(The Guardian) The Young People Taking Their Countries To Court Over Climate Inaction

The Guardian - Matthew Taylor | Emily Holden | Dan Collyns | Michael Standaert | Ashifa Kassam

Children and young adults around the world are demanding action from governments on global heating and the ecological crisis

Chinese climate activist Howey Ou on hunger strike in Lausanne, Switzerland, 19 April 2021.  Photograph: Laurent Gilliéron/EPA

Sofia Oliveira, aged 16

Sofia Oliveira is one of six young Portuguese people who have filed a lawsuit against 33 countries with the European court of human rights, demanding that governments do more to reduce emissions and safeguard their future physical and mental wellbeing. Last October the Strasbourg-based court granted the case priority status.

Sofia and her brother André

After we announced that we were six youths from Portugal who were suing 33 countries for not doing enough to reduce emissions and fight climate change, the response was bigger than anything I had imagined. Media called from around the world. And it made me so happy and hopeful.

I’ve been worried about climate change for a long time. When I was 11 years old, my younger brother André, who is also one of the young people in this case, had a terrible asthma crisis. The weather was hot and dry, and he was suffocating.

Here in Portugal the effects of climate change are increasingly visible: heatwaves that cause water shortages and affect food production, and violent wildfires that give us anxiety. Sometimes I think, if climate change is already so extreme, what will it be like in the near future if we do nothing about it? So one of the most important reasons I’m involved in this case is to help my little brother have a good future, along with my parents, myself and the next generation.

Right now, the courts have told the governments that they need to reply by the end of May. The 33 countries tried to have the case dismissed, but the court said no. And we were so happy. Imagine, 33 of the biggest economies in the world saying, “We don’t want this” and six youths saying, “We are going to do this.”

I think we might win the case. I hope the case will make things right, that it will make countries lower their emissions and stop using so many fossil fuels. This case is revolutionary – it has shown that together our voice is strong and can reach the whole world.

As told to Ashifa Kassam.

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Saúl Amaru Álvarez Cantoral, 15

Saúl, who goes by his second name, Amaru, is one of seven Peruvian children who have filed a complaint against the Peruvian state for its alleged failure to adequately halt deforestation in the Amazon. They argue that their futures are severely compromised due to the climate crisis, particularly their right to enjoy a healthy environment, along with their rights to life, water, and health. The case was filed in December 2019, but has not progressed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Saúl Amaru Álvarez (second from right in blue shirt) and his co-plaintiffs outside court in Lima, Peru Photograph: Saúl Amaru Álvarez 

We filed this lawsuit because the state does not really develop national policies to protect the environment. By raising our voice as children and teens, we can make the state listen to us and develop more concrete measures to combat climate change.

We were inspired by Greta Thunberg and the idea that children and teenagers can make a difference. We believe that the young should raise our voices when the adults don’t, especially when our politicians are not the best.

In our Amazon, the main problem is deforestation. There are no measures to resolve this problem. The amount they cut down goes up every year, so if we don’t halt this problem now, it will get worse and worse and be more difficult to stop.

Since I was little, I was taught about the problem of pollution and climate change, but I never thought about taking action because I assumed that politicians would take care of it, or I should grow up and become a professional to make changes. Then I realised I could do something as a teenager without letting any more time pass – I could take action.

You can witness climate change. Adults always tell you what the weather was like before; the seasons, for example, are more uncontrolled. How can it be that one day it is hot and the next day it is cold?

We are waiting for a response to the lawsuit because it is a long process. Plus, we have a lot of problems in the country. We are constantly in crisis, so I think it’s not a priority at the moment.

I think we can win. I almost take it for granted that we will because our cause is a just cause. It’s the first lawsuit of its kind in Peru and I hope, for that reason, that it might be the beginning of something and the first of many more.

As told to Dan Collyns.

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Anjali Raman-Middleton, 17

Raman-Middleton, who lives in south London, is one of the co-founders of the air pollution campaign Choked Up.

Choked Up campaign members Anjali Raman-Middleton (centre) with Nyeleti Brauer-Maxaeia and Destiny Boka-Batesa Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian 

I went to primary school with Ella Kissi-Debrah [who died as a result of air pollution] and, like her, grew up just off the South Circular road in London, so I have lived with the reality of air pollution all my life.

I met the three other founders of Choked Up – who are all young women of colour from south London – on the Advocacy Academy programme last year. It was great to meet people who, like me, felt so passionately about clean air and the environment and who also recognised how people of colour were being disproportionately affected by the environmental crisis – whether in the UK with air pollution, or in the global south with the impacts of climate change.

Too often our experiences are overlooked by an environment movement that is predominantly white and middle class. As young people of colour, we found that frustrating. But I am hopeful this can change because young people are becoming more aware of the intersectionality of climate justice.

There is a growing understanding that it is not just as simple as “solving or fixing” climate change – there is a whole system, a whole multitude of other issues around racial and social justice that are intertwined with the climate crisis. Choked Up aims to make those connections and foreground the experiences of young people of colour. We chose air pollution as our campaign because all four of us live in heavily polluted areas and see every day the often devastating impact it has on our communities.

As told to Matthew Taylor.

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Jamie Margolin, 19

Jamie Margolin organised a youth climate march at 15 and co-founded the youth climate action movement This Is Zero Hour at 16. She is a plaintiff in the Our Children’s Trust lawsuit against the government in her home state of Washington, US.

Jamie Margolin. Photograph: Bojana Novakovic 

When I first started, I was kind of under the illusion that Democrat equals climate action. I didn’t understand that just because I lived in a blue state, it didn’t mean my leaders would automatically listen to me.

Well, I stepped out of that reality really quickly. I joined a lawsuit suing the state of Washington for denying my generation our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by continuing to worsen the climate crisis. But lawsuits take years. I couldn’t just wait around for the courts to do their thing.

