches, unions etc
  2) Trees for Climate – rally at Victoria Square, Sat 8 Sept, 1-3pm – seedlings, speakers, music….
• Dunedin 350 is getting together to celebrate their successes to date and plan the future. Meet Sat 8 Sept at 1pm at the Octagon, Dunedin.
• Invercargill: 1-2pm, Wachner Place, Invercargill. Bring a/some symbols to help share about your commitment to stopping climate change. Contact Jenny Campbell, 027 351 0180, jennycam@xtra.co.nz

Enjoy!  The antidote to despair is taking action together and there are many ways to do this.

Torfrida Wainwright

The post Rise for Climate on Saturday 8 September appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

On Sunday the 6^th of May I had the privilege of seeing climate change activist Bill McKibben speak at the Embassy Theatre in Wellington. I cannot overstate what excitement this was for me – in my books Bill ranks among God status (which I am sure he would be less than pleased about, being a very modest dude and a religious man himself). Of course, I leapt at the opportunity to volunteer at the event, and when he emerged from the heavens, touched my shoulder and said how much he appreciated us volunteering, my feet just about lifted off the ground.

The other two speakers, Mahina-a-rangi Baker and Rosemary Penwarden, were amazing as well. Mahina spoke about Maori perspectives – one metaphor she used that stuck with me is that Western culture is like someone in a race who is so far behind that they think they’re winning. That made me smile, as I have a friend who actually had that experience, but it’s also definitely something to think about. Western hegemony is so entrenched that it is can actually be quite novel to consider that indigenous cultures may know things that Western science does not.

And Rosemary, whenever mentioned afterwards, was immediately followed by a gleeful chorus of “amaaaaaazzziing!” She told a personal story of how she came to be a climate activist, inspired by the birth of her grandson. She was equal parts adorable and badass, someone you want to be best friends with but at the same time are a little bit scared of. Her anecdotes of activist exploits made me (and I would assume many others present) wonder what I have been doing with my life and how to be like Rosemary.

Bill was not as I expected. I haven’t seen a whole lot of public speakers, but generally (especially on YouTube) they are smooth, well-rehearsed and energetic. With Bill it was more like a conversation- he actually paused to think about what he was going to say next. It was so natural it was almost unnatural in the context of a stage; just absolutely heartfelt and genuine. He confessed that he would rather be in his office, writing (as is his primary profession). He is there not to sell tickets and glorify himself, he is there because he is desperate. He has been fighting for climate action for thirty years. And it felt like that. He seemed tired. He seemed frustrated.

Despite the many amazing, inspiring stories of public action around the world, he has been beaten down so many times. He showed the graph of how rates of atmospheric carbon dioxide levelled off for a couple of years, when we dared to hope things were finally turning around, only for the CO₂ level to resume its increasing trajectory last year. He told of his ‘mistake’ in taking part in an argument that turned out to be bogus from the start – both sides always knew the consequences of burning fossil fuels. It was never about the correct science. It was a public relations effort on a giant scale, a massive billion-dollar campaign to protect a powerful yet dying industry. ‘Facts’ became a matter of who could yell the most passionately.

Bill opened his talk questioning whether he needed to be there – a reference to the recent announcement to not allow new oil and gas permits. This is one factor where I would disagree with him- it is more important than ever. Here in New Zealand we still have eighteen coal mines. We are still subsiding fossil fuels $46 million every year, and don’t subsidies renewable energy at all. The vast majority of our banks, our councils, our universities and our retirement funds invest in (and therefore support) fossil fuels. Existing offshore oil permits can potentially carry on until 2070. At the same time, we know perfectly clearly that if we burn even half of the oil we have already found globally, climate change would be catastrophic.

His final words, about standing shoulder to shoulder in our battle for the planet, reminded me of a scene in Lord of the Rings, when Aragorn gives his final rallying speech. “A day may come when the courage of men fails… But it is not this day! This day, we fight!” Well Bill, I for one can certainly say, you have my sword.

I cannot recommend enough Bill’s book ‘Deep Economy.’ It wraps up climate change, capitalism, and farmers markets all in one incredibly interesting page-turner.

An article to start you off with- kind of old now but still just as relevant- Bill’s Rolling Stone article about the nonsensical investments in fossil fuels https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719

The post “This Day, We Fight!”: Aragorn, Bill McKibben, And Climate Change appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.