Critical Times

13 JUNE 2009
ADELAIDE BRISBANE CANBERRA HOBART MELBOURNE PERTH SYDNEY WOLLONGONG

ADELAIDE 11am Victoria Square

JOIN THE RALLY FOR:

GREEN COLLAR JOBS NO JOB CUTS – 100% RENEWABLE ENERGY BY 2020

GLOBAL CLIMATE JUSTICE – AUSTRALIA SHOULD TAKE THE LEAD

CLIMATE POLICIES THAT MAKE THE BIG POLLUTERS PAY

LETS RE-POWER AUSTRALIA!

The National Climate Emergency Rallies
are an initiative of Australia’s Climate Action Summit

Why we need to oppose the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS)

The CPRS locks us into inaction on climate change until 2020.

The CPRS includes the pathetic emissions targets of 5% by 2020, with the potential for up to 15% depending on international targets. These targets completely ignore the science that tells us we need to reduce emissions by a minimum of 40 -60% by 2020 to be on the road to achieving the safe climate level of 300ppm atmospheric CO2.

But the scariest aspect of the CPRS is the major flaw inherent in the Emissions Trading Scheme. When Emissions Trading comes in, every tonne of carbon dioxide saved by households will simply free up a tonne that can be used by industry.

What does this mean? That if a homeowner spends money putting a solar panel on their roof, the energy savings will be reflected in a lower price for permits due to a lower demand. So any action taken by individuals or communities to reduce emissions will have NO EFFECT on Australia’s overall emissions, and will simply free up permits for big polluters to buy at a cheaper price, allowing them to pollute more.

Therefore emissions can’t be reduced beyond the pathetic 5% target locked in until 2020. So the targets are not a cap over which emissions will not rise but rather a floor below which emissions cannot fall.

The ‘’Carbon Polluter’s Rewards Scam’’ rewards significant polluters in 4 main ways:

1/ Under this scheme if individuals, communities or state governments try to do their bit for the environment, all they will achieve is the freeing up of permits for the big polluters to increase their emissions.

2/ Companies producing over 2000t CO2 per $1m revenue will receive 90% of their permits for free and the 1000-2000t band will receive 60%.

3/ The Agriculture sector is fully exempt.

4/ Very generous compensation packages are given to non-exempt sectors, especially the most important polluters of all, coal-burning power generation – $3.9billion