It was a perfect storm – of absolute hell. There were the wildfires that blew over the city of Seattle, covering it in a thick layer of smog. It was really scary because the Pacific north-west is known for amazing air quality – it’s clean and crisp. Suddenly that was gone. I couldn’t breathe, to the extent that it hurt. And then there was Hurricane Maria, Hurricane Harvey, all of these climate disasters. And the last president pulled us out of the Paris climate accords. It was all of these things that came together.

This was before Fridays for Future, before Greta Thunberg started striking. Youth climate mobilisations were not in vogue. The Standing Rock movement, which was big at the time, was started by indigenous young people, so it’s not like young people weren’t mobilised. It just wasn’t something people paid attention to.

When I was 15 years old, I found other youth activists on social media, and we organised 25 youth climate marches, with the main one in Washington, DC. We also had a youth climate lobby day around the country. The movement has changed the culture. Things that were niche are now common knowledge. Greta and I are now legal adults. We have to understand there’s wisdom in each generation.

I identify as a lesbian. When you’re part of a marginalised community, you have to actively fight for justice for your community, while also fighting for climate justice. I’m in film school right now, and I’m not studying to make climate documentaries. The thing I’m super passionate about is LGBT representation in the media, and storytelling. People are often very surprised when I tell them my dream job is to write gay Disney princess movies.

I have dreams beyond just trying to stop the end of the world. No one wants to think about climate change. Everyone has other dreams. When I was a little child, I wasn’t like, “Some day I hope to narrowly escape planetary destruction.” That wasn’t my dream. But I’m doing this because I have to, for survival.

As told to Emily Holden.

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Howey Ou, 18

One of China’s only youth climate activists to take part in Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion activities in recent years, before beginning to inspire a handful of others to take similar action.

Howey Ou: ‘Although we expect difficulty, we still dare to exist’ Photograph: Howey Ou

Ou Hongyi, also known as Howey Ou, demonstrates for climate action, even though demonstrations are forbidden in China without explicit approval of the authorities. In October, Howey sat alone in front of a hotel for more than 10 hours to protest about the lack of ambition in the hotel industry in China to reduce carbon emissions.

But while some youths in China have become energised by Ou’s activism, many attempts to take part in protests have been scuttled, including plans for protests on 19 March.

“Police interfered before the action happened,” Ou said. “Two activists I know of went to Chengdu, but their families were called and they warned them, or tried to scare them, to not take part. They were told to go to the Chengdu NGO management office to ‘provide information’ separately in the days before the action, then on Friday morning [19 March] they were taken to the police station for formal interrogation, required to sign documents, had their DNA samples taken, and were released that night. So they did not go out on the streets.

“The next week, when they returned home, the police met them at the train station like old friends, and they were visited again by police later in the week.”

“Other than these, I spoke with other students who organised at their schools but they now have no more intention to organise any Fridays for Future actions. They’ve been warned by their schools or had conflicts with their parents and stopped.”

She is currently in Europe, and recently went on hunger strike in protest at industrial policies there. She remains defiantly positive about the role that protest can play.

“This is not about how much suppression we received, but the bright part is that although we expect difficulty, we still dare to exist. We dare to tell the truth about the climate and ecological emergency, we dare to challenge the capitalist and consumeristic world. We refuse to be prisoners of injustice.”

As told to Michael Standaert.

Links

• German Climate Change Law Violates Rights, Court Rules
• How Children Are Taking European States To Court Over The Climate Crisis – And Changing The Law
• (AU) 'A Duty Of Care': Australian Teenagers Take Their Climate Crisis Plea To Court
• These Kids Are Suing European Governments Because Of The Climate Crisis
• European States Ordered To Respond To Youth Activists' Climate Lawsuit
• (AU) Queensland Teenagers Lodge Legal Action Against Adani Coal Mine To Save Great Barrier Reef
• These Aussie Teens Have Launched A Landmark Climate Case Against The Government. Win Or Lose, It’ll Make A Difference
• (AU) Class Action To Stop Planned Coal Mine Extension Filed By Climate Action-Focused Australian Teenagers
• Portuguese Children Sue 33 Countries Over Climate Change At European Court
• Climate Change Has Created 'Altered World' For Young People, Lawyers Say In Child Climate Case

More Than One Way For Animals To Survive Climate Change

Phys.org - University of New Hampshire

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

As climate change continues to trigger the rise in temperature, increase drier conditions and shift precipitation patterns, adapting to new conditions will be critical for the long-term survival of most species.

Researchers at the University of New Hampshire found that to live in hotter more desert-like surroundings, and exist without water, there is more than one genetic mechanism allowing animals to adapt.

This is important not only for their survival but may also provide important biomedical groundwork to develop gene therapies to treat human dehydration related illnesses, like kidney disease.

"To reference a familiar phrase, it tells us that there is more than one way to bake a cake," said Jocelyn Colella, a postdoctoral researcher in evolutionary biology.

 "In other words, there are several ways for animals to adapt to desert conditions and discovering this genetic flexibility offers a silver lining to all species that will increasingly be forced to acclimate to hotter, drier settings."

In their study, recently published in the Journal of Heredity, researchers compared the genetic mechanisms of three species of mice found in warm and dry areas; the cactus and canyon mice, both found predominately in desert habitats, and the North American deer mouse, which can also be found in colder, wetter climates in the northern United States.

The researchers hypothesized that similar genes in each species would be critical to survive in desert environments.

What they found was that each species used a different mechanism, meaning different genes and functions allowing for the same adaptation. One species adapted through mutational genetic changes over time and another used changes in gene expression which can occur more quickly and may be the more efficient evolutionary route.

"We were excited by the findings because if our research had only found one gene that was critical to adapting to warmer, drier conditions it would suggest that it would be challenging for other animals to respond to climate change, but our work says there are multiple evolutionary options that enable desert survival," said Colella.

The findings could also provide foundational information for biomedical research in developing gene therapies for human kidney disease.

