Australian ministers yesterday said environmental activists were living in “fantasy land” after plans to disrupt the country’s coal export boom were revealed.
Greenpeace is spearheading a multimillion dollar campaign to delay key projects and infrastructure by eroding public support for the coal industry, while funding legal challenges against controversial mines.
The plan also involves exploiting opposition to coal-seam gas to put pressure on governments to block mining, the Australian reported, citing confidential documents.
Australian resources, including coal, are in big demand from developing countries such as India and China as they build power projects to fuel their fast-growing economies.
However, environmentalists are concerned about the impact of the boom on farmland and groundwater aquifers, as well as the consequences for climate change.
“If we fail to act decisively over the next two years, it will be too late to have any chance of stopping almost all of the key infrastructure projects and most of the mega-mines,” the -Greenpeace-led coalition said.
It added that it was seeking investment “to help us build a nationwide coal campaign that functions like an orchestra with a large number of different voices combining together into a powerful symphony.”
Australian Minister of Trade Craig Emerson said the concept was “recklessly irresponsible,” while Treasurer Wayne Swan labeled the anti-coal movement “irrational” and “destructive.”
“The idea of flicking a switch from coal and other fossil fuels to renewable energy cannot be done,” Emerson said. “We would have a global depression if we just said, ‘That’s it, we’re out of coal, we are just going to move to renewable energy,’ just because they believe that is good for the world.”
“It would mean mass starvation and they ought to wake up to that, instead of living in a fantasy land and organizing these sorts of campaigns,” he said.
With the Australian Coal Association calling the campaign “economic vandalism,” Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard moved to reassure miners that the government strongly supported the sector.
“The coal industry has got a great future in this country. We’ve made that clear all along. You’re seeing that future being built now as we see expansion in our coal exports particularly,” she said.
Greenpeace Australia’s John Hepburn, co-author of the campaign document, told ABC radio there were legitimate concerns about the scale of the mining boom.
“We’re looking at mega-mines that would increase Australia’s coal exports two or threefold within the next 10 years, with massive impacts on our best farmland, on our groundwater aquifers, on the global climate,” he said. “And they’re also having a big negative impact on the economy, destroying jobs in manufacturing, agriculture and tourism. So we think it’s completely legitimate.”
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft