Lethal Heating: 04/22/18

22/04/2018

Tokelau's First Newspaper Aims Keep Islanders Informed About Climate Change

ABC News - Bindi Bryce

The newspaper will also publish articles on council decisions and village matters. (Photo: Taupulega of Nukunonu) (ABC News)

Key points

Tokelau consists of three small atolls, and is a dependent territory of New Zealand
It has a population of around 1,500 people
The newspaper hopes to keep people informed about climate change

Chiefs and local leaders from the tiny Pacific territory of Tokelau are heralding the launch of the island nation's first ever local newspaper that claims to meet international standards.
The Te Uluga Talafau monthly newspaper would provide up-to-date information on council decisions, village matters, as well as inspirational stories from Tokelauans living overseas. Tokelau lies just north of Samoa in the Pacific ocean and is a dependent territory of New Zealand.
Its small population of around 1,500 people is spread across three coral atolls with a combined land area of
only 10 square kilometres.

Press freedom in the Pacific

A call is issued for Pacific Island journalists to defend themselves against an onslaught on press freedom, but some politicians say the media is not always truthful.

The newspaper's editor, Joe Tuia, said publication was created due to concerns that Tokelauans did not understand the decisions being made by chiefs and local authorities.

"The question coming from the Taupulega was how can we communicate issues, the cost of climate change and other stuff, so that the people in the village are informed about it," he said.

Traditionally leaders would go back to their villages to tell community members face-to-face what decisions had been made, but Mr Tuia said times had changed.
"Ten-to-15 years ago that process slowly started to deteriorate because people don't have the time to do that," he said.

The newspaper aims to inform Tokelauans about climate change. (Te Mana: Litia Maiava )

Considering Tokelau's limited resources, it's no surprise that getting the newspaper up and running took some time.
"At the moment we have the editor who is the main person for our newspaper, with the help of everyone else around," said the newspaper's general manager, Asi Halaleva-Pasilio, adding that they were still training a team of journalists.

Unique challenges for tiny island journalists
Thousands of the tiny nation's people live overseas, mostly in Australia and New Zealand, and Ms Halaleva-Pasilio encouraged them to also buy the Te Uluga Talafau newspaper.

Tokelau's largest atoll, Nukunonu, is home to fewer than 700 people. (Wikimedia Commons)

She said the newspaper's first edition had a feature on an accomplished Tokelauan army officer from Townsville.

"We have those small stories that may inspire our children, and show our people that there is light at the end of the tunnel," Ms Halaleva-Pasilio said.

Journalism in a small Pacific community like Tokelau — where everyone knows everyone — poses unique challenges.
Reporters have been known to self-censor their work for fear of causing tension or insulting the community.
Produced at the headquarters of the Taupulega of Nukunou, the newspaper would also struggle to be entirely independent, as the governing council will be heavily involved in crafting each edition.
But Mr Tuia was hopeful that as the newspaper develops, local journalists will find their own voice and that hard-hitting articles would follow.
"On our atoll Nukunonu, there's less than about 700 people, so everyone knows everyone … But we are slowly starting to develop that as well, but I don't think it's going to be a problem," Mr Tuia said.

The Te Uluga Talafau will be published monthly. (Supplied: Taupulega of Nukunonu)

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Voters Split On Whether Coalition Should Build New Coal Plants Or Stop Closures

The Guardian - Paul Karp

Poll shows strong support for energy efficiency measures despite divide on generators

A YouGov Galaxy poll found that 42% want the government to intervene to keep existing coal electricity generators open compared with 33% who oppose it. Photograph: Julian Smith/AAP

Voters are divided on whether the government should intervene to stop coal power stations closing, or subsidise the construction of new coal plants, but strongly back energy efficiency measures, a new poll has found.
The YouGov Galaxy poll, released on Monday, found that 42% want the government to intervene to keep existing coal electricity generators open compared with 33% who oppose it.
Subsidies for new coal plants or the government building them itself are less popular, with 41% in favour compared with 37% against.
The results of the poll, commissioned by the Property Council, the Energy Efficiency Council and the Australian Council for Social Services, come ahead of a meeting of energy ministers on Friday to discuss the design of the national energy guarantee.
Details of the design contained in an Energy Security Board paper make it clear that regulators will take a technology neutral approach rather than seeking to prolong the life of coal plants, despite a conservative faction in the Liberal party arguing for more government intervention.