"Because mice are physiologically similar to humans, this type of evolutionary work offers important first steps toward identifying and understanding genes that control complex traits like dehydration, which can compromise human kidneys causing lifelong, irreparable damage," said Matt MacManes, associate professor of genome enabled biology.

Each year millions of people die of dehydration related illness around the world. Experts say even minor dehydration can compromise the kidneys causing lifelong issues.

Links

• Migratory birds track climate across the year
• Warming climate is changing where birds breed: study
• Which species will win and lose in a warmer climate? It depends where they evolved
• Predator-Proof Fence: 10km Barrier To Be Built Across Wilsons Promontory To Protect Native Wildlife
• Climate Change And Food Demand Could Shrink Species' Habitats By Almost A Quarter By 2100
• Climate Change May Doom 1 In 3 Species Of Plants And Animals In The Next 50 Years
• Study: One-Third Of Plant And Animal Species Could Be Gone In 50 Years
• Innocent Animals Cannot Do Anything About Climate Change. Only People Can.
• Spiders Are Threatened By Climate Change – And Even The Biggest Arachnophobes Should Be Worried
• The Animals That Will Survive Climate Change
• Why The Polar Bear Is An Indisputable Image Of Climate Change
• Golden Bowerbirds' Building Prowess Helps Scientists Monitor Climate Change, And Alarm Bells Are Ringing

(AU Climate Council) Kicking The Gas Habit: How Gas Is Harming Our Health

Climate Council - Hilary Bambrick | Kate Charlesworth | Simon Bradshaw | Tim Baxter

Download Report

Decades of aggressive marketing to Australians has led to several misconceptions about gas.

In reality, gas is far from clean; it is a polluting fossil fuel that is already harming our health, wellbeing and, of course, the climate.

With more gas in the mix, this risk of harm only increases.

This report is about Australia’s gas industry, the threat it poses to our health, and the way out: of kicking the gas habit for a cleaner, healthier, and more prosperous future.

Key findings

1. Unconventional gas development, including fracking, is exposing Australian communities to unnecessary health risks.

• Gas extraction and processing involves many hazardous substances including those that cause cancer, interfere with hormones, trigger asthma and contaminate the local environment through airborne pollution and wastewater.
  
• Unconventional gas extraction, including coal seam gas and shale gas, with or without fracking, introduces further risks to human health.
  
• There is growing overseas evidence of health impacts on communities living close to gas wells, including on reproductive and respiratory health.
  
• Evidence of negative health impacts in Australia is emerging, and while independent research, free of any ties to the gas industry, from here is limited, this is consistent with overseas studies.
  
• Continued expansion of gas across the country puts more Australians at risk of adverse health impacts.

 2. Burning gas at home can harm our children’s health.

• Far from the “clean and natural” image that the gas industry markets, the use of gas for heating and cooking indoors carries many health risks.
  
• Cooking with gas is estimated to be responsible for up to 12% of the burden of childhood asthma in Australia. A child living with gas cooking in the home faces a comparable risk of asthma to a child living with household cigarette smoke.
  
• Better ventilation, including modern extraction fans over stoves, flues for gas heaters and other safety measures like ensuring appliances are properly serviced or opening windows can reduce – but not eliminate – these risks.

3. Children and poorer households are at highest risk from, and most likely to be harmed by, gas production and use.

• Gas production and use poses additional risks for babies and children. At the production phase there is mounting evidence of associations between living close to unconventional gas extraction and impacts upon early-life development. Within homes, the indoor air pollution from gas used for heating, cooking and hot water disproportionately risks children’s health.
  
• In addition, poorer households are more exposed to the harmful effects of gas appliances: they are less able to afford proper maintenance, and more likely to be renting or living in public housing where they rely on old, poorly maintained gas appliances.

4. Gas is a polluting fossil fuel. Governments can prevent health issues, and reduce harm, by helping households, and the country, get off gas.

• While today’s gas may have once been a welcome upgrade from still dirtier fuels such as town gas, wood, coal or kerosene, gas appliances have fast become a poor and polluting cousin to more efficient and healthier electric alternatives.
  
• Simple, practical policy steps from governments like ending mandatory gas connections for new residential developments – as has occurred in the ACT – and incentives that help people replace gas appliances with electrical alternatives, will speed up the switch already underway and promote better health outcomes.

5. Clean energy alternatives like solar and wind are the key to a prosperous, healthy future for all Australians.

• Australia does not need to rely on gas for domestic energy security or for export revenue. As the sunniest and windiest inhabited continent on Earth, Australia is blessed with some of the world’s best renewable energy resources – enough to support both our own energy needs and a large renewable powered export industry.
  
• Renewables, like solar and wind, backed by storage, like batteries and pumped hydro, now offer the cheapest sources of electricity for Australians.
  
• For households, shifting from as to efficient electric appliances can save money over time and be good for our health, while reducing burdens on the healthcare system.

Links

• The benefits of living in a gas-free home
• Morrison Government Locking Us Into Dangerous Gas
• How is gas harming our health? What you need to know
• (AU ABC) Scott Morrison Reveals $1bn Energy Deal With South Australian Government
• (AU) Gas Consortium Seeks Approval To Drill 7,700 Wells In Queensland, Including Near National Parks
• (AU) Energy Policy Paralysed As Nationals Firm Up Demands
• (AU) 'Zero Return': Government Savaged Over Taxpayer Grants To Open Up New Gas Basin In Australia
• (AU) 'Criminally Irresponsible': Climate Experts Slam Narrabri Coal Seam Gas Approval
• A New Book Asks Whether Capitalism Is Compatible With Public Health. (The Answer Is No)
• (AU) Experts Urge Governments To Follow Health Advice On Climate, As They Did With Covid
• (AU) Former Health Chiefs Turn Focus To Climate
• 'Invisible Killer': Fossil Fuels Caused 8.7m Deaths Globally In 2018, Research Finds

(The Guardian) Global Heating Pace Risks ‘Unstoppable’ Sea Level Rise As Antarctic Ice Sheet Melts

The Guardian - Oliver Milman

World faces ‘abrupt jump’ in pace of ice loss around 2060 unless emissions reduced to meet Paris agreement goals, study warns

An undated photo courtesy of Nasa showing the Thwaites glacier in western Antarctica. This tipping point for Antarctica could be triggered by a global temperature rise of 3C above the preindustrial era. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The current pace of global heating risks unleashing “rapid and unstoppable” sea level rise from the melting of Antarctica’s vast ice sheet, a new research paper has warned.

