“The Government says one thing, but does another on the Reef,” said Ms Foster Vander Elst.

“Queensland and Australian government ministers say they are committed to preserving the Reef for future generations, but their actions make it quite clear they do not care enough to do what we need to save it.”

Both the UNESCO World Heritage Committee and the Government’s own Reef 2050 Advisory Committee have warned that the Government’s Reef 2050 Plan, which primarily addresses water quality and land clearing, is inadequate and will not work because it does not address the primary threat to the Reef—climate change.   

UNESCO’s scientific report on coral reefs released on 23 June warns the only way to save the Reef from certain destruction before the end of the century is to halt global warming at well below 1.5-2°C above pre-industrial levels.

“The Australian Government has the power to act on global warming. It is utterly irresponsible to suggest otherwise. And Australia must act if it is serious about protecting the Reef. This means we must keep 90 per cent of existing coal reserves in the ground [1],” Ms Foster Vander Elst said.  

“But instead, the Queensland and Australian Governments are pouring billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money into fossil fuel subsidies, talking up the construction of more coal-fired power stations and bending over backwards to facilitate the expansion of Australian coal mining in the Galilee basin, including a proposal for the NAIF to provide a $1 billion loan to the billionaire Adani mining corporation,” said Ms Foster Vander Elst.

“When the Government is spending fifty five times more on fossil fuel subsidies [2] than on its much-touted Reef 2050 plan, it’s quite clear what its priorities really are.

“What we should be doing is cutting fossil fuels subsidies, banning new coal mines and offering the world real climate leadership. If we do not act now, then when Australians mourn the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef in years to come, they will know who to blame: the Abbott-Turnbull Australian Governments who wilfully promoted fossil fuels over committed action on climate change,” Ms Foster Vander Elst said.

Notes
[1] See Greenpeace Report April 2016, ‘Exporting climate change, killing the reef’ at http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/Global/australia/reports/Exporting%20climate%20change,%20killing%20the%20reef.pdf

[2] The Reef 2050 Plan has a price-tag of $2bn over ten years—or $200m a year—but Market Forces has identified $11bn in tax-payer funded fossil fuel subsidies provided by the Government each year: ‘How your taxes subsidise fossil fuels, Market Forces, http://www.marketforces.org.au/ffs/tax/

Background briefing & timeline
Greenpeace’s newly updated 18-page report, ‘The double threat to the Great Barrier Reef: climate change and the Australian Government’ offers a  background briefing and timeline on UNESCO, the Australian Government and the Reef: http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/en/what-we-do/oceans/resources/reports/The-double-threat-to-the-Great-Barrier-Reef/

Photos and video
High resolution photographs and video for the media can be accessed in the Greenpeace media library here, including drone footage of bleached coral: http://media.greenpeace.org/shoot/27MZIFJJD68E1

For interviews contact
Rachael Vincent, Media Campaigner 0413 993 316 rachael.vincent@greenpeace.org

The mining giant’s chairman today gave his final investment approval for the multi-billion dollar Carmichael mine in central Queensland's Galilee Basin.

The company are yet to confirm financing or if a billion dollar loan from the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility to fund the rail line between the proposed mine and the Abbot Point coal terminal has been granted.

“This mine will be a disaster for the climate, the Great Barrier Reef and frontline communities in Queensland and around the world,” Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner, Nikola Casule, said.

“This toxic mega-mine is deeply unpopular with the Australian people and is not viable without massive handouts of public money through subsidies or loans from the NAIF and Queensland government.

“Any public assistance to the mine is a betrayal of the Australian public and the things they hold dear, like a healthy Reef and support for public services that lose out when billions of dollars are given to Adani instead of to schools and hospitals.

“Greenpeace are calling for state and federal governments to rule out any public funds being granted to this environmentally destructive and economically disastrous project once and for all.

“The people of Australia have overwhelmingly rejected this toxic project. The age of coal is dead and we need real leadership to ensure a just transition away from fossil fuels for the Australian community.”

For interviews contact:
Simon Black
Greenpeace Senior Media Campaigner
0418 219 086 / simon.black@greenpeace.org

Leaked details [1] of the proposal this morning revealed Adani, the operator of the mine, would initially pay just $2 million a year in royalties when the $21 billion project was up and running.

