Despite record heat and drought Australia's emissions and coal exports are soaring, says a new report, and both are increasing as a matter of government policy. But a homegrown climate action movement is putting a spanner in the works - and just stopped its first coal train.
Australia's response to climate change is headed completely backwards. If we can stop this new coal mine we set a precedent for the rest of Australia to stand up.
Despite record heat and drought Australia's emissions and coal exports are soaring, says a new report, and both are increasing as a matter of government policy. But a homegrown climate action movement is putting a spanner in the works - and just stopped its first coal train.
Australia's response to climate change is headed completely backwards. If we can stop this new coal mine we set a precedent for the rest of Australia to stand up.
Australia's emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases are going up and up - and are set to rise by more than 50% over 1990 levels by 2020, according to new research.
Climate Action Tracker (CAT), an independent science-based programme that analyses the emission commitments and actions of countries around the world, says Australia's present emission levels are about 31% higher than in 1990 and continue to rise.
"In terms of emission effort, Australia will be going in the opposite direction to China and the US, who are putting effort into reducing emissions", says the CAT analysis.
And that's without taking into account the impact of Australia's massive and increasing coal exports. If included, they constitute the country's single biggest source of emissions - an increasing cause of protest among climate activists.
Photo credit Frontline Action on Coal.
Read more at ENN Affiliate, the Ecologist.