The YouGov Galaxy poll of 1,000 respondents found that 91% think it is important or very important for the government to help reduce households’ and businesses’ energy bills.
Investing in energy efficiency was the most popular option to do so, with 88% in favour and just 5% opposed. Regulating electricity prices came in a close second with 83% support and 8% opposed.
Increasing the reliability of the grid was also seen as positive with 45% in favour and 36% opposed.
The poll found strong support for renewable energy with a call to reduce incentives for renewable energy and energy storage supported by just 34% of respondents and opposed by 50%.
The Property Council NSW executive director, Jane Fitzgerald, said the community was “more concerned about energy costs than private health costs, fuels costs, mortgages or food and groceries”.
The Property Council wants governments to adopt measures such as the NSW government’s $500m environmental investment package, which seeks to attract up to $3bn of investment in energy efficiency and advanced energy measures such as battery storage.
In a separate piece of research, the Australian Wind Alliance has estimated that windfarm construction has delivered an economic boost of almost $4bn to regional Australia in direct and indirect benefits.
The estimate is based on research by Sinclair Knight Merz for the Clean Energy Council in 2012 that found a 50MW windfarm could generate up to 48 full-time equivalent direct jobs from spending during construction and 160 indirect jobs.
The AWA report also found that windfarms pay between $19m and $21.5m to landholders and community enhancement funds every year.
“Australia’s 82 operational windfarms are delivering significant financial and social benefits to their host communities,” said Andrew Bray, the national coordinator of the AWA. “Wind power is making a long-lasting, positive contribution to rural Australia’s social fabric.
“With Coag due to consider the [Neg] later this week, it’s crucial states insist on the right policy settings to make sure this boom continues and delivers even greater benefits for rural communities.”
With every state and territory having the potential to scuttle the Neg, design requirements that satisfy both Coalition and Labor governments will be crucial to ensure its passage.
The federal energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, has tried to win support from the Australian Capital Territory with a significant peace offering that emissions reductions can be reported nationally, not regionally, so the ACT’s windfarms in neighbouring states are counted.
Labor governments in Queensland and Victoria are hedging their bets about whether they will support the Neg, with both standing by commitments to a 50% renewable energy target by 2030.

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The Shipping Sector Is Finally On Board In The Fight Against Climate Change

The Conversation - Beatriz Garcia | Jolene Lin

Australia will have to regulate its considerable shipping industry. PomInAus/shutterstock.com

For the first time, the massive global shipping sector has agreed to a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, in what’s been called a “historic” moment.
Maritime shipping, which carries about 80% of global trade by volume, contributes around A$9 billion directly to Australia’s gross domestic product, and A$11.8 billion indirectly.
Sea transport has a relatively green image because ships emit less carbon dioxide per tonne and per kilometre than rail, truck or air transport. Yet, given its scale and rapid growth, it’s a major source of carbon emissions. Maritime transport emits around 1,000 million tonnes of CO₂ a year and is responsible for about 2.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The international law
Despite being a major contributor to climate change, the powerful shipping industry has successfully lobbied to be excluded from obligations to reduce emissions under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and, more recently, the 2015 Paris Agreement.
There are also no sector-wide emission reduction targets in maritime shipping under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In other key policy spaces, such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), there are no obligations imposed on either states or shipping corporations to reduce maritime emissions.
Countries could potentially set emissions targets domestically, but they rarely set sectoral targets, especially for sectors that are heavily exposed to international trade. In this context, the shipping industry has been particularly footloose in its response to climate change.
It is therefore a cause for celebration that decades of negotiation have now yielded this agreement. The deal requires all IMO countries to reduce shipping emissions by 50% compared with 2008 levels.
Ships will be required to be more energy-efficient and to use cleaner energy such as solar and wind electricity generation. Currently, the shipping industry is overwhelmingly reliant on dirty, carbon-rich fuels such as heavy diesel.

Some stormy seas ahead
The climate deal has been described as “historic”, but not all countries are on board. Some, particularly island nations that are vulnerable to sea level rise, wanted a “far, far more ambitious” target. Others, including the United States, Brazil, Panama and Saudi Arabia, are strongly against it. Reconciling these differences will be a difficult task for the IMO.
It has always been technically difficult to accurately calculate the precise amount of fuel used during shipping operations. It’s even harder to allocate maritime emissions to specific countries.
Contributing to the potential confusion is the use of “flags of convenience”. This is where a ship’s owners register the vessel in a country other than their own, and fly the flag of the country where registered.
This is usually done to disguise the relationship between the vessel and its actual owner, due to the attractive, lower regulatory burdens that some open registries offer. Shipping corporations could also use flags of convenience to avoid mandatory emission reduction targets.

The way forward
As a result of the climate deal, states will eventually need to introduce domestic laws setting emission reduction targets for their shipping industry.
These targets could also be applied to ships that call at their ports. The good news is that there is potential synergy between such regulation and existing laws, such as the European Union regulation that requires ship owners and operators to monitor, report and verify CO₂ emissions from certain vessels that dock at European ports.
The new climate deal has the potential to change the way shipping companies operate. It presents an opportunity for the shipping industry to become part of the solution rather than the problem when it comes to climate change.
It’s also a strong signal to other international industries, such as the aviation sector, that have largely escaped emissions reduction targets. If we can reduce emissions in such a large and complex sector as marine transport, it bodes well for the capacity of international frameworks to tackle other difficult problems.

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