Monthly Archives: June 2015

PLEA Network

30 June 2015, 350.org Australia, Aligning Council Money With Council Values A Guide To Ensuring Council Money Isn’t Funding Climate Change. 350.org Australia – with the help of the incredible team at Earth Hour – has pulled together a simple 3-step guide for local governments interested in divestment.  The movement to align council money with council values is constantly growing in Australia. It complements the existing work that councils are doing to shape a safe climate future. It can also help to reshape the funding practices of Australia’s fossil fuel funding banks. The steps are simple. The impact is huge.The guide can also be used by local groups who are interested in supporting their local government to divest as a step-by-step reference point. Access guide here

PLEA Network

29 June 2015, Renew Economy, Victorian solar project to create ‘perpetual’ fund for community renewables: A former timber mill in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges could soon host a community-owned commercial solar array, with a tender process for the government-funded and community-led project set to begin this week. The Woodend Timber Mill project, which was awarded a $100,000 grant by the Victorian Andrews government in February, aims to install an initial 30kW of solar PV, and then use the tenants’ electricity payments to reinvest in more solar panels, thus creating a “perpetual fund” for community renewables. 

Coordinated by the Macedon Ranges Sustainability Group, the initial 120-panel commercial-sized project is expected to cater to most of the needs of the current tenants at the mill, and potentially ­attract more to the site, presumably with the promise of lower and more stable electricity bills. Funds generated would be directed to a newly formed Macedon Ranges Renewable Energy Fund. “We are hoping to reinvest this money on other solar projects and we intend to do that after consulting the Macedon Ranges community on where an appropriate site may be,” Group renewable energy adviser Barry Mann told the Herald Sun. Read More here

PLEA Network

29 June 2015, Climate News Network, Stress on water resources threatens lives and livelihoods. Satellite data raises red-flag warning about the draining of underground aquifers to meet the demands of expanding populations. The planet’s great subterranean stores of water are running out – and nobody can be sure how much remains to supply billions of people in the future. Satellite instruments used to measure the flow from 37 underground aquifers between 2003 and 2013 have revealed that at least one-third of them were seriously stressed – with little or almost no natural replenishment. The research was conducted by scientists from California and the US space agency NASA, who report in the journal Water Resources Research that they used data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites to calculate what is happening to aquifers. Read More here

PLEA Network

29 June 2015, The Guardian,Australian climate policy paralysis has to end, business roundtable says: Business and industry alliance sets out climate ‘principles’, including that climate policy should be ‘capable of achieving deep reductions’ in emissions. Groups included in the ‘climate roundtable’ include the Business Council of Australia and Australian Industry Group, along with environmental groups and unions. An unprecedented alliance of business, welfare and environmental groups and trade unions is demanding an end to Australia’s decade of political paralysis and division on climate policy, insisting the Abbott government make credible emission reduction commitments and the major parties agree on how the pledges should be implemented.In an attempt to reset the bitter political debate on climate policy, the powerful lineup of interest groups has reached a historic agreement on “principles” that should guide Australia’s climate policy.  Read More here. Read principles here