Camp For Climate Action: A Demonstration of Inspiration

The second day of Climate Camp pulled together activists, coal workers, trade unionists and community members for a day of workshops and discussion. As one panel member put it, one of the biggest obstacles to achieving real action on climate change is despair. And the best way to deal with despair is to “demonstrate inspiration”. A Just Transition Panel

Which brings us to today’s session on “A Just Transition”, from fossil fuel economies to a renewable energy future. In other words, how do we phase out the coal industry without destroying the communities that rely on it? Geoff Evans from Greenpeace spoke about the incredible ecological value of the Hunter region. Not only is Newcastle the world’s biggest coal port but 50 per cent of the coal extracted from the Hunter region goes towards powering aluminium smelters that produce large amounts of pollution.

The upshot is that the coal industry must be phased out. And not only is the shift to renewable industries possible, it has the potential to create many more jobs. If just 20 per cent of power in NSW was created using renewable sources that would create 6,000 new jobs even with the jobs lost through mine closures. The Hunter region was once the “breadbasket” of Sydney and it can be that again.

As such the labour movement is very much part of the solution and with the demise of John Howard, who was both a climate sceptic and avowedly anti-worker, trade unions like the AMWU are agitating for real action on climate change. The AMWU is currently campaigning against the planned privatisation of the electricity industry in NSW, a plan which is opposed by 85 per cent of the public, and which would put control of how we produce electricity even further from the community’s reach.

Former coal worker Graham Brown told Climate Camp participants that modern underground pits are increasingly mechanised which means fewer jobs anyway. As it turns out, the Achilles Heel of the industry is the way it supplies power to itself – through incredibly expensive and unsustainable 16,000 litre diesel fuel tanks. As Graham sees it, the average age of coal workers is 48. A 15-year transition period would coincide with many of these workers’ retirements. Workers that would have gone in to the coal industry could then be funnelled into industries like agriculture which is currently being starved by a water thirsty coal industry.

As economist Howard Dick put it, we need to get rid of the absurdity of fossil fuel subsidies and create an economic and regulatory environment in which solar, wind and other renewable energies can take off.

Check out Engage Media for a video recording of Graham Brown, ex-coal worker and now climate change activist speaking at the Climate Camp:

You can also download the video in mp4 format from the EngageMedia website