Climate Turns Miners Green

THE AGE – Brendan Nicholson – September 11, 2007

Link: http://www.theage.com.au/news/climate-watch/climate-turns-miners-green/2007/09/10/1189276632183.html

The major coalminers' union and a key conservation group say they will join forces today to head off any attempt by the Government to "wedge" them by recreating the divisions that exist between timber workers and conservationists in Tasmania.

The CFMEU's mining and energy division and the Australian Conservation Foundation will launch their united call for urgent action on climate change, set to be a critical federal election campaign issue. The two groups will argue that strong, urgent action will be good for jobs, the economy and the environment.

ACF executive director Don Henry and the general president of the CFMEU mining and energy division, Tony Maher, called on the Government and the Opposition to commit to set science-based, legislated targets to cut greenhouse emissions, to substantially increase the existing mandatory renewable energy target, and to ratify the Kyoto Protocol before the end of 2007.

"It's taken an issue as pressing and potentially devastating as climate change to get ACF and the CFMEU to stand together on the same platform," Mr Henry said.

"Strong binding targets, guided by the best available science, are vital if we are going to protect future generations from dangerous climate change.

"Australia can show leadership by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol before the end of this year and encouraging the USA to do the same."

Mr Henry said Australia was missing out on billions of dollars because it had not ratified the treaty.

Mr Maher said emissions trading would not be enough to drive the scale of investment needed to clean up the energy economy and address the threat of climate change.

"Substantially increasing the mandatory renewable energy target will lower average emissions. It's critical and it's supported by mine workers," he said.

Mr Maher said a decade of denial and inaction by the Government was the real threat to coalminers' job security.

"The coal industry is going to have to clean up its act if it is going to have a future in a low-carbon economy. That means billions of dollars of investment by mining companies in new technologies. We're 10 years behind where we should be."