This concession would mean they would sidestep paying anywhere up to $320 million in royalties to the Queensland community.

“This morning’s revelation that the Queensland Premier has sold out her own constituents is a disgrace,” Greenpeace campaigner Nikola Casule said.

“This arrangement is only the latest in a series of insults delivered by a government that seems to be putting the interests of big polluting fossil fuel companies before the community.

“It wasn’t enough simply to facilitate the waste of $1 billion of federal taxpayers money on the rail line for this project and to grant unlimited water access in one of the country’s most drought stricken areas.

“Now Premier Palaszczuk is taking hundreds of millions of dollars away from Queensland taxpayers and handing it over to a billionaire mining company at a time when we need to take urgent action on climate change to protect natural treasures like the Great Barrier Reef.

“During the election Palaszczuk promised there would be no taxpayer money funnelled into this project. This royalty holiday is a broken promise to the people who elected her and to the communities that rely on her to champion their interests.”

Greenpeace are calling on the Queensland government to immediately withdraw any plans which stop coal mines paying their fair share of royalties to the Australian public and to commit to keeping public money out of fossil fuels by opposing any funds for the Carmichael project via the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.

“This is money that could be used to fund any number of community projects from schools to hospitals to providing assistance to our farmers or aid to the victims of natural disasters like Cyclone Debbie,” Casule said.

“There are countless people and organisations more deserving of the money that should go to the people of Queensland than a billionaire mining company.”

It is reported the royalty rate will then increase after several years.

NOTES FOR EDITORS:
[1] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-18/queensland-government-gives-adani-royalties-holiday/8536560

For interviews contact:
Simon Black
Greenpeace Senior Media Campaigner
0418 219 086 / simon.black@greenpeace.org

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority chairman, Russell Reichelt, today told a Senate Estimates Hearing that it is believed about 30 per cent of coral in the Reef's northern part died last year while initial observations suggest 20 per cent of coral, this time in the central area, died following this year’s event.

“It is unbelievably sad to hear that almost half of the Great Barrier Reef could have been killed during these last two bleaching events,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific Campaigner Alix Foster Vander Elst said.

“And worse still our government continue to do nothing to address the cause of the bleaching even as the Reef dies right in front of our eyes.

“I was on the Reef in the middle of the second bleaching event in March this year and seeing the reality of the destruction up close was devastating.

“People need to know that, despite last year’s catastrophic bleaching and unprecedented second year of damage, and today’s shocking news, the government is still considering funnelling almost $1 billion of taxpayers’ money to help fund the Carmichael mega-mine right next door.

“The Government must act now to protect what is left of our world-famous Great Barrier Reef by tackling the root cause of coral bleaching - climate change, fueled by mining and burning fossil fuels like coal.”

Coral bleaching occurs when the surrounding water is too warm, causing the corals to expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues.

This makes the coral take on a completely white appearance. If water temperatures don’t return to normal within six to eight weeks of the bleaching, the coral dies.

NOTES FOR EDITORS:
[1] Photo and video of a Greenpeace visit to document Reef bleaching on the outer reefs of Port Douglas in March 2017 can be accessed here: http://media.greenpeace.org/shoot/27MZIFJJD68E1

For interviews contact:
Simon Black
Greenpeace Senior Media Campaigner
0418 219 086 / simon.black@greenpeace.org

Released today, the Steeling the Future report shows that Australia deliberately "sought and won its position as the world’s pre-eminent facilitator of the dirtiest steelmaking process" with nearly half of all coal exports now used to make steel.

“The coal industry are fond of pretending that you cannot have steel without coal,” Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner, Nikola Casule, said.

“This report demonstrates that not only is that simply not true but coal is, in fact, standing in the way of cleaner steelmaking techniques.”

The report found that Australian metallurgical coal exports produce nearly half a billion tonnes of CO2 offshore - 88 per cent as much greenhouse pollution as we produce domestically.

“This cannot continue if we want to try to protect national icons like the Great Barrier Reef and make good on our promise as part of the Paris climate accords to curb global warming for future generations,” Casule said.

“Coal is a dirty and outdated method of producing power and a dirty and outdated method of making steel.”