Unless planet-heating emissions are swiftly reduced to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement, the world faces a situation where there is an “abrupt jump” in the pace of Antarctic ice loss around 2060, the study states, fueling sea level rise and placing coastal cities in greater peril.

Carbon offsets used by major airlines based on flawed system, warn experts.  Read more

“If the world warms up at a rate dictated by current policies we will see the Antarctic system start to get away from us around 2060,” said Robert DeConto, an expert in polar climate change at the University of Massachusetts and lead author of the study.

“Once you put enough heat into the climate system, you are going to lose those ice shelves, and once that is set in motion you can’t reverse it.”

DeConto added: “The oceans would have to cool back down before the ice sheet could heal, which would take a very long time. On a societal timescale it would essentially be a permanent change.”

This tipping point for Antarctica could be triggered by a global temperature rise of 3C (5.4F) above the preindustrial era, which many researchers say is feasible by 2100 under governments’ current policies.

The new research, published in Nature, finds that ice loss from Antarctica would be “irreversible on multi-century timescales” should this happen, helping raise the world’s oceans by 17cm to 21cm (6.69in to 8.27in) by the end of the century.

If the world was able to meet commitments made in the Paris deal, however, the research found Antarctica would contribute 6cm to 11cm of sea level rise by the end of the century, on a par with the current rate of ice loss.

Under the Paris agreement, governments have vowed to limit dangerous global heating below 2C hotter than preindustrial times, with efforts to keep the increase to 1.5C.

“It’s really the next few decades that will determine the sea level rise from Antarctica,” De Conto said. “These ice shelves won’t be able to just grow back.”

Scientists have increasingly issued warnings over the fate of the huge amount of ice stored in Antarctica which, if it all melted, would raise global sea levels by 57 metres, completely submerging the world’s coasts.

While this won’t happen in any sort of foreseeable timescale, even a small increase in ice loss would be felt in global sea levels. Of particular concern is the western section of the Antarctic ice sheet, with scientists currently exploring the rate of decline experienced by the Thwaites glacier, also known as the doomsday glacier.

In a worst-case scenario, the loss of the glacier, which is about the size of Britain and 1km deep, would raise sea levels by 65cm.

Antarctica is being winnowed away by a warming atmosphere as well as the heating oceans, with warming seawater entering crevasses and gnawing away at “pinning points” that hold enormous bodies of ice to submerged bedrock.

A rapid acceleration of melting could cause a cascading effect where huge amounts of ice and water flow uninterrupted into the Southern Ocean.

Once in motion, the impacts from such dramatic ice loss would unfurl over centuries. “In the century after 2100 it’s potentially catastrophic,” said DeConto. “If we did nothing at all to reduce emissions we could get 5 metres of sea level rise just from Antarctica by 2200, at which point you’d have to remap the world from space. It would be unimaginable.”

DeConto’s paper uses a mode that incorporates temperature increase and ice loss, as well as the dynamic processes at play in Antarctica that present challenges in predicting exactly what will happen as the world continues to heat up.

Another study published in Nature on Wednesday, by scientists at King’s College in London, finds the sea level will rise by 0.5cm every year by 2100 if the global temperature rise hits 3C. DeConto said the other paper is an “impressive piece of work” but differed from his paper, which factored in compounding impacts from the loss of ice shelves.

“Neither of these papers are the last word, this is ongoing work,” he said. “Basically we are going to have to cope with continued sea level rise. The real question is whether it will be at a manageable or unmanageable rate for us.”

Orrin Pilkey, a sea level rise expert at Duke University who was not involved in the research, said the paper is an “important attempt to relate the Paris agreement to reality”.

He added: “I would consider this a thoughtful and even frightening but credible contribution which should provide a very strong basis to get on with implementation of the Paris agreement.”

Andrea Dutton, an expert in sea level rise at University of Wisconsin–Madison, who was a co-author, said the paper “addresses an important and pressing question” of what the Paris climate targets will mean for future sea level rise.

“We are already struggling with the amount of sea level rise that has occurred over the past century,” said Dutton, who added that a major acceleration in Antarctic melting will “bring about coastal retreat and migration on a scale that we have never before witnessed”.

“We will not be able to just adapt because it is impossible to just engineer our way out of this,” she said. “The conclusion is a stark reminder of the urgency in making deep and sustained cuts in our greenhouse gas emissions.”

Links

• The Paris Climate Agreement and future sea-level rise from Antarctica
• Third of Antarctic ice shelves ‘will collapse amid 4C global heating’
• Mass melting of Antarctic ice sheet led to three metre sea level rise 120,000 years ago
• Actions today will decide Antarctic ice sheet loss and sea level rise
• Scientists discover 91 volcanoes below Antarctic ice sheet
• Antarctic ice sheet collapse will cause sea levels to rise. So what's new?
• Thinning Antarctic ice shelf could contribute to sea level rise, says study
• Western Antarctic ice sheet collapse has already begun, scientists warn
• 'Vast reservoir' of methane locked beneath Antarctic ice sheet

(AU ABC) Green Hydrogen Electrolysers To Be Built In Regional Australia With Government Backing

ABC Rural - Eliza Borello | Laura Birch

Power company Engie will receive $42.5m Federal funding to produce hydrogen in Yara Pilbara fertiliser's ammonia facility. (Supplied: Engie)

Key Points $100m ARENA funding will go to Engie Renewables in the Pilbara, ATCO in WA's Mid West and AGIG's Hydrogen park in Wodonga, Victoria. The three projects will produce green hydrogen, using renewable energy Federal Minister Angus Taylor says the hydrogen produced by ATCO and AGIG will be blended with LNG for use in gas networks

Three new green hydrogen plants have been approved in regional Australia and will share in more than $100 million worth of conditional Federal Government funding.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has awarded Engie Renewables up to $42.5 million towards a 10 megawatt (MW) electrolyser project which would produce hydrogen in Yara Pilbara Fertiliser's existing ammonia facility in Karratha in Western Australia.

