AGL Rebuffs Malcolm Turnbull And Commits To Ditching Liddell Power Station For Gas, Wind And Solar

Fairfax - Michael Koziol

The Turnbull government will seek expert advice on AGL's new electricity generation plan after the energy giant rebuffed the government and confirmed it would close its coal-fired Liddell power plant.
The company believes it can meet the energy shortfall and reduce emissions through a multi-phase development of gas, wind and solar plants, while proceeding with the long-slated closure of Liddell in 2022.

The Liddell power station, in Muswellbrook NSW, will be decommissioned by 2022. Photo: AAP

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who has made electricity supply and power prices a key electoral issue, had implored AGL to consider extending the life of the ailing power station or find a willing buyer.
He said yesterday AGL's plan was "not at all" a rebuke of the government and it will be assessed by the Australian Energy Market Operator by mid-February.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after meeting with AGL boss Andy Vesey in September. Photo: Andrew Meares

The government has now all but accepted Liddell's closure, with Mr Turnbull on Saturday acknowledging AGL had "a plan which they say will meet [the] gap" in electricity supply caused by the recent closure of Victoria's Hazelwood power station and the eventual decommissioning of Liddell. The plan will be assessed by the Australian Energy Market Operator by mid-February.
Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg noted replacing Liddell was always an option open to AGL alongside maintaining or selling it. In an interview with Fairfax Media on Friday, before the company's announcement, he said his "overwhelming focus has always been ensuring we are not left 1000 megawatts short of dispatchable power in the system".
"Our responsibility is to be technology agnostic but focus on the reliability and affordability outcomes from AGL's plan post-Liddell," he said.
AGL said an independent analysis had found keeping the ageing station open for just five more years would cost almost $1 billion. Splitting the plant from surrounding infrastructure and selling it was also unfeasible, the company said.

Illustration: Matt Golding

Instead, AGL will look to generate 1600 megawatts from renewables, 500 MW from a new gas power plant, 250 MW from a gas plant slated for Newcastle and another 250 MW from a battery on the Liddell site. It is also exploring the feasibility of a pumped hydro project in the Hunter region of NSW.
AGL's view is that the plan, alongside the seven-years' notice for closing Liddell, will not adversely affect power prices. Altogether, it expects to produce power at a cost of $83 a megawatt-hour, compared to $106 if Liddell's life was extended. The company said the new portfolio would also reduce its carbon footprint by 17.6 per cent.
"This plan demonstrates that old power plants can be replaced with a mixture of new, cleaner technology, while improving reliability and affordability," said AGL chairman Graeme Hunt.
"Decisions for the investments are staged to enable flexibility to respond to the changing needs of the market and improvements in technology over the next five years."
AGL said the first stage of its generation plan, requiring $490 million in capital expenditure already approved by its board, aligned with the Turnbull government's National Energy Guarantee to maintain electricity supply and prevent blackouts.
The Grattan Institute's energy expert Tony Wood said the announcement was "hardly a surprise and fits in perfectly with the recommendations of the Energy Security Board" and chief scientist Alan Finkel's recent energy review.
"That sort of combination is where Australia is heading – a combination of storage, renewable energy and batteries. And gas has a role to play in the transition," he told Fairfax Media. "It was never going to make sense for Liddell to be replaced with another coal-fired power station."
Business Council of Australia boss Jennifer Westacott also praised the proposal as innovative, secure and environmentally sound.
Kelly O'Shanassy​, chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation, said the Turnbull government's attempt to "strongarm" AGL into keeping Liddell open had failed, and the government should now "drop its obsession with coal".
"What we need is a strong, comprehensive plan that would speed up the retirement of polluting coal plants and accelerate the transition to clean energy," she said.

Links

• AGL snubs Coalition with decision to shut down Liddell plant
• Coalition MPs attack AGL decision to shut Liddell coal power station
• AGL proposes 1.6GW wind and solar, plus storage, to replace Liddell
• Liddell Power Station: AGL confirms closure of coal plant, replaces it with renewable energy
• Muswellbrook's Liddell power station will close in 2022 despite intense government pressure

'Soul-Crushing' Video Of Starving Polar Bear Exposes Climate Crisis, Experts Say

The Guardian - Ashifa Kassam

Footage from Canada’s Arctic shows emaciated animal seeking food in scene that left researchers ‘pushing through their tears’

Footage of starving polar bear exposes climate change impact – video

Video footage captured in Canada’s Arctic has offered a devastating look at the impact climate change is having on polar bears in the region, showing an emaciated bear clinging to life as it scrounged for food on iceless land.

The scene was recorded by the conservation group Sea Legacy during a late summer expedition in Baffin Island. “My entire Sea Legacy team was pushing through their tears and emotions while documenting this dying polar bear,” photographer Paul Nicklen wrote on social media after publishing the footage this week.
The video shows the bear struggling to walk as it searches for food. The bear eventually comes across a trashcan used by Inuit fishermen, rummaging through it with little luck.
The bear, which was not old, probably died within hours of being captured on video, said Nicklen.
“This is what starvation looks like. The muscles atrophy. No energy. It’s a slow, painful death.”
The film-makers drew a direct line between the bear’s state and climate change. “As temperatures rise and sea ice melts, polar bears lose access to the main staple of their diets – seals,” the video noted. “Starving, and running out of energy, they are forced to wander into human settlements for any source of food.”

