A veritable army will fight new coal; Greens tell Nats on ‘big stick’ legislation to ‘bring it on’.

Greens climate change and energy spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today said that a veritable army will be raised to fight new coal-fired power stations in NSW unless Liberal and Labor commit to stopping them. Mr Bandt also told the Nationals who want the ‘big stick’ bill to be voted on in Parliament to ‘bring it on’, flagging that he would amend it to stop taxpayer funds flowing to coal-fired power stations.

On new coal-fired power stations:

Snowy 2.0 isn’t enough: Greens

Greens climate change and energy spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today responded to the Snowy Hydro 2.0 announcement, noting that if the government was serious about energy storage, it would put in place a national storage target and incentives for storage across the electricity network.

“Snowy Hydro is not enough,” said Mr Bandt.

Scott Morrison’s Emissions Reduction Fund is nothing more than a rort designed to funnel taxpayers’ money to his big coal mates and the funding would be better spent helping coal communities to transition, said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.

“Coal is the world’s biggest driver of climate change and Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of coal. Without a plan to shift away from coal, this government has no plan to fight climate change, ”said Senator Di Natale.

Morrison's scheme an expensive climate hoax: Bandt

Greens climate change and energy spokesperson Adam Bandt MP said Scott Morrison's latest climate 'policy' was an expensive hoax that had no plan to deal with coal.

"There's nothing in this expensive fig-leaf that deals with coal, and if you don't have a plan for coal, you're not serious about climate change," said Mr Bandt.

"This policy will not ensure a safe climate.

"A climate policy that doesn't deal with coal is like a car without wheels. It's an expensive way of going nowhere.

Greens call on Labor to back Marles over coal

Greens climate change and energy spokesperson, Adam Bandt MP, responded today to the comments from Labor frontbencher, Richard Marles, that “The global market for thermal coal has collapsed, and wonderful – that’s a good thing – because what that implies is the world is acting in relation to climate change.”

Quotes attributable to Mr Bandt:

“He’s right. That’s why Richard and Labor should support my bill to phase out thermal coal.” 

Bandt introduces two bills to stop coal mining

Greens Co-Deputy Leader and climate change and energy spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today introduced two private member’s bills into the House of Representatives that lay down a challenge to the old parties on the mining and export of thermal coal. The first would prohibit the mining of thermal coal in Queensland’s Galilee Basin, effectively outlawing the Adani mine, and the second would phase out the export of thermal coal entirely by 2030.

Court ruling on coal and climate change a game changer: Bandt

Today’s NSW Land and Environment Court ruling preventing a new coal mine in NSW is a game changer Greens climate and energy spokesperson Adam Bandt MP said today.

“This ruling is a game changer,” Mr Bandt said.

“A court has ruled that a coal mine can’t proceed because Australian coal, whether burned here or abroad, will make climate change worse.”

Government confirms climate accounting trick as pollution continues to rise: Greens

Greens climate change and energy spokesperson Adam Bandt MP said that the latest emissions projections report, released today, confirms the government intends to cook the books on climate to halve its measly targets.

Mr Bandt called on Labor to rule out using dodgy accounting tricks to meet their emissions reduction commitments.

Labor conference fails on climate and coal as Liberals’ Taylor misleads on Paris

Greens climate change and energy spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today expressed his disappointment that Labor’s National Conference has failed to act on coal.

“It is fundamentally dishonest to move motions about the climate emergency but then have no plan to stop the burning and exporting of coal,” said Mr Bandt.