Further south, at Warradarge in WA's Mid West, ATCO has won up to $28.7 million towards a 10 MW electrolyser for gas blending at its Clean Energy Innovation Park.

Australian Gas Networks Limited (AGIG) was set to receive up to $32.1 million towards a 10 MW electrolyser for gas blending at AGIG's Murray Valley Hydrogen Park in Wodonga, Victoria.

While all of the electrolysers would produce green hydrogen, the type preferred by environmentalists, Energy Minister Angus Taylor said the ATCO and AGIG produced hydrogen would eventually be blended with non-renewable liquefied natural gas.

Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor. (ABC News: Jess Davis)

"This is about blending hydrogen into our gas network, so the purpose of this is to actually bring the carbon emissions of our gas network down," he said.

"The key here is for us to build the infrastructure and to get the R & D [Research and Development] done so we can get the costs down, we can provide the supporting infrastructure and then the private sector can invest on the back of that."

The Government said the projects were expected to create more than 210 jobs during construction.

The project proponents must satisfy a number of conditions, including achieving financial close, before Commonwealth funding is provided.

A comparison of production process for the "blue" and "green" types of hydrogen. (Supplied: Woodside) 

Good energy policy needs to match investment Australian Hydrogen Council chief executive Fiona Simon welcomed the funding and said building some of the biggest electrolysers in the world would put Australia on the global hydrogen map.

"This type of investment is the boost that the industry needs to progress commercial, large-scale projects," Dr Simon said. 

"This investment should be matched with good policy to encourage demand and improve the economics of producing hydrogen, which will ultimately increase supply of hydrogen."

 While the funding has been approved, ATCO said it would wait until December 2022 before making a final investment decision on its Warradarge project.
AGIG's general manager Craig de Lane said his company planned to reach a financial close for its Wodonga project and start construction by early 2022.

A Yara Pilbara Fertiliser spokesman said he expected a final investment decision to be made within months, construction starting by the end of 2021 and the plant to be operational by 2023.


Green hydrogen is billed as the new climate friendly fuel in town but will it work?

Potentially bigger than LNG The news of Engie's successful bid for an electrolyser in the Pilbara was welcomed by the Karratha and District Chamber of Commerce and Industry President, Tony Simpson, who said he believed hydrogen had the potential to be bigger than LNG.

"One of the key issues for around Karratha and the Pilbara in general is [having] another industry."

"We're known for iron, we're known for mining nickel, gold, and LNG and now we're going into hydrogen which is another whole project and another economy in itself," he said.

"The spinoff back to the town will be huge in terms of job opportunities and what we're trying to do in Karratha is make it a liveable city."

Woodside and BHP miss out Gas giant Woodside missed out on its bid for funding for its proposed H2TAS hydrogen project at Bell Bay in Tasmania.

BHP's funding application for a 10 MW green hydrogen electrolyser at its Kwinana Nickel Refinery was also unsuccessful.

A Woodside spokeswoman congratulated the successful proponents and said the company remained committed to H2TAS.

"We have had a longstanding target of final investment decision for H2TAS Phase 1 in the second half of 2021," she said.

"Today's announcement from ARENA does not mean the end of the H2TAS opportunity, and we will now undertake further review of the concept and schedule."

Links

• Will green hydrogen be Australia's new climate friendly fuel?
• (AU RenewEconomy) Hydrogen Will Be Cover For A New Life For Fossil Fuels
• (AU ABC) Green Hydrogen Is Billed As The New Climate Friendly Fuel In Town But Will It Work?
• (AU) NSW Tips $70m Into Hunter Hydrogen Hub As Coal Closures Loom
• (AU) First Hydrogen Produced From Latrobe Valley Coal Generates Export Hopes, Emissions Fears
• Green Hydrogen: Could It Be Key To A Carbon-Free Economy?
• (AU) Don’t Rush Into A Hydrogen Economy Until We Know All The Risks To Our Climate
• Why Hydrogen, Why Now? Because Climate, Economy And Finance Say So.
• (AU) Government Offers $300m To Boost Hydrogen Investment Under Clean Energy Financing
• Why The Coal Sector Is So Excited About Australia's Move To 'Clean' Hydrogen
• Hydrogen’s Plunging Price Boosts Role As Climate Solution
• Home-grown urea plant aims to Strike while iron's hot
• Sustainable fertiliser on the cards as Yara aims to decarbonise food production

(Financial Times) Climate Change: Australia Wrestles With Its Coal Mining Dilemma

Financial Times - Jamie Smyth

Even as demand falls, federal and state governments are pumping billions into the polluting fossil fuel industry

© Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg

Newcastle, Australia - For more than 200 years, workers at the Port of Newcastle have loaded ships with coal dug out of nearby mines for transport to Asia and beyond. But with global action to tackle climate change set to decimate the trade, the management at the world’s biggest coal port is preparing for a future without the fossil fuel that generates 60 per cent of its revenues.

 “The future of coal is obviously questionable and we have to prepare for that,” says Roy Green, chair of the port, which is a gateway to the Hunter Valley, a coal mining region 280km north of Sydney. “We are likely to see a continuing flattening of coal volumes through the port and ultimately a decline, as the world switches away from coal-fired power.”