The report urges the Australian government to learn from the lessons of thermal coal and to make a planned transition away from metallurgical coal.

“Coal communities across Australia have already been left in the lurch by the Federal Government’s failure to anticipate or accept the decline of thermal coal,” Casule said.

“We cannot afford to make the same mistake with communities who currently rely on the metallurgical coal industry.

“The government must immediately plan and implement a just transition away from all forms of coal and shift to cleaner steel production.

“We have the opportunity for Australia to become a leader in clean steel production while also ensuring that it makes a meaningful contribution to global efforts to combat climate change.”

Notes for editors:
“Steeling the Future” can be accessed at the below link: http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/en/what-we-do/climate/resources/reports/Steeling-the-Future/

For more information contact:
Simon Black
Greenpeace Senior Media Campaigner
0418 219 086 / simon.black@greenpeace.org

“The Government says one thing, but does another on the Reef,” said Ms Foster Vander Elst.

“Queensland and Australian government ministers say they are committed to preserving the Reef for future generations, but their actions make it quite clear they do not care enough to do what we need to save it.”

Both the UNESCO World Heritage Committee and the Government’s own Reef 2050 Advisory Committee have warned that the Government’s Reef 2050 Plan, which primarily addresses water quality and land clearing, is inadequate and will not work because it does not address the primary threat to the Reef—climate change.   

UNESCO’s scientific report on coral reefs released on 23 June warns the only way to save the Reef from certain destruction before the end of the century is to halt global warming at well below 1.5-2°C above pre-industrial levels.

“The Australian Government has the power to act on global warming. It is utterly irresponsible to suggest otherwise. And Australia must act if it is serious about protecting the Reef. This means we must keep 90 per cent of existing coal reserves in the ground [1],” Ms Foster Vander Elst said.  

“But instead, the Queensland and Australian Governments are pouring billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money into fossil fuel subsidies, talking up the construction of more coal-fired power stations and bending over backwards to facilitate the expansion of Australian coal mining in the Galilee basin, including a proposal for the NAIF to provide a $1 billion loan to the billionaire Adani mining corporation,” said Ms Foster Vander Elst.

“When the Government is spending fifty five times more on fossil fuel subsidies [2] than on its much-touted Reef 2050 plan, it’s quite clear what its priorities really are.

“What we should be doing is cutting fossil fuels subsidies, banning new coal mines and offering the world real climate leadership. If we do not act now, then when Australians mourn the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef in years to come, they will know who to blame: the Abbott-Turnbull Australian Governments who wilfully promoted fossil fuels over committed action on climate change,” Ms Foster Vander Elst said.

Notes
[1] See Greenpeace Report April 2016, ‘Exporting climate change, killing the reef’ at http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/Global/australia/reports/Exporting%20climate%20change,%20killing%20the%20reef.pdf

[2] The Reef 2050 Plan has a price-tag of $2bn over ten years—or $200m a year—but Market Forces has identified $11bn in tax-payer funded fossil fuel subsidies provided by the Government each year: ‘How your taxes subsidise fossil fuels, Market Forces, http://www.marketforces.org.au/ffs/tax/

Background briefing & timeline
Greenpeace’s newly updated 18-page report, ‘The double threat to the Great Barrier Reef: climate change and the Australian Government’ offers a  background briefing and timeline on UNESCO, the Australian Government and the Reef: http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/en/what-we-do/oceans/resources/reports/The-double-threat-to-the-Great-Barrier-Reef/

Photos and video
High resolution photographs and video for the media can be accessed in the Greenpeace media library here, including drone footage of bleached coral: http://media.greenpeace.org/shoot/27MZIFJJD68E1

For interviews contact
Rachael Vincent, Media Campaigner 0413 993 316 rachael.vincent@greenpeace.org

The Senate today voted to establish an inquiry into the NAIF and any potential conflicts of interest on its board. This came after revelations that one of the board’s directors, Karla Way-McPhail, also runs mining labour and equipment hire companies and had made “hyper-partisan comments” online in support of the coal industry.

“A compromised board consisting of mining executives, some of them personally familiar with, and recommended by the resources minister, is no way to decide how to spend $5 billion dollars of taxpayers money,” Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner, Nikola Casule said.

