FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, 10 December, 2015

**Images of the actions will be made available here**

Protestors shut down three East Coast coal ports as Paris talks fail to deliver climate justice

Protestors join call for global moratorium on coal mines

(SYDNEY)– In the last days of the landmark climate change summit in Paris, and with another global heat record broken this year, activists have today simultaneously shut down operations at three coal ports on the East Coast. Protestors are demanding Australia commit to a moratorium on new coal mines as part of its efforts to prevent dangerous levels of global warming and climate change.

The actions at Brisbane, Newcastle and Port Kembla are an escalation of a global push for a moratorium on new coal mines, as the effects of climate change are felt by people around the country and around the world.

Australia has so far not responded to calls from Pacific leaders that no new coal mines can be built if the world is to avoid dangerous levels of global warming.

Vanessa Wiebford, a Newcastle resident and mother locked onto a conveyor at the Newcastle port as part of a peaceful protest said, “In the lead up to Paris, eminent Australians joined the leaders of Pacific Island nations in calling on Australia to answer the call for a global moratorium on new coal mines.[1]Australia has failed to respond to this call.”

“Because Newcastle is home to the world’s largest coal port, our community lives with the immediate threats of having coal at our doorstep,” said Wiebford. “The coal industry is responsible for leaving our residents choking on coal dust and diesel fumes every day while it exports global warming and health problems to the world,” added Wiebford.

Community members in Wollongong scaled two coal loaders and blocked truck access to the coal port at Port Kembla. Rada Germanos, who grew up in the Illawarra said, “We’re calling for a halt to new coal expansion, with a parallel effort to support job creation and re-skilling workers in sustainable industries.”

One resident is suspended from a tree blocking the coal train tracks leading to the port in Brisbane.

“We can’t afford to pay the price of out-of-control global warming and the unmanageable bushfires, flooding, health threats and drought damages that it will bring. We won’t be passive, and let the coal industry set Australia and the world the course of intolerable and catastrophic impacts,” said Kelly Purnell, a Brisbane resident.

“If Australian Governments will not intervene, we will intervene ourselves,” Purnell concluded.

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Onsite in each location and available for Interviews:

Newcastle: Vanessa Weibford, resident and mother:  0406 639 298

Brisbane: Kelly Purnell, Front Line Action on Coal: 0401 207 550

Port Kembla: Rada Germanos, Front Line Action on Coal: 0411 378 923

Follow updates on #Floodthesystem

Why are we doing this?

•               Australia joined countries around the world in 2010 committing to keeping global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius.

•               Five years on from that commitment, the volume of coal we export annually has increased a shocking 38%, to 393 million tonnes.

•               Burning this coal produces around 940 million tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution globally – compared to Australia’s own domestic emissions of less than 600 million tonnes.

•               Scientists have clearly told us that to have just a 50:50 chance of preventing this 2°C rise in global temperature to which we have committed, 95% of the coal in Australia’s region needs to stay in the ground, unburned.[2]

•               There are signs that change is here: China’s coal use has declined in real terms in the last two years; the United States has closed coal plants and its greenhouse emissions are falling; India is committed to rapid and widespread deployment of renewable energy.

Background

•               Current and projected future use of coal is consistent with global warming of between 4-6 degrees centigrade. The resulting climactic change that would occur is coal use is not reduced would be nothing short of catastrophic

•               Humanity is creating around 52Gt (billions of tonnes) of greenhouse pollution annually and this number is still growing.

•               To avoid dangerous levels of warming, global emissions need to stop rising, and start this year, 2015[3]

•               Global greenhouse gas emissions have already caused global average temperature rise of 0.8 degrees above pre-industrial levels, and further warming is considered already “locked-in” by cumulative emissions so far.[4]

•               It estimated that climate change is already taking 5 million lives a year. By 2030, deaths could total 100 million.[5]

•             The Climate Commission has previously reported that: “In the last 50 years the number of record hot days in Australia has more than doubled. This has increased the risk of heatwaves and associated deaths, as well as extreme bush fire weather in South Eastern and South Western Australia.”[6]

•             In Australia, more than $226 billion in commercial, industrial, road, rail and residential assets around our coasts, where most Australians live, will potentially exposed to flooding and erosion hazards at a sea-level rise of just 1.1 m.