The acknowledgment that coal, which is more polluting than any other fuel source, has a shrinking lifespan is an accepted fact in many boardrooms and mining communities in Europe, the US and China, where preparations for an energy transition away from fossil fuels are already under way.

But in Australia, the world’s second-biggest exporter of coal by volume, discussions around phasing out fossil fuels remain contentious and risk inflaming the nation’s “climate wars” — a bitter 15-year battle between conservatives and progressives which has contributed to the ousting of three prime ministers in recent years.

The government is resisting international pressure to commit to net zero emissions by 2050 and has ruled out charging polluters by setting a price on carbon. It opposes the early closure of ageing coal-powered electricity plants — arguing that relying too much on renewables could lead to power cuts — and recently funded a feasibility study on whether to build a new coal plant in Queensland.

“We will not achieve net zero in the cafés, dinner parties and wine bars of our inner cities . . . [or] by taxing industries, that provide livelihoods for millions of Australians, off the planet,” Scott Morrison, Australia’s prime minister, told a business audience on April 20. Days later Morrison snubbed a request by Joe Biden, the US president, to join other nations in pledging deeper emissions’ cuts.

Instead it is the decisions being taken by the world’s biggest coal consumers to commit to a net zero emissions target by 2050 in the case of Japan and South Korea, and 2060 for China, that could act as a catalyst for change in Australia, say critics.

In a growing number of companies and communities across Australia, the discussion is changing from how to save coal to the need for a just economic transition to compensate for the loss of well-paying mining and related jobs. Many fear that if this does not happen, companies will go bust and people will suffer unnecessarily.

Workers at the Port of Newcastle have loaded ships with coal dug out of nearby mines for transport to Asia and beyond for two centuries. © Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg

Energy Australia, a utility, announced in March that it would close a coal fired plant in the Latrobe Valley in 2028, four years earlier than originally planned. AGL, Australia’s largest utility, is also planning to split off an electricity generating division dominated by coal-fired power stations, a recognition that fossil fuels have fallen out of favour with investors.

Some miners, including Rio Tinto and BHP, have either already exited the market for thermal coal — commonly used in electricity generation — or signalled their intention to do so. A collapse in price to $50 per tonne in the second half of 2020 due to weak demand linked to the coronavirus pandemic and import restrictions slapped on Australian exports by China have further raised doubts over the future of the Hunter Valley’s 40 mines, which support about 16,000 jobs.

Critics warn there is an urgent need for Canberra to show leadership and plan an orderly transition to guarantee cheap and stable power, help coal mining regions diversify their economies into areas like agriculture and ensure Australia does not miss the opportunity to become a leader in green energies.

Yet Australia’s federal and state governments have in the past year funnelled A$10.3bn in tax breaks and subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. Almost three quarters of that came in the form of rebates paid to large users of fuel, such as miners and farmers, according to a report published by The Australian Institute, a progressive think-tank. Authorities have also approved an expansion of a Glencore coal mine just north of the Hunter Valley and an extra A$264m in funding for carbon capture storage — a technology that it hopes could extend the life of its coal export industry.

“Australia’s foreign policy for decades has been to undermine other countries’ ambitions to reduce emissions so that we can continue to sell enormous amounts of coal and gas,” says Richard Denniss, chief economist at The Australian Institute. “Australia is not planning a transition away from fossil fuels.

“What we are actually doing is trying to maximise profits in the endgame,” he adds. “That’s why there is a rush to approve new coal mines. We know that in 30 years’ time no one will be buying coal. But if we flood the market and push the price down, we can we can still sell some for the next 15 years.”

A protester wearing a face mask depicting Scott Morrison, the prime minister, eats fake coal out of a dog bowl during an Extinction Rebellion protest in Brisbane in April. © Darren England/AAP Image/Reuters

‘Money to be made in mining’

Any transition away from fossil fuels will be felt most keenly in places like Maitland, a blue collar city in the Hunter Valley which owes its rich architectural heritage to the profits generated in nearby coal fields.

Four coal-fired power plants in the region are scheduled to close over the next 15 years, as energy companies begin phasing out their most polluting assets. Local coal miners will experience a modest drop in demand as a result of the closures, but of greater concern to the industry are the signs of slowing international demand for Australian thermal coal.

Glencore and BHP, two of the country’s biggest coal producers, reported combined losses of just over $1bn in their Australian coal divisions in the six months to the end of December. In March, the Department of Industry warned that if exporters continued to receive lower prices for their coal due to Australia’s trade spat with China, production levels at higher cost mines could be cut.

“There is so much pressure on coal,” says Gerard Spinks, who has worked in Hunter Valley coal power plants for more than 40 years, “that I think it’s going to disappear off the face of the earth in the not too distant future. It’s inevitable.”

He was one of more than 100 people crammed into a bowling club in a Maitland suburb in March for the inaugural meeting of the Hunter Jobs Alliance, a collaboration of trade unions and environmental groups which wants to help the region prepare for life beyond coal.

The then treasurer Scott Morrison, now prime minister, brandishes a lump of coal during parliamentary questions in Canberra in 2017. © AAP Image/Mick Tsikas via Reuters Connect

Spinks, a trade union delegate at the Bayswater power station, says three generations of his family have worked in the coal business but people now need to be realistic and plan for a future without coal, he says. “We need to get things in place to ensure there is meaningful work in the valley for our kids.”

Several speakers focused on the need for policymakers to grasp opportunities provided by renewable energy, modernise local infrastructure and invest in education. There was also a plea for an end to the bitter acrimony which has divided the community into pro- and anti-coal lobbies over recent years.

“People will still disagree but we need to create a better quality discussion, to find common ground and not yell at one another,” says Warrick Jordan, co-ordinator of the Hunter Jobs Alliance.

Could this year mark a turning point for climate?