“For too long the NAIF board have been allowed to operate in the shadows, refusing to answer any and all questions put to them about how they were planning to spend billions of dollars of the public’s money.

“Former federal treasurer Wayne Swan has labelled the NAIF ‘a slush fund’ on more than one occasion and declared it would be a ‘disaster’ for Australia if it were allowed to continue to operate unchecked.”

Greenpeace welcomes today’s announcement, which should serve as an alarm for the Australian community.

“Facts which have recently come to light have shown serious questions need to be asked about the members who comprise the board and their agendas,” Casule said.

“This is particularly concerning when NAIF is currently considering a $1 billion loan to the rail infrastructure for the Carmichael coal mine: a project that’s an economic and environmental disaster.

“This inquiry must serve as a notice for the NAIF board and the dying coal industry that the country will not stand by while $1 billion dollars is used to prop up projects which would be a disaster for Queensland both environmentally and economically.”

For interviews contact:
Simon Black
Greenpeace Senior Media Campaigner
0418 219 086 / simon.black@greenpeace.org

The program heard from former workers who claimed as little as seven per cent of the donations were actually passed on to the desired charity, with the rest going directly to the Appco Group.

It also claims Appco staff mocked the very charities they were raising money to support. 

“The behaviour credited to Appco staff during the Sunday Night show is disgusting,” Greenpeace Deputy Program Director, Nic Seton, said.

“While Greenpeace Australia Pacific have never had any dealings with Appco we are nonetheless concerned by claims that any company would use a charity’s good name to gouge the public for donations."

Greenpeace use a number of different service providers to connect with the public for charitable donations all of which go through a rigorous due diligence process.

“Agencies are constantly reassessed as part of this due diligence process and any suppliers who show a lack of ethics or predatory behaviour will be terminated,” Seton said.

“We believe in protecting the environment and assisting impacted communities and every single dollar that we raise is budgeted to best maximize our impact.”

For interviews contact:
Simon Black
Greenpeace Senior Media Campaigner
0418 219 086 / simon.black@greenpeace.org

Ahead of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, the Greenpeace Germany-commissioned study also found that in about half of the G20 countries, renewable energy has been cheaper or equal in price to electricity generated from dirty coal or hazardous nuclear power plants since 2015.

Read the full report

"There can be no excuses anymore. Climate protection increasingly makes economic sense across the G20 as renewable energy becomes cheaper than dirty coal and nuclear,” Greenpeace Germany energy expert Tobias Austrup said.

“Any G20 country that is still investing in coal and nuclear power plants is wasting their money on technology that will not be competitive in coming years. The G20 now has a responsibility to send a clear signal that accelerating the clean energy transition is not only the right thing to do for the climate, but also for the economy.”

The Finnish Lappeenranta University of Technology study, commissioned by Greenpeace, calculates the electricity generation costs in all G20 countries for the years 2015 and 2030.

The study found that wind farms already generate the cheapest form of electricity in 2015 in large parts of Europe, South America, the US, China and Australia. Due to rapid technical progress and falling price, in 2030 solar energy will be so cheap that it will be even cheaper than wind power in many G20 countries.

Global investments mirror the results of the Greenpeace study. UN figures reveal that in 2016 investments in renewables were double that of investments in conventional power stations. About 55 percent of the added electricity capacities were based on renewable energies last year - a record figure.

US President Trump, however, is mistakenly promoting coal and nuclear power.

"Trump’s energy policy is simply a bad deal," Austrup added. "The US has excellent conditions for expanding its wind and solar energy capabilities and states like California, Texas or Iowa will not miss this chance."

Notes:

Greenpeace Germany study comparing electricity production costs: http://gpurl.de/9IHVS

UN study on global trends in renewable energy investment: http://fs-unep-centre.org/sites/default/files/publications/globaltrendsinrenewableenergyinvestment2017.pdf

Media contacts:
Gregor Kessler, Greenpeace Germany, Communications: gregor.kessler@greenpeace.org +49 151 7270 2918

Greenpeace International Press Desk: +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours) pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org

The analysis comes as Environment Ministers from across Australia meet in Melbourne today.

Greenpeace plastics campaigner Samantha Wockner, who is in Melbourne with Greenpeace supporters demonstrating outside the meeting, said:

“It’s time for New South Wales and Victoria to clean up their act and finally ban the bag.

