Thousands march in Melbourne for Climate Action

Thousands of people around Australia rallied for emergency action on Climate Change on June 13, calling for 100% renewable energy by 2020 and demanding that Australia must make the shift from fossil fuels to wind, solar and other available renewable technologies. The National Climate Emergency Rally was held in capital cities around Australia, with people siting down outside Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's city office in Sydney and a sitdown protest in front of the Melbourne Town Hall where the ruling Australian Labor Party were holding their State conference.

This comes as progress on climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany, were blocked by the US Administration, with the US still talking about zero per cent reductions by 2020 on 1990 levels. "Industrialised countries need to assume their historical responsibility and pay back their climate debt. Developing countries must stay strong in calling for climate justice. By ignoring calls to repay their climate debt and hindering progress in these talks, rich countries are jeopardising the lives and livelihoods of millions of people." said Meena Raman, Honorary Secretary of Friends of the Earth Malaysia in a media release.

Climate IMC | Perth Indymedia | Melbourne: Report, Photos: 1, 2, Videos: 1, 2 | Sydney Report, Youtube Videos: 1, 2, 3 | Brisbane Report

The co-ordinated rallies ocurred in all capital cities around Australia and some regional towns and the demands included:

• 100% renewable energy by 2020. Australia must make the shift from fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy from wind, solar and other available technologies.
• Green collar jobs not job cuts. We can renew our economy by creating hundreds of thousands of 'green jobs' and supporting workers to make a fair and just transition to sustainable industries.
• Don't pass the Carbon Pollution law. We need climate policies that make the big polluters pay and not allow big companies to go on polluting. The CPRS won't reduce Australia's greenhouse pollution.
• Logging and clearing vegetation are major contributors to climate change as forests and woodlands are important carbon stores.

This follows a break in the environment movement over carbon trading where several environmental groups such as Greenpeace Australia, Friends of the Earth Australia and the Wilderness Society have refused to follow the Australian Conservation Foundation qualified endorsement of the Federal Government proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), and have put forward a Plan "B", an agenda for immediate climate action.

Many activists criticised the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) as giving too many free concessions to the fossil fuel industry, with minimal direction of capital to renewable energy projects. In other words, Business As Usual.

In December 2009, governments of the world will meet in Copenhagen to forge a critical new global climate change agreement. The Climate Emergency Rally sought to motivate people at the grassroots to pressure politicians to secure strong global action to cut emissions in time to avoid catastrophic climate change.

At the Melbourne protest a woman from Tuvalu, Emeretta Cross, spoke on the rising seas threat to her country and other low lying nations and spoke of the need of acting for the children and their future. (Watch Video)

Damien Lawson, National Climate Justice Co-ordinator for Friends of the Earth Australia, spoke on the need for a campaign of popular civil disobedience if politicians continue taking no action or ineffectual action to rapidly decrease carbon emissions. (Watch video - Climate Emergency: Damien Lawson calls for Civil Disobedience Campaign for action on Climate Change)

Read more on the Climate Action Centre website which organised the protest in Melbourne.

Other Reports

• Greenlivingpedia - National Climate Emergency Rally Melbourne June 2009
• Greenleft Weekly - Thousands rally for 100% renewables by 2020

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