National environment group Friends of the Earth have welcomed the referral of Australia’s first offshore wind farm the Star of the South project to state and federal planning and environment ministers, and says building renewable energy could be key to the post-Covid recovery effort. 

“The Star of the South offshore wind farm would be a game changer for new renewable energy supply and taking action on climate change in Victoria. It will create thousands of jobs and mark the beginning of a whole new sector” said Pat Simons, Friends of the Earth’s renewable energy spokesperson.

In response to the economic impacts of the outbreak of the Coronavirus/ Covid-19, state and federal governments are now announcing rolling, large-scale stimulus packages to keep the economy afloat. These already total billions of dollars and are likely to be ongoing. 

This is both a threat and an opportunity for the future of the economy, the climate and ecosystems at a time of overlapping crises.

Federal resources minister Matt Canavan has today announced his intention to move ahead with plans for a national nuclear waste dump near Kimba on SA's Eyre Peninsula.

Australian Bushfire victims, together with Friends of the Earth Australia, will launch a claim against ANZ under international law to hold the bank accountable for financing fossil fuel projects that contribute to the climate crisis.

Profound structural change is already underway in Australia. The country is going through a poorly planned energy transition due to failures in government policy. Neither energy generators or the workers who rely on these sectors have the certainty they need. Inaction by the federal government has resulted in investment uncertainty and hence inconsistent growth in renewables, storage and efficiency.

This uncertainty, matched with the impacts of globalisation and climate change, and an industrial relations system that is not working for the benefit of the majority of working people has led to workers, particularly in regional Australia, exposed to changing industries and insecure jobs.

Civil society groups and members of the communities affected by the federal government’s proposed National Radioactive Waste Management Facility (NRWMF) are deeply disappointed with Justice White’s ruling that the exclusion of Barngarla Traditional Owners from a ballot intended to gauge community support was not a breach of the Racial Discrimination Act.

Friends of the Earth Australia media release. June 26, 2019

The Big four banks who were found to be exploiting Australians in the royal commission have been exposed in new research by Friends of the Earth to be financing even worse practices overseas. During the 2010–2018 period, the big four Australian banks had a total financial involvement (across loans, underwriting, bond holdings and shareholdings) of at least US$6.4 billion(AUD $9.5 Billion) in six major companies involved in the palm oil supply chain. Approximately $928 million (AUD$1.3billion) of this would be directly exposed to the palm oil business, given that these companies are involved in a number of business sectors of which palm oil is one.

Media Release ‒ 25 June 2019 ‒ Friends of the Earth Australia

The ABC's Media Watch program last night took aim at Australia's pro-nuclear propagandists and the extreme bias of Australia's nuclear 'debate'.

Media Watch discussed HBO's hit miniseries 'Chernobyl', which tops IMDB's list of the greatest TV shows of all time, and took aim at Andrew Bolt and others for trivialising the death toll (discussed here) and for ignoring the broader impacts of the disaster such as the permanent relocation of 350,000 people and the thousands of children who suffered thyroid cancer due to exposure to radioactive fallout.

Geneva, Switzerland — Today, 187 countries took a major step forward in curbing the plastic waste crisis by adding plastic to the Basel Convention, a treaty that controls the movement of hazardous waste from one country to another. The amendments require exporters to obtain the consent of receiving countries before shipping most contaminated, mixed, or unrecyclable plastic waste, providing an important tool for countries in the Global South to stop the dumping of unwanted plastic waste into their country.

After China banned imports of most plastic waste in 2018, developing countries, particularly in Southeast Asia, have received a huge influx of contaminated and mixed plastic wastes that are difficult or even impossible to recycle. Norway’s proposed amendments to the Basel Convention provides countries the right to refuse unwanted or unmanageable plastic waste.