“Every other state and territory is banning the bag and even the big supermarket chains are acting.

“Government inaction in our two most populous states is letting down the country.

“We’re calling on NSW Environment Minister Upton and Victorian Environment Minister D'Ambrosio to finally ban the bag at today’s meeting of environment ministers.

“Our analysis shows that the New South Wales and Victorian governments can’t get away with the excuse that they don’t need to act because the supermarkets are.

“Even once the supermarket bans are in place, there will be 1.6 to 2 billion bags each year not covered if NSW and Victoria fail to act.

“The analysis also shows that many websites including some government sources in Australia grossly underestimate the amount of plastic bags being used.

“Our oceans are already being clogged up with plastic pollution, and the last thing we need is billions more bags across NSW and Victoria ending up in these states’ beautiful beaches, waterways and oceans to strangle and suffocate marine life,” Ms Wockner said. 

Contact – Monique Vandeleur 0419 588 430

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority chairman, Russell Reichelt, today told a Senate Estimates Hearing that it is believed about 30 per cent of coral in the Reef's northern part died last year while initial observations suggest 20 per cent of coral, this time in the central area, died following this year’s event.

“It is unbelievably sad to hear that almost half of the Great Barrier Reef could have been killed during these last two bleaching events,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific Campaigner Alix Foster Vander Elst said.

“And worse still our government continue to do nothing to address the cause of the bleaching even as the Reef dies right in front of our eyes.

“I was on the Reef in the middle of the second bleaching event in March this year and seeing the reality of the destruction up close was devastating.

“People need to know that, despite last year’s catastrophic bleaching and unprecedented second year of damage, and today’s shocking news, the government is still considering funnelling almost $1 billion of taxpayers’ money to help fund the Carmichael mega-mine right next door.

“The Government must act now to protect what is left of our world-famous Great Barrier Reef by tackling the root cause of coral bleaching - climate change, fueled by mining and burning fossil fuels like coal.”

Coral bleaching occurs when the surrounding water is too warm, causing the corals to expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues.

This makes the coral take on a completely white appearance. If water temperatures don’t return to normal within six to eight weeks of the bleaching, the coral dies.

NOTES FOR EDITORS:
[1] Photo and video of a Greenpeace visit to document Reef bleaching on the outer reefs of Port Douglas in March 2017 can be accessed here: http://media.greenpeace.org/shoot/27MZIFJJD68E1

For interviews contact:
Simon Black
Greenpeace Senior Media Campaigner
0418 219 086 / simon.black@greenpeace.org

Released today, the Steeling the Future report shows that Australia deliberately "sought and won its position as the world’s pre-eminent facilitator of the dirtiest steelmaking process" with nearly half of all coal exports now used to make steel.

“The coal industry are fond of pretending that you cannot have steel without coal,” Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner, Nikola Casule, said.

“This report demonstrates that not only is that simply not true but coal is, in fact, standing in the way of cleaner steelmaking techniques.”

The report found that Australian metallurgical coal exports produce nearly half a billion tonnes of CO2 offshore - 88 per cent as much greenhouse pollution as we produce domestically.

“This cannot continue if we want to try to protect national icons like the Great Barrier Reef and make good on our promise as part of the Paris climate accords to curb global warming for future generations,” Casule said.

“Coal is a dirty and outdated method of producing power and a dirty and outdated method of making steel.”

The report urges the Australian government to learn from the lessons of thermal coal and to make a planned transition away from metallurgical coal.

“Coal communities across Australia have already been left in the lurch by the Federal Government’s failure to anticipate or accept the decline of thermal coal,” Casule said.

“We cannot afford to make the same mistake with communities who currently rely on the metallurgical coal industry.

“The government must immediately plan and implement a just transition away from all forms of coal and shift to cleaner steel production.

“We have the opportunity for Australia to become a leader in clean steel production while also ensuring that it makes a meaningful contribution to global efforts to combat climate change.”

Notes for editors:
“Steeling the Future” can be accessed at the below link: http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/en/what-we-do/climate/resources/reports/Steeling-the-Future/

For more information contact:
Simon Black
Greenpeace Senior Media Campaigner
0418 219 086 / simon.black@greenpeace.org

“The Government says one thing, but does another on the Reef,” said Ms Foster Vander Elst.