Photographer Paul Nicklen writes: My entire @Sea_Legacy team was pushing through their tears and emotions while documenting this dying polar bear. It’s a soul-crushing scene that still haunts me, but I know we need to share both the beautiful and the heartbreaking if we are going to break down the walls of apathy. This is what starvation looks like. The muscles atrophy. No energy. It’s a slow, painful death. When scientists say polar bears will be extinct in the next 100 years, I think of the global population of 25,000 bears dying in this manner. There is no band aid solution. There was no saving this individual bear. People think that we can put platforms in the ocean or we can feed the odd starving bear. The simple truth is this—if the Earth continues to warm, we will lose bears and entire polar ecosystems. This large male bear was not old, and he certainly died within hours or days of this moment. But there are solutions. We must reduce our carbon footprint, eat the right food, stop cutting down our forests, and begin putting the Earth—our home—first. Please join us at @sea_legacy as we search for and implement solutions for the oceans and the animals that rely on them—including us humans. Thank you your support in keeping my @sea_legacy team in the field.

The association echoed a 2015 study from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature that ranked climate change as the single most important threat to the world’s 26,000 polar bears. Researchers – who described the bears as the canary in the coal mine – found a high probability that the population would decrease 30% by 2050 due to the changes in their sea ice habitat.
As climate change boosts Arctic temperatures, sea ice – crucial to the bears for hunting, resting and breeding – is melting earlier in spring and refreezing later in autumn. The growing number of ice-free days could push the species past a tipping point with widespread reproductive failure and starvation in some areas, the report noted.
Satellite data published last year revealed that the number of ice-covered days across the 19 Arctic regions inhabited by polar bears declined at a rate of seven to 19 days per decade between 1979 to 2014.
Since posting the footage, Nicklen has been asked why he and his team did not help the bear. “Of course, that crossed my mind,” he told National Geographic. “But it’s not like I walk around with a tranquilizer gun or 400 pounds of seal meat.” Feeding polar bears is also illegal in Canada.
“There was no saving this individual bear,” he noted on social media. Instead he highlighted the threat facing the species as a whole, which has become emblematic of the ravages of climate change. “The simple truth is this – if the Earth continues to warm, we will lose bears and entire polar ecosystems.”

Links

• Climate change is 'single biggest threat' to polar bear survival
• Pizzly or grolar bear: grizzly-polar hybrid is a new result of climate change
• Polar bears migrate north as rising temperatures hasten Arctic ice melt
• Polar bears fight for survival as sea ice melts – video
• Polar bear attacks: scientists warn of fresh dangers in warming Arctic
• The polar bear who died of climate change - big picture
• US and Russia unite in bid to strengthen protection for polar bear

World’s First Human Rights Investigation Into Corporate Responsibility For Climate Change Intensifies

Greenpeace International

Candlelight commemoration 3 years after Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines

Manila, 8 December 2017 - The world’s first ever national inquiry into the responsibility of the fossil fuel industry for the human rights impacts resulting from climate change hits and important milestone in the Philippines on 11 December - one day after Human Rights Day (10 December).
Companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Suncor and Repsol, are being asked to explain their role in making climate change worse.
The investigating body, the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, sent Notices in October requesting the companies to attend the 11 December meeting to discuss and agree on how the investigation will be conducted, as well as evidence submission and witnesses (1).
The investigation will intensify in 2018 and has the potential to shift global understanding of corporate responsibility for climate change.
“Many homes were destroyed during typhoon Yolanda and people died - including some I knew,” said Isagani Serrano, president of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM), an organisation that provides support in the aftermath of disasters and one of the petitioners. “We hope CEOs of these companies look deep within their hearts and see how their profit harms people and the planet.”


Filipino typhoon survivors, other communities suffering the impacts of climate change, and civil society organisations, including Greenpeace Southeast Asia (Philippines), petitioned the Commission for the investigation in 2015 (2), two years after super-typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) claimed the lives of more than 6,300 people and affected millions of others who have yet to recover (3).
“International Human Rights Day should remind these companies why it’s important that they participate in the national inquiry. Extreme weather fuelled by climate change is making life worse for people on the frontlines of climate change,” said Yeb Saño, Executive Director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, who is also a petitioner in the investigation.
“Their basic rights to food, water, shelter, health, and even life are under threat. People have rights, states have duties, and companies have responsibilities to respect these rights. No oil, gas, or coal company has a right to pollute the climate, and those that undermine, threaten, and violate human rights must be held accountable.”
“The national inquiry in the Philippines is an opportunity to set the record straight on climate change and make sure these companies are as committed as society needs them to be to phasing out fossil fuels and ensuring that our future is powered by 100% renewable energy,” said Saño.

AG Saño, visual artist, activist and survivor of super-typhoon Haiyan from The Philippines, holds up an invite to Shell to attend the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHR) investigation, in front of Shell’s annual general meeting in The Hague. 

The Philippines national inquiry is one of a wave of people-powered legal actions taking place around the world. Greenpeace Nordic and Nature and Youth in Norway, young people in the US, senior women in Switzerland, a Peruvian farmer in Germany, a law student in New Zealand, and many others, are taking legal action to seek protection from climate change.
The day before the Manila meeting is a very important day for all of humanity. 10 December is International Human Rights Day and the start of the one-year lead up to the 70th anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

Links

• The Climate Change and Human Rights Petition
• Petition Requesting for Investigation of the Responsibility of the Carbon Majors for Human Rights Violations or Threats of Violations Resulting from the Impacts of Climate Change
• Final Report re Effects of Typhoon "Yolanda" (Haiyan)
• Here’s what YOU can do to celebrate International Human Rights Day