Tag Archives: Community

PLEA Network

31 October 2016, The Conversation, Turnbull wants to change Australia’s environment act – here’s what we stand to lose. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is seeking changes to Australia’s national environment act to stop conservation groups from challenging ministerial decisions on major resource developments and other matters of environmental importance. Turnbull is reviving a bid made by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott to abolish Section 487 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act) – a bid rejected in the Senate in 2015. If it goes ahead, the change will significantly diminish the functionality of the act. The EPBC Act, introduced by the Howard government in 1999, has an established record of success. Judicial oversight of ministerial discretion, enabled by expanded standing under Section 487, has been crucial to its success. Section 487 allows individuals and groups to challenge ministerial decisions on resources, developments and other issues under the EPBC Act. An organisation can establish standing by showing they have engaged in activities for the “protection or conservation of, or research into, the environment” within the previous two years. They must also show that their purpose is environmental protection. Repealing this provision would remove the standing of these groups to seek judicial review of decisions. Standing would then revert to the common law position. That means parties would need to prove they are a “person aggrieved” by showing that their interests have been impacted directly. Read More here

PLEA Network

30 August 2016, The Guardian, Victoria to permanently ban fracking and coal seam gas exploration. Activists and farmers hail decision after inquiry into onshore unconventional gas received 1,600 submissions. Victoria is to introduce a permanent ban on all onshore unconventional gas exploration, including fracking and coal seam gas, becoming the first Australian state to do so. The premier, Daniel Andrews, made the announcement on Tuesday morning and said legislation for the ban would be introduced later this year, making the current moratorium on unconventional gas exploration permanent. A parliamentary inquiry last year into onshore unconventional gas in Victoria received more than 1,600 submissions, most of them opposed to fracking and coal seam gas exploration. A statement from the Department of Premier and Cabinet said: “It is clear that the Victorian community has spoken. They simply don’t support fracking. “The government’s decision is based on the best available evidence and acknowledges that the risks involved outweigh any potential benefits to Victoria.” The government said the move would protect the reputation of Victoria’s agriculture sector, which employs more than 190,000 people; provide certainty to regional communities; and end anxiety felt by farmers about the environmental and health risks associated with fracking. Read More here

PLEA Network

18 August 2016, The Telegraph, Alaskan village votes in favour of relocating due to climate change. tiny Alaskan village has voted to abandon their ancestral home to the rising seas, becoming possibly the first settlement in the United States forced to relocate due to climate change. Shishmaref’s 650 residents voted 89-78 in favour of a long-discussed proposal to move the entire village, to an as-yet-undecided new location, according to an unofficial count by the city clerk. Official results are expected on Thursday. In March a Native American community in Louisiana announced that it, too, was relocating – thus the Alaska village and the residents of the Isle de Jean Charles are vying to be the first to move. The remote Alaskan village, on a mile-wide island 600 miles from Alaska’s biggest city Anchorage, is described as being on the frontline of the climate change battle. Home for generations of seal hunters and fishermen, the island has lost 3,000 feet of coastline in the past 35 years. Rising temperatures have shrunk the sea ice, which buffered Shishmaref from storm surges. At the same time, the permafrost that the village is built on has begun to melt, with the shore receding at an average rate of up to 10 feet a year. Warmer waters allow more commercial ships to pass, polluting the seas and disturbing their fragile ecosystem. Thinner ice has led to a surge in fatalities among the hunters, who plunge to their deaths through the cracks. Read More here

PLEA Network

20 July 2016, Renew Economy, ACT opens solar scheme to low-income households. The ACT’s $2 million low-income solar scheme has opened for registrations of interest from eligible households, wishing to install rooftop PV but unable to afford the upfront investment. ACT environment minister Simon Corbell said on Wednesday that people living in low-income households in the Territory could now put their hands up to take part in the pilot program, which will run for the next four years. The program, which is expected to start installing systems in late 2016 or early 2017, will be run as a pilot, initially, to determine the best approach for future delivery, and will be developed in conjunction with key stakeholders including ACT Housing, community welfare organisations, and low-income loan groups. The opening of the renewables scheme – one of many being successfully rolled out in the ACT – comes at a time where rooftop solar and wind energy are being accused of driving up power prices in some parts of Australia. But as we have noted on various separate occasions, the accusations, coming mainly from conservative politicians and media outlets, are ill-informed and misdirected, and ignore the many benefits solar and wind have brought to the national electricity market. ACT’s Corbell, who is the mastermind behind the territory’s ambitious 100 per cent renewable energy target, has demonstrated these benefits very well, and is poised to deliver massive savings to consumers in the nation’s capital, as this article explains. Read More here