Headline of Businessweek after Sandy hit New York – will the Supreme Court understand the important link between coal extraction and climate change?

A small West Coast environment group will face off against two large coal companies – Australian Bathurst Resources and state-owned Solid Energy – at the Supreme Court this week, arguing that climate change is relevant for coal mining consents.

“Even the companies admit that their coal will contribute to climate change,” says West Coast Environment Network spokesperson Lynley Hargreaves. “So we should be able to call evidence on it.”

The group intended to call NASA’s Dr James Hansen to give evidence against the proposed Escarpment Mine at a 2012 Environment Court hearing in Westport. But Bathurst Resources and Solid Energy sought and obtained declarations from the  Environment and High Courts that climate change is excluded from coal mining – and by implication other – resource management considerations.

“We are arguing that the courts when applying our overarching environmental legislation shouldn’t ignore the most serious threat facing humanity today,” says Ms Hargreaves. “Resource consent hearings already take other complex matters into account, such as acid mine drainage and biodiversity loss. Climate impacts need to be weighed up too.”

“We are all going to face the effects of climate change – more floods, droughts and extreme weather events,” she adds.

The hearing begins at the Supreme Court in Wellington at 10am on Tuesday 12 March.

Notes:
1. The legal argument centers around the interpretation of a 2004 amendment to the Resource Management Act, which was to replace local authority consideration of climate change from New Zealand fuel combustion with a central government carbon tax, later changed to an Emissions Trading Scheme. However the amendment applies only to discharge permits, so West Coast Environment Network argues that it has no applicability to a coal mine when no application is made for a discharge permit.
2. The Environment Court has yet to announce a decision on the Escarpment Mine case, which was heard in 2012 without climate change evidence.
3. An Environment Court hearing on Solid Energy’s latest mine proposal, which was appealed by the Royal Forest and Bird Society, has been postponed pending the outcome of this week’s Supreme Court hearing.

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James Hansens’s evidence against the proposed opencast coal mine near Denniston, West Coast, New Zealand, which would destroy 200ha of public conservation land.  Hansen provides an international view on global climate change and the importance of phasing out coal in order to avoid the extreme negative social, economic and environmental effects.

For more information on the campaign against Bathurst’s proposed Denniston mine, see: http://coalactionnetworkaotearoa.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/help-stop-the-escarpment-mine-denniston-plateau/ 

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His Auckland lecture is still online here:

http://www.franklin-live.net/site/20110512DrJamesHansen.php

His presentation and slides together from Wellington: http://mdsweb.vuw.ac.nz/Mediasite/Viewer/Viewers/Viewer320TL.aspx?mode=Default&peid=b7a3ef2f-9da1-4cdf-b1b9-07286d53b443&pid=36988bee-3a4b-4838-abf6-a152f22eb85d&playerType=SL1

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The Aotearoa/New Zealand tour of distinguished climate scientist James Hansen has just started – and he’s talking fossil fuels and the climate, including plans to mine lignite in Southland. If you haven’t already done so, please check out the schedule of meetings below, go along to the meeting nearest you, and invite your friends. Watch out for media coverage of the tour as well.

Regards

Tim Jones

for the Coal Action Network Aotearoa

Fri 13th May: Palmerston North

1.30 – 2.45 pm public lecture, Japan Lecture Theatre, Massey University

Mon 16th May: Wellington

5.45pm public lecture Rutherford House, welcomed by Mayor Celia Wade-Brown

Tues 17th May: Wellington

8.45 am – 5.30 pm IPS Symposium “Future of Coal,” Victoria University

(he will speak 10.20 to 11.30, on panel 4pm -5.30pm).

Wed 18th May: Dunedin

5.30 – 7pm public lecture, St David’s Lecture Hall

Thurs 19th May: Gore

2 pm public meeting hosted by Mataura Landcare group , Gore District Council

Friday 20th May: Christchurch

12-1pm University of Canterbury, “Intergenerational Policy Implications of Climate Science” A1 Lecture Theatre, University of Canterbury

Friday 20th May: Christchurch

5.30 pm public talk hosted by Kennedy Graham, MP, Canterbury Horticultural Centre, 57 Riccarton Avenue (in Hagley Park).

Saturday 21st May: Auckland

12-5pm. Auckland Town Hall. Festival for the Planet -an afternoon of performance, speakers, workshops and a panel discussion with James Hansen.

http://www.facebook.com/JamesHansenNZTour

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The title of the majority Dr Hansen’s public talks will be: “Human-Made Climate Change: A Scientific, Moral and Legal Issue”.

15 March 2011—One of the world’s top climate scientists, Dr James Hansen, will visit New Zealand in May for a speaking tour, his first time in the country.

Dr Hansen is probably best known for bringing the urgency of the climate change issue to the world’s attention when he gave evidence to the US congress in 1988.

He is Adjunct Professor at Colombia University’s Earth Institute and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.

His book, “Storms of my Grandchildren” (2009), updates the climate science and tracks a path that could lead us to a stable climate.

Dr Hansen has been invited to New Zealand by group of environmental, social justice and business organisations, academics and committed individuals, as a contribution to the ongoing debate about climate change – and coal (1).

Spokesperson for the group Jeanette Fitzsimons said: “Dr Hansen is one of the best-known climate scientists in the world. We think New Zealanders will be inspired by his explanation of why action is so urgent, and how it can be done. His recipe for how to achieve a stable climate by phasing out coal will be particularly relevant, as some in New Zealand plan to embark on massive new developments using lignite coal.”

Dr Hansen has been an active researcher in planetary atmosphere and climate
science for nearly 40 years, with the last 30 years focused on climate research,
publishing more than 100 scholarly articles on the latter topic.

The title of the majority Dr Hansen’s public talks will be: “Human-Made Climate
Change: A Scientific, Moral and Legal Issue”.

(1) Groups and businesses involved: 350.org, 100% Plan, Organic Systems NZ,
Greenpeace, Oxfam – and a number of interested individuals
(2) He will be in the country 11-21 May. Dates and details of his public talks to be confirmed closer to the tour.

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My grandchildren began to influence me when I realized that policy makers were ignoring the message from the climate science, or rather that politicians were developing the fine art of greenwash — they would say favorable words about the environment and stabilizing climate, but their actions were inconsistent with that goal.

In reality, our governments are continuing to build new coal-fired power plants, develop unconventional fossil fuels, and encourage the search for more oil.

Despite the rhetoric about a planet in peril, the reality is that fossil fuel companies are still calling the tune. We, the taxpayers, are still subsidizing fossil fuels. And fossil fuel companies are not made to pay for the damage that they do to human health or the planet’s health.

Read On….

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James Hansen, author of “Storms of my Grandchildren”, is coming to New Zealand in May next year (11th – 21st).

Read On…..

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