Ideological divisions over the future of coal run deep in Australian communities, politics and the media. Malcolm Turnbull, who was ousted as prime minister in 2018 following a failed attempt to reform energy policy, was sacked in April as chair of the New South Wales government’s Net Zero Emissions and Clean Economy Board for proposing a moratorium on coal mine approvals in the Hunter Valley region.

“It’s just thuggery,” says Turnbull, who blamed rightwing media dominated by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp — for waging a vendetta against him and bullying the government to remove him less than a week after his appointment.

News Corp, which owns almost 60 per cent of Australia’s national and metropolitan newspapers, is a staunch supporter of the government and campaigns against stronger climate action.

“The Murdoch media has spent decades poisoning both our political and literal atmosphere,” Michael Mann, a US climate scientist, told an Australian parliamentary committee on media diversity in April. “The Murdoch press is substantially to blame for serving as a megaphone of climate disinformation. Disinformation that has provided fodder for an activist politician, like former US President Donald Trump, and the current Australian prime minister.”

Joel Fitzgibbon, proud owner of gold cufflinks emblazoned with the letters ‘COAL’, quit Labor’s shadow cabinet in November over its climate change policy. © Mick Tsikas/Getty

News Corp rejects this, with Murdoch telling shareholders in November: “We do not deny climate change. We’re not deniers.”

Critics allege the main political parties — Liberal, National and Labor — are addicted to donations from the fossil fuel industry. In the year up to the 2019 general election, political parties received a record A$85m in donations from resource companies — 69 per cent of all monies raised — an analysis of Australian Electoral Commission data by the Grattan Institute think-tank shows.

Bill Shorten, who resigned as leader following Labor’s surprise 2019 defeat, blamed “powerful vested interests” including mining mogul Clive Palmer, who spent more than A$80m on a negative campaign focused on “Shifty Shorten”. Analysts cite the party’s pledge to cut 2030 emissions by 45 per cent when compared with 2005 levels, as a key factor that lost Labor coal mining seats in Queensland.

Climate Capital Where climate change meets business, markets and politics. Explore the FT’s coverage here

Labor has since dropped the 2030 target, although it remains committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 — a clear point of difference from the ruling coalition. But ahead of a general election, due to be held next year, the party faces internal pressure from MPs in coal regions not to expand its ambition on climate policies or discuss the transition from coal.

“There are excessive progressives in my own party who . . . are trying to change the Labor party, and with some success, from the party of the workers to the party of climate change,” says Joel Fitzgibbon, Labor party MP for the Hunter constituency.

Fitzgibbon, the proud owner of gold cufflinks emblazoned with the letters ‘COAL’, quit Labor’s shadow cabinet in November over its climate change policy. He is agitating for the party to send a clear signal that it supports the industry ahead of a state by-election in the area this month, but critics within Labor say he risks splitting the party.

“Coal power generation is in transition but coal mining is not . . . There is a wealth of money to be made in mining,” he says. “And there is no job in the Hunter that will pay the amount that the miners do . . . semi-skilled miners earn A$120,000 per year as a base rate.”

The Baralaba South coal mine proposal in Queensland has fallen flat after farmers and traditional owners took their complaints to the UN. © Paul Stephenson/Reuters

The need to diversify

Despite the reticence of politicians to discuss transition, local businesses are becoming acutely aware of the need to diversify and are calling for policy changes and funding to help them do so.

At the Port of Newcastle, where bulk carriers shipped 158m tonnes of coal last year to China, Japan and a host of other nations, management is planning a A$2bn investment to build a deepwater container terminal to boost its non-coal revenues by importing everything from grain to consumer goods.

Green says the proposal could transform the port and the state’s economy by reducing costs for businesses, easing traffic congestion in Sydney and creating new jobs in the region. He cites a report by Alphabeta, a consultancy, which forecasts the terminal could provide a A$6bn boost to the local economy and take 750,000 trucks off Sydney roads by 2050. “There are no other deepwater ports on the east coast that can accommodate the ultra large container vessels, so this is a very significant opportunity,” he says.

A freight train transports coal from the Gunnedah Coal Handling and Preparation Plant, operated by Whitehaven Coal, in Gunnedah, New South Wales. © David Gray/Bloomberg

But the proposal remains blocked by port commitment deeds agreed by the New South Wales government when it privatised Botany, Kembla and Newcastle ports between 2013 and 2014 in transactions that raised A$6.75bn. Under these 50-year deals, the Port of Newcastle would have to pay compensation to the state government if it exceeded a cap of handling more than 30,000 containers a year — rendering its proposed investment uneconomic and limiting Newcastle’s room to diversify.

Australia’s competition regulator is challenging the deeds in court but the state government is refusing to back down, as it could be liable for compensation. “Now is the time for some innovative thinking from both state and federal governments to help this region transition and benefit the wider economy,” says Green.

A ‘technology, not taxes approach’

Under pressure from the EU, which is threatening to impose carbon tariffs on imports from nations that fail to make ambitious emissions cuts, the Australian government — which reduced emissions by just 4 per cent between 2013 and 2021 — has begun to discuss ways to decarbonise the economy. But it has so far refused to introduce a carbon pricing mechanism, which is widely considered the most efficient way to reduce emissions. Instead it wants to rely on new technology to meet its modest target of 26-28 per cent emission cuts by 2030, when compared to 2005 levels.

“We are taking the technology, not taxes approach,” says Keith Pitt, Australia’s mining minister. “There are more than 200 power stations either under construction or being designed and planned right now and they will need to utilise high quality coal and we will look to fulfil that.”

Stockpiles of coal at the Newcastle Coal Terminal in March. © Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg

At state government level there are some signs of progress. New South Wales announced a A$25m fund in April — created from mining royalties — to help regions develop new industries beyond coal. It also paid A$100m compensation to Shenhua, the Chinese company, for reversing planning approval for a mine north of the Hunter Valley following community opposition, which thwarted the project.