•             We are already experiencing worsening drought, extended bushfire seasons and more intense and longer heatwaves. Southern Australia has experienced a drying trend over the past few decades, characterised by a 10-20% reduction in cool-season rainfall. After 2020, predicted increase in drought frequency is estimated to cost $7.3 billion annually.[7]

•             If global temperatures reach 3°C above pre-industrial levels, an estimated 8.5% of species globally are at risk of extinction. A staggering one in six species could be lost if warming goes above 4°C[8]

[1] For a full list of signatories, see here: http://www.tai.org.au/content/61-prominent-australians-back-no-new-coal-mines

[2] See for example http://www.carbonbrief.org/meeting-two-degree-climate-target-means-80-per-cent-of-worlds-coal-is-unburnable-study-says

[3] see for example, UNEP The Emissions Gap Report, November 2010

[4] Australian Government. “Accurate Answers to Professor Plimer’s 101 Climate Change Questions” http://www.climatechange.gov.au/climate-change/understanding-climate-change/~/media/climate-change/prof-plimer-101-questions-response-pdf.pdf

[5] DARA and the Climate Vulnerable Forum. 2012. Climate Vulnerability Monitor: A Guide to the Cold Calculus of a Hot Planet. 2nd Edition, DARA, Madrid, Spain, p. 24. http://daraint.org/climate-vulnerability-monitor/climate-vulnerability-monitor-2012/

[6] Climate Commission. 2011. The Critical Decade: Key Messages. Commonwealth of Australia (Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) ISBN: 978-1-921299-50-6

[7] Climate Council. Climate Change 2015: Growing Risks, Critical Choices.
[8] Climate Council. Climate Change 2015: Growing Risks, Critical Choices.

BREEZA, NSW: The third anniversary of the Leard Blockade marks a turning point in the campaign as the protest group vow to put Shenhua’s controversial Watermark mine firmly in their sites.

As news that Adani’s Carmichael coal mine in Queensland lost federal approval after a successful court challenge by Mackay Conservation Group, calls have renewed for a review of the federal approval of Shenhua’s controversial Watermark coal mine.

The group who spearheaded the longest running blockade of a coal mine in Australian history attracted thousands of people from around the globe to the small rural community of Maules Creek. The Leard Blockade camp saw scores of arrests including locals, doctors, priests and ex Wallabies captain, David Pocock.

Phil Evans, Front Line Action on Coal spokesperson said, “Back in February we vowed that never again would we allow coal companies to undermine community rights to water, land and culture. And now, like we did to Whitehaven, we are issuing a warning to Shenhua, that thousands will be back again to take up this new fight and continue our push for a just transition to a renewable energy future.”

Shenhua’s Watermark coal project is twice the size of the Maules Creek project taking in an area 1½ times larger than the Sydney CBD. Over 296 koalas will be unsafely relocated and 55 sacred Gomeroi sites lie within the project boundary.

“We supported the Gomeroi in the fight against Whitehaven, and we will support them again in this new fight against Shenhua. Coal is not good for humanity, and this is clearly on show with Shenhua’s blatant disregard for Gomeroi culture, productive farmland and important habitat,” Evans continued.

Evans stated that united, city, country and traditional owners will never be defeated. “We have offered on the ground support to all stakeholders affected.”

“We call for an official review of all coal mine approvals knowing now we can have no faith in Environment Minister Hunt’s abilities. Minister Hunt should resign as coal affected communities can have no faith in his decision making ability.”

Further comment:

Phil Evans
Front Line Action on Coal spokesperson
0490 064 139

Twitter: @FLACcoal

SYDNEY, 16 JUNE 2015: Concerned citizens will rally tomorrow outside the NSW Minerals Council Beyond the Rocks conference this year being held in partnership with the NSW government. They are calling for the NSW Minerals Council – representing controversial miners Whitehaven Coal and Rio Tinto – to take a step out of the people’s democracy and to call for a transition away from the destructive coal export industry. The snap rally comes off the back of years of corruption findings between mining operations and members of the NSW parliament on both sides of politics.

Front Line Action on Coal spokesperson, Papatya Danis said, “We heard from Premier Baird throughout the election that politics was going to be done differently – but we can see quite plainly here that the Minerals Council and the NSW government are still quite cosy bedfellows.”

Miner Rio Tinto’s Warkworth mine expansion has continued to be a sore point for the Baird government – with just three months ago the Planning and Assessment Committee recommending that the village of Bulga, and its’ 350 residents, be relocated to make way for the mine.

Ms Danis continued, “The residents of Bulga played the game – went through the courts – and when they won, the NSW government changed the rules of the game to help their mates. As long as we see cosy conferences like the one here today, we know that the stench of corruption still hangs about Macquarie St.”

The conference will features a session on Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek project which was plagued by a mass community uprising and campaign of civil disobedience and also sessions about ‘reclaiming the social licence’ for coal.