“Queensland and Australian government ministers say they are committed to preserving the Reef for future generations, but their actions make it quite clear they do not care enough to do what we need to save it.”

Both the UNESCO World Heritage Committee and the Government’s own Reef 2050 Advisory Committee have warned that the Government’s Reef 2050 Plan, which primarily addresses water quality and land clearing, is inadequate and will not work because it does not address the primary threat to the Reef—climate change.   

UNESCO’s scientific report on coral reefs released on 23 June warns the only way to save the Reef from certain destruction before the end of the century is to halt global warming at well below 1.5-2°C above pre-industrial levels.

“The Australian Government has the power to act on global warming. It is utterly irresponsible to suggest otherwise. And Australia must act if it is serious about protecting the Reef. This means we must keep 90 per cent of existing coal reserves in the ground [1],” Ms Foster Vander Elst said.  

“But instead, the Queensland and Australian Governments are pouring billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money into fossil fuel subsidies, talking up the construction of more coal-fired power stations and bending over backwards to facilitate the expansion of Australian coal mining in the Galilee basin, including a proposal for the NAIF to provide a $1 billion loan to the billionaire Adani mining corporation,” said Ms Foster Vander Elst.

“When the Government is spending fifty five times more on fossil fuel subsidies [2] than on its much-touted Reef 2050 plan, it’s quite clear what its priorities really are.

“What we should be doing is cutting fossil fuels subsidies, banning new coal mines and offering the world real climate leadership. If we do not act now, then when Australians mourn the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef in years to come, they will know who to blame: the Abbott-Turnbull Australian Governments who wilfully promoted fossil fuels over committed action on climate change,” Ms Foster Vander Elst said.

Notes
[1] See Greenpeace Report April 2016, ‘Exporting climate change, killing the reef’ at http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/Global/australia/reports/Exporting%20climate%20change,%20killing%20the%20reef.pdf

[2] The Reef 2050 Plan has a price-tag of $2bn over ten years—or $200m a year—but Market Forces has identified $11bn in tax-payer funded fossil fuel subsidies provided by the Government each year: ‘How your taxes subsidise fossil fuels, Market Forces, http://www.marketforces.org.au/ffs/tax/

Background briefing & timeline
Greenpeace’s newly updated 18-page report, ‘The double threat to the Great Barrier Reef: climate change and the Australian Government’ offers a  background briefing and timeline on UNESCO, the Australian Government and the Reef: http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/en/what-we-do/oceans/resources/reports/The-double-threat-to-the-Great-Barrier-Reef/

Photos and video
High resolution photographs and video for the media can be accessed in the Greenpeace media library here, including drone footage of bleached coral: http://media.greenpeace.org/shoot/27MZIFJJD68E1

For interviews contact
Rachael Vincent, Media Campaigner 0413 993 316 rachael.vincent@greenpeace.org

They also released a new poll showing 65% of residents in NSW, VIC and WA supported a ban; with 79% support in states with existing bans (see below).

“The environmental and community verdict is in – it’s time for state governments to take action. The growing alarm about plastic pollution of the ocean is creating added urgency which can’t be ignored,” said Jeff Angel, Director of the Boomerang Alliance of 47 groups.

Greenpeace Senior Media Campaigner, Simon Black, said: "Australians use tens of millions of plastic bags each day". 

"An estimated 50 million of the littered bags end up in our waterways and oceans each year. There is now an estimated 1.7 million tonnes of plastic contaminating our waterways.” 

"Much of it in the form of invisible microplastics which cannot be seen but kill marine life and contaminating our food."

Ian Kiernan, AO, Chairman of CleanUp Australia said: “We’re seeing more and more businesses and local communities ditching the plastic bag. There are plenty of alternatives. Governments should take their guide from this and enact state laws.”

Omnipoll 25 May - 5 June 2017

Support or not the ban in "STATE" of single use plastic bags given out at supermarket and store checkouts. 

Further information:

Jeff Angel, Boomerang Alliance - 0418 273 773

Simon Black, Greenpeace, 0418 219 086

The revelation comes after continued pressure by customers and concerned community members who have staged numerous protests outside CommBank branches across the country and peppered the bank’s Facebook page with messages pleading for the bank to “dump coal” and “stop supporting the fossil fuel industry”.

