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At the Heart of Global Energy Politics
Last week’s Greenpeace action in the Port of Newcastle gave the people of the Hunter a wake-up call about port security, but also about the economic and environmental insecurity of the Hunter’s coal dependency.
The Hunter is at the centre of global energy politics’, so it is no surprise that Greenpeace would chose to focus its clean energy campaign here. Hunter coal exports are a major contributor to global warming and harmful climate change, causing more frequent and extreme droughts, floods, storms, rising sea levels and extinction of many plant and animal species locally and around the world.
The US government has convinced the Australian, Chinese, Indian, Japanese and South Korean governments to join them in an Asia Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate. It is an agreement led by governments and corporations wedded to harmful energy technologies, and has no targets or deadlines for greenhouse gas emission reduction. It is a dodgy attempt to undermine the flawed, but internationally-binding targets, of the Kyoto Protocols and its successors. .
Instead of targets and deadlines, the new partnership of the world’s biggest polluters aims to tackle climate change by promoting ‘business as usual’, and spurious technologies like geo-sequestration (pumping carbon dioxide underground), burning so-called ‘clean coal’, and expanding nuclear power.
The simple facts are: there is no way of safely disposing of the radioactive waste from nuclear power plants; and burning oil and coal (even coal labelled ‘clean’ coal) forms carbon dioxide, the gas most responsible for harmful climate change.
The Hunter’s coal wealth is filling the pockets of a few transnational mining companies, and the coffers of state and national governments addicted to coal royalties. Coal production has doubled and jobs halved over the last decades. A trip up the New England Highway shows why local residents fear the Hunter’s environment, communities and long-term economic health is being sacrificed for short-term profits. Only relatively small amount of the wealth generated from the Hunter coalmines is invested back into sustaining the Region.
Despite the best efforts of the big polluters to keep him alive, the rule of Ol’ King Coal will end. The Hunter needs to plan now for a diverse and healthy economy and environment for the 21st century and beyond, and not be locked into a climate-threatening fossil fuel market to its last gasp.
A Just Transition is how the Hunter can build a new economy from local skills and knowledge, with greater social equity. It protects the well-being of people and communities who are most vulnerable as we make a shift towards sustainability.
A Just Transition builds new partnerships from the bottom-up. It links communities, farmers, trade unions, businesses and governments to promote development that does not destroy. It shifts the debate from “Why change?” to “How can we change together?”
A Just Transition would guarantee:
- new secure, long-term jobs for people working in industries that are currently being threatened or displaced by the coal industry;
- new jobs in clean energy production, manufacturing, agriculture, services, tourism, arts and research to replace those being lost as the coal industry cuts its workforce;
- investment in education and training to develop the skills needed for a new economy;
- investment in infrastructure such as better health and public transport and expanded research and development so new, clean industries and skilled workers will be attracted to the Hunter;
- investment in repairing the environmental damage caused by large-scale coal mining and poor rehabilitation;
- investment in clean, decentralised energy technologies to replace the Hunter’s coal-fired power - a mix of energy efficiency, wind, solar, with gas playing only a limited transitional role.
The Hunter has already demonstrated key elements of a Just Transition process, when the BHP steelworks closed. Hunter local governments are leading the way pioneering innovative urban energy demand management strategies. The CSIRO Energy Research Centre and the University of Newcastle are potentially world leading research centres in clean energy technologies.
A Just Transition needs investment. A levy of as little as 10 cents on every tonne of coal exported would raise $8-10 million each year, valuable ‘seed funding’ for new initiatives. The NSW Government should raise this levy to guarantee a Sustainable Hunter.
A Hunter Sustainable Future Fund, spent locally and managed by local people, could promote new opportunities and industries. It would put some of the wealth generated from the Hunter back into the region, and help us move from coal dependency to a clean and sustainable future.
Geoff Evans is an environmental scientist who works with the Mineral Policy Institute, and researches transitions to sustainability in mining affected communities.
The concept of the Just Transition, and other strategies for achieving a ‘Just and Sustainable Hunter’ will be discussed at the Hunter Environment Lobby’s annual Forum to be held at Maitland on Friday, August 19th
For more information, please contact:
Igor O'Neill
Workphone: +62 21 794 1672
Mobile: +62 81 286 12 286
Created: 02 Aug 2005 | Last updated: 02 Aug 2005
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