Climate emergency rally – renewables now!

Community rally to declare a state of climate emergency

This was held on Sunday, 28 September, at Civic Park. It was a great afternoon, with speakers at Civic Park then a march to Labor MP Sharon Grierson's office to declare a state of climate emergency, finishing in Wheeler Plaza, wielding banners along the way.

Speakers included Zoe Rogers from Climate Action Newcastle, George Woods from Rising Tide and Zane Alcorn from Socialist Alliance.

We had lots of hooting of horns from passing motorists and the huge Climate Action Newcastle Climate Emergency banner attracted lots of attention.

It IS a climate emergency and we need to act now

Melting of the Arctic sea ice may be complete by the northern summer of 2010. Only by responding to climate change as an emergency do we have any hope of reducing the impact for future generations. We must urgently and drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

100% electricity from renewables in 10 years
With abundant solar, wind and geothermal resources, there's no reason why we couldn't be powered entirely by renewables. We must go beyond the government's inadequate 20% by 2020 target and ensure that emissions begin to decline from 2010.

Coal: leave it in the ground
Burning coal for electricity accounts for over a third of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions each year. On top of this is Australia's coal exports, which when burnt cause more pollution than the total of Australia's domestic economy. No new mines! Stop the third coal loader!

No carbon trading loopholes
Instead of these measures, the government is taking a business-as-usual approach. Carbon trading will not only be too slow to promote the investment we need, but it gives the big polluters free carbon pollution permits. By the government's own admission, under its scheme emissions will continue to rise for years.

Climate Emergency Rally