But neither federal nor state governments plan to impose a moratorium on approving new mines or expansions amid a flurry of proposals by small miners eager to capitalise on the exits made by Rio and BHP. The Australian Institute report detailed 23 applications for new developments with the potential to produce 98m tonnes a year of coal.

“If approved, these mines risk locking large parts of the Hunter in the past,” says Denniss, “while failing to plan for the future.”

Links

• (AU The Australian) Labor Drops Hostility To Coal
• (AU) PM’s Claim Australian Coal Produces Much Lower Emissions Is ‘Nonsense’
• (AU) Coal Sector Losses Near $1.5b
• Surge In Global Action Highlights Australia’s Stance On Climate Change
• IEA: A Rebound In Global Coal Demand In 2021 Is Set To Be Short-Lived, But No Immediate Decline In Sight
• (AU RenewEconomy) Hydrogen Will Be Cover For A New Life For Fossil Fuels
• (Forbes) How Renewables Could Kill Off Fossil Fuel Electricity By 2035: New Report
• (AU ABC) Calls To Phase Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies After Speculation About Net-Zero Emissions Target

(AU ABC) Sir David Attenborough Cheers Climate Change Postcard To Scott Morrison

ABC Sunshine Coast - Meg Bolton

Jim Bird and Helen Moffitt are trying to right the wrongs of their generation to help the next. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Meg Bolton)

Key Points A pair of activists say they were inspired to write a book aimed at kids after hearing the Prime Minister read out children's letters They were "thrilled" to receive the support of Sir David Attenborough, who sent them a handwritten letter The book includes a postcard calling for climate change action that young people can send to the PM

Two Sunshine Coast environmentalists are calling on the Prime Minister to take immediate action on climate change and they're being backed by none other than Sir David Attenborough.

Helen Moffitt and Jim Bird have self-funded 10,000 copies of an activity book that comes with a postcard for children to sign and send to Scott Morrison.

Ms Moffitt said the $6,000 initiative would be worth every cent if the book inspired and empowered the next generation.

"The reason we've aimed this towards the children is because they're tomorrow's generation — they're going to be left with what today's generation leaves them," Ms Moffitt said.

"Kids need a voice [and] those who are not old enough to vote yet will have a voice.

"They're given a voice through the postcard."Mr Bird said hearing Prime Minister Scott Morrison read letters sent to him by children inspired the 16-page book, which took one year to complete.

"We'd like to really make it an Australia-wide [initiative], because the only way it's really going to succeed if the Prime Minister realises that people know that he's receiving these postcards," Mr Bird said.

He said 3,000 postcards had been distributed but he had no way of monitoring how many were sent to Mr Morrison.

Mr Bird and Ms Moffitt were "thrilled" when they received the letter from the beloved environmentalist. (Supplied: Jim Bird)

'Thank you very much'

Mr Bird said he could hardly believe it when he and Ms Moffitt received a warm, handwritten letter of encouragement from Sir David Attenborough.

"It was unbelievable, the way it came … we hadn't really given our address," Mr Bird said.

"It was actually sent to SCEC – the Sunshine Coast Environment Council – so he must have looked on the website, got the address and sent it to them. 

"We were we were absolutely thrilled."

Sir David's note kept Mr Bird motivated, he said, and helped keep self-doubt at bay. (Supplied: James Bird) 

Mr Bird said receiving the response within a few weeks lent credibility to the cause and kept him motivated.

"Sometimes you say 'What on Earth are we doing? We're not going to get anywhere,'" he said.

"But it brings us back into thinking up original ideas [and] we'll do what we can, as best we can."

The book took Mr Bird and Ms Moffitt about a year to finish. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Meg Bolton)

Call for action

Mr Bird said the planet would be detrimentally affected if the government continued to focus on climate targets instead of taking immediate action.

"We haven't got 30 years," he said.

"We should be stopping deforestation [and we] should be planting right now."

He called on the government to address climate change with the same interest and enthusiasm as it approached the pandemic.

"We're addressing it, we're busting a gut actually to try to solve it, we don't care how much it costs and how much it inconveniences us," Mr Bird said.

"Wars and pandemics will come and they will go, but climate change is here, is progressing and it's here to stay."

The Prime Minister's office has been contacted for comment.

Suffering through seasons

In the meantime, Sunshine Coast wildlife veterinarian Ludovica Valenza said more animals were dying this year because of the change in seasons and natural disasters.

"Wildlife are trying to adapt to these changes, and for that reason we're getting them in for all sorts of different causes" she said.

"It's very bizarre, because even for this time of the year we're seeing baby birds and baby possums and macropods – so kangaroos and joeys that we wouldn't be seeing at this time of the year – coming in."

Data from the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital showed 50 per cent more animals were admitted in March 2021 than in March 2018.

Dr Valenza said trauma season usually ran from September to February, but more animals were dying because they were remaining active outside regular times.

The Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital team recently treated its 10,000 koala.

"I think it is just from the fact that we've had these extreme weather conditions out there," she said.

"This is due to their habitat being reduced."

'Dear Prime Minister'

The postcard penned by Mr Bird and Ms Moffitt reads:





Links

• (AU SMH) There’s A Key Element Missing From The Debate About Australia’s Journey To Net-Zero Emissions
• (AU) We Can’t Wait For This Government. Let’s Beat Emissions Together
• We Can Avert Irreversible Climate Change
• (AU) Changing The Narrative Of Climate Change
• Sir David Attenborough’s Latest Doc Is His Witness Statement To The World
• Climate Change 'The Biggest Security Threat Ever Faced By Modern Humans', David Attenborough Warns
• David Attenborough's Heartbreaking Plea After Admitting ‘I Don’t Have Long Left’
• (VIDEO) Climate Change: The Facts - Sir David Attenborough
• David Attenborough: Climate Change Must Not Be Ignored Even During A Pandemic
• These Are The Ways You Can Stop Climate Change, According To David Attenborough
• Campaign Seeks 1bn People To Save Climate – One Small Step At A Time