“Despite clear proof that fossil fuel investments are toxic, the Commonwealth Bank would rather create a PR team than deal with their customers’ concerns,” Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner, Nikola Casule, said.

“Customers started out angry that the bank they trusted with their money is investing in fossil fuels that are damaging the environment and killing the Great Barrier Reef and now they are furious that those concerns are being ignored.

“The only substantial thing CommBank have done since their customers started telling them they wanted action on climate change has been to set up a team of people to try to convince people not to take their business elsewhere,” Dr Casule said.

The Commonwealth Bank made a public commitment to take action to limit global warming to no more than two degrees in late 2015, but last year lent a massive $3.886 billion to coal, gas and oil mining and infrastructure projects, making it the biggest funder of dirty fossil fuels in Australia in 2016.

Under questioning at a parliamentary inquiry in March, CEO Ian Narev was unable to provide a single example of the bank’s climate policy affecting lending decisions and last month it was revealed that CommBank had been secretly working with Adani to facilitate the construction of the Carmichael megamine. It has still not ruled out providing finance to the proposed mine.  

A new international study into 37 banks’ fossil fuel lending policies by BankTrack yesterday put the Commonwealth Bank at the bottom of the pile because of its failure to evidence any policies to restrict coal, gas or extreme oil projects.

“I have been a CommBank customer for over 20 years. I have several mortgages and a business account,” Cabarita resident and business owner, Michael Rahme, said.

“Investing in new coal mines  and coal fired power stations has clearly and undoubtedly become an investment risk, a social risk, and an environmental risk that can no longer be ignored. The individuals on the Board of CommBank would be morally and ethically bankrupt to continue to do so.

“If Commbank do not publicly declare that they will no longer fund or lend or invest in new coal fired power stations, I will be leaving the bank and never coming back.”

Close to 85,000 people have signed a petition calling on CommBank to stop funding new coal, and over 4,500 CommBank customers have indicated they are considering changing banks over their support of dirty coal, oil and gas projects.

“Instead of action to address the concerns of their customers all we have seen is more empty repetition of the same PR rhetoric and spin in direct letters and emails to customers,” Dr Casule said.

“The Commonwealth Bank talks up the need to address climate change, invest in renewables and help us transition to a low-carbon economy, but they are not living up to their word.”

For interviews contact:

Rachael Vincent, Media Campaigner rachael.vincent@greenpeace.org 02 9263 0354 | 0413 993 316

Notes

Market Forces’ research shows CommBank is Australia’s dirtiest bank, lending $3,886 million to fossil fuels in 2016 and a total of $20.5 billion between 2008 and the first half of 2016 (including $4.523 billion to coal mines, coal fired power plants and coal ports).

The supermarket giants today announced they would no longer offer the lightweight plastic shopping bags across their chains of stores network in Australia.

“This announcement by Woolworths and Coles show they are serious about their responsibilities as Australia’s largest supermarket chains,” Greenpeace campaigner Samantha Wockner said.

“This ban will stop billions of bags from being used each year in Australia, tens of millions of which can make their way into our waterways and eventually end inside marine life and our food.

“The environment ministers of Victoria and NSW need to recognise that they are being left behind on this issue and must step up and show the leadership that is embarrassingly being shown by supermarket chains and not them.”

Greenpeace Australia Pacific is calling on the state governments of NSW and Victoria to follow the lead set by Woolworths and Coles.

South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and ACT all have bans on single-use plastic bags. Queensland will introduce a ban in July 2018 while NSW and Victoria are yet to implement a policy on bags. Western Australia has stated it hopes to bring in a ban on bags in the next 18 months.

“The overwhelming majority of Australians support a ban on single use plastic bags - which are only used for minutes on average, but then take up to a thousand years to decompose,” Wockner said.

“There is no reason for the paralysis currently infecting some state and federal governments on this issue.

“It’s time for us to ban the bag at every level.”

For interviews contact:

Simon Black

Greenpeace Senior Media Campaigner

0418 219 086 / simon.black@greenpeace.org

Greenpeace parked a 5 metre high mobile billboard out the front of the Congress at the Kirribilli Club for the Environment Minister to see out the window as she gave her speech.