Last night ABC’s Four Corners program featured a piece titled ‘End of Coal’ featuring prominent international and Australian figures discussing the inevitable end of the dominance of coal in Australian exports.

Media and Photo Opportunities:

Address: NSW Parliament House, Macquarie St Sydney CBD
Time: 8.45am
Contact name: Papatya Danis
Phone Number: 0410 430 100

Proving once again that Whitehaven Coal either know something that the rest of the world don’t or just have a ‘put trust in blind faith’ approach to business, the scandal plagued coal miner is expanding its production despite coal being at historically low prices.

In an interview on ABC last night, Whitehaven Coal CEO Paul Flynn acknowledged the ‘contradiction’ of growth in what renowned investment bank Goldman Sachs are describing as a structural decline in coal prices, but in a more surprising contradiction he claimed to have the support of many indigenous people – or at least those he is working with – despite the Gomeroi’s long, vocal opposition to the Maules Creek mine in the Leard State Forest.

When faced with cultural vandalism and even the destruction of burial grounds, the Gomeroi prosecuted a formidable campaign of legal challenges and political appeals to protect land, water and culture. Currently, the Gomeroi traditional custodians are demanding protection of one of the 38 sacred sites that be destroyed or irrevocably damaged by Whitehaven under section 9 and 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act.

“We need Lawlers’ Well,” Gomeroi/Kamilaroi elder Uncle Neville Sampson said, “if we don’t teach the next generation, we are going to lose everything.”

Uncle Neville’s fear refers to ceremony and ritual that can only be performed at the Lawlers Well site located inside the project boundary of the Maules Creek mine in the Leard State Forest. The Gomeroi, after a long and bitter battle with Whitehaven were eventually granted access to the site to perform ceremony – possibly for a last time – earlier this year. Whitehaven attempted to play the Gomeroi off against environmentalists and farmers in a typical display of mining company strategy to divide and conquer communities.

Local voices were united in their call to stop the project before it began – as evidenced by the signing of a protection treaty between the Gomeroi and the farming community led alliance of groups and individuals who Flynn describes, once again contradictingly, as ‘not reflective of local voice.’ Whitehaven’s divide and conquer tactics have failed and the protection treaty between the Leard Forest Alliance and the Gomeroi stands still today.

One thing a majority of people in the local community can most certainly agree on is that agriculture just can’t afford to lose another drop of water to the mining industry – especially with El Nino on the way and its drought like conditions. Mining industry water use is a threat to the local economy and jobs – which rode on the back of agriculture for over a century before the haul-packs and super-diggers arrived.

This is the sound of the local voices. Protection of land, water and culture. Paul Flynn and Whitehaven’s contradictions extend beyond their business acumen and into their reading of community sentiment.

**Uncle Neville and other Elders have issued a call for assistance, asking that people write to Environment Minister Greg Hunt with letters of support for the permanent protection of the sacred site. Details can be found at gomeroitraditionalcustodians.org

Phil Evans lived at the Leard Blockade for 12 months and is now in Melbourne.

Over 70 concerned Brisbane residents gathered today at CommBank’s Queen Street branch to demand they publicly rule out funding the expansion of Abbott Point and destruction of the Great Barrier Reef. The bank closed for the day  rather than listen to the public’s concerns.  They held a banner reading “CommBank Dont Wreck the Reef and Climate” they were joined by models in full bodypaint as the reef.

Commonwealth Bank is Australia’s second largest fossil fuel investor. At the end of 2014, the Australian Financial Review identified the Commonwealth Bank as the first/only Big 4 Australian Bank to have indicated their involvement in financing the Abbot Point/Galilee Basin expansion in Queensland. Half of the world’s major lenders have gone on record to rule out funding coal and mining industries

“The outlook for the reef is really grim, but we still have time to turn it around. We can have these mines and this port or we can have a healthy reef. We can’t have both.” Dr Selina Ward, Reef Scientist

“The reason we are here today is that if Adani is allowed to do what it wants they will destroy the reef. We are demanding CommBank to publicly rule out funding of the Galilee basin mines and abbot point coal port expansion.” said Lauren Mickle Front Line Action on Coal Spokesperson

“People in the Brisbane community are deeply concerned about what’s happening to the Reef, and we join thousands around the world prepared to stand up and defend it” Ms Mickle continued
“This Week of action is just the beginning both in Australia and internationally. The people will keep showing CommBank it’s time to rule out these projects until they heed our call and rule out the Galilee Basin coal mines and Abbot Point.”Said Ms Mickle

Further Information & comment:

Lauren Mickle

Front Line Action on Coal spokesperson

0401 600 784

Twitter updates @FLACCoal and #RaiseTheHeat