Greenpeace’s plastic bag campaigner questioned the Environment Minister as she walked in to give her speech (video).

“In order to Keep NSW Beautiful we need the Berejiklian Government to get with the program and ban the bag, just like other states and the big supermarket chains have,” Greenpeace plastic bag campaigner Samantha Wockner.

“Minister Upton has an important opportunity to finally ban the bag on Friday when she meets with environment ministers from other states and territories.

“Most of the other states and territories are already banning single use plastic bags and even Coles and Woolworths have announced they will phase them out over the next 12 months.

“It’s time for NSW to clean up its act.

“Every year in Australia, tens of millions of plastic bags make their way into our waterways and eventually end inside marine life and our food.

“It’s embarrassing that it is taking NSW so long to act, despite being Australia’s most populous state and having so many beautiful beaches and waterways that need protection from plastic pollution,” Ms Wockner said.

The giant billboard displayed powerful videos (http://media.greenpeace.org/shoot/27MZIFJXR1MHD) and images urging Minister Upton and Premier Berejiklian to ban the bag.

Photos of the billboard outside the Congress (http://media.greenpeace.org/shoot/27MZIFJX48UPR)

Contact - Monique Vandeleur 0419 588 430

Plastic facts:

• Plastic pollution is killing our marine life. 30% of the world’s turtles and 90% of seabird species have now ingested plastic debris.

• Australians use tens of millions of plastic bags each day.

• An estimated 50 million of the littered bags end up in our waterways and oceans each year.

• There is now an estimated 1.7 million tonnes of plastic contaminating our waterways.

• South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and ACT all have bans on single-use plastic bags.

• Queensland will introduce a ban in July 2018 while NSW and Victoria are yet to implement a policy on bags. Western Australia has stated it hopes to bring in a ban on bags in the next 18 months.

Documents supplied to The Guardian are heavily redacted and appear to both show that public servants attempted to find an economic justification for the government’s “royalty holiday” to Adani after it was issued, and to confirm that the arrangement was made specifically for Adani.

“Trying to find a justification for a royalty holiday after it has been granted is like a bank doing background checks after giving someone a home loan,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific campaigner Alix Foster Vander Elst said.

“The Australian public deserve better and the government must immediately release all of the documents showing the full process of their allegedly ‘transparent policy framework’.”

Greenpeace Australia Pacific are calling for the Queensland government to make good on its promise that there would be no royalty holiday for the Adani Carmichael mine and to release the full details of their framework.

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

[1] http://bit.ly/2vgkFHN

For interviews contact:

Simon Black

Greenpeace Senior Media Campaigner

0418 219 086 / simon.black@greenpeace.org

The Senate today voted to establish an inquiry into the NAIF and any potential conflicts of interest on its board. This came after revelations that one of the board’s directors, Karla Way-McPhail, also runs mining labour and equipment hire companies and had made “hyper-partisan comments” online in support of the coal industry.

“A compromised board consisting of mining executives, some of them personally familiar with, and recommended by the resources minister, is no way to decide how to spend $5 billion dollars of taxpayers money,” Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner, Nikola Casule said.

“For too long the NAIF board have been allowed to operate in the shadows, refusing to answer any and all questions put to them about how they were planning to spend billions of dollars of the public’s money.

“Former federal treasurer Wayne Swan has labelled the NAIF ‘a slush fund’ on more than one occasion and declared it would be a ‘disaster’ for Australia if it were allowed to continue to operate unchecked.”

Greenpeace welcomes today’s announcement, which should serve as an alarm for the Australian community.

“Facts which have recently come to light have shown serious questions need to be asked about the members who comprise the board and their agendas,” Casule said.

“This is particularly concerning when NAIF is currently considering a $1 billion loan to the rail infrastructure for the Carmichael coal mine: a project that’s an economic and environmental disaster.

“This inquiry must serve as a notice for the NAIF board and the dying coal industry that the country will not stand by while $1 billion dollars is used to prop up projects which would be a disaster for Queensland both environmentally and economically.”

For interviews contact:
Simon Black
Greenpeace Senior Media Campaigner
0418 219 086 / simon.black@greenpeace.org