"Solid Energy = Govt sponsored climate change" - banner drop

Press release: Save Happy Valley Coalition

Tuesday 16th Jan. 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE USE

A giant banner - "Solid Energy = govt sponsored climate change" - has been unfurled early this morning 45m above the harbour front at Queens Wharf, Jarvois Street. Two campaigners have hung the 69 square metre banner, which aims to highlight the urgent need for New Zealand to phase out the export and use of coal, and tackle the root causes of climate change.

"Climate change is one of the greatest environmental threats we face.  It is a global problem – every country on earth contributes emissions, and every country feels the effects of rising global sea levels and temperatures" said Save Happy Valley Coalition spokesperson Frances Mountier.  "In particular, the Pacific is incredibly vulnerable to sea level rise and chaotic climatic events.  New Zealand has a regional and global responsibility to address our carbon dioxide emissions.

"Coal produces more carbon dioxide per unit of energy produced than any other fossil fuel," said Ms Mountier.  "Burning it will lead to dangerous climate change. Even the Economist magazine has labelled the burning of coal as environmental enemy number one.

"Yet the New Zealand Government is being socially irresponsible by encouraging the rampant expansion of its coal mining company Solid Energy – at a time where we desperately need to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions. 

"The Government's claimed aspiration to "carbon neutrality" is nothing but hypocrisy and empty rhetoric and it must be replaced by actual steps for a just transition away from coal, and for tackling the root causes of climate change," said Ms Mountier.

"New Zealand can lead the world by stepping away from new coal mines – rather than the Government encouraging an increase in coal extraction.  Solid Energy currently produces 4.67 million tonnes of coal per year – greater than the C02 equivalent of all the cars, trucks and buses on New Zealand roads.      More than half of this is exported, so it is a hidden impact; New Zealand does not account for these emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.  In New Zealand, as well as plans for coal fired power stations, Solid Energy also wants to create diesel from coal - a process that emits twice as much carbon dioxide as regular petroleum use.

"The Government and Solid Energy justify these plans with talk of 'carbon sequestration.'  This technology is, at minimum, twenty years away from being viable at an industrial scale.  We are seeing money that should be invested in renewables is instead squandered away justifying business-as-usual.  In the next twenty years, we could see more than 20 million tonnes of coal extracted, and burnt – without carbon sequestration technology.  Any new facilities such as coal fired power stations would then live out their lives without sequestration technologies.  The absolute majority of coal would still be burnt without such technologies in place.(2)

"Meanwhile, the bulldozers of Solid Energy's operations condemn beautiful areas like Happy Valley to desecration, species to extinction, and waterways to unimaginable pollution.  Many ecosystems, and the global climate, face a catastrophic future if we do begin phasing out our reliance on coal now. It is time we seriously tackle the root causes of climate change," said Ms Mountier.

//ENDS

Footnotes

1.  R. T. Pierrehumbert, a lead author of chapter 7 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis: Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has written that:

"It is estimated that potential coal resources are sufficient to enable us not just to double the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but to quadruple or nearly octuple the pre-industrial value.34 With continued reliance on fossil fuels, continued economic growth, and an approach to parity between developing and developed countries, we could easily burn that much coal in two hundred to four hundred years." p. 15, Climate Change: A Catastrophe in Slow Motion, R.T. Pierrehumbert, Professor in Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago since 1989.  From http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~rtp1/papers/LawReview Catastrophe.pdf    

2.  Nationally and internationally, most new coal fired power stations will continue to operate without Carbon capture and storage facilities.  The following graph is produced by the International Energy Agency.  http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7103/images/442620a-i4.0.jpg

Save Happy Valley Coalition

The Save Happy Valley Coalition is a collection of groups and individuals from around Aotearoa committed to stopping Solid Energy's proposed open cast coal mine in Happy Valley (Upper Waimangaroa Valley) on the West Coast. They work to raise awareness on climate change in New Zealand. They are also deeply concerned about the fate of all endangered species under threat from Solid Energy.  The Coalition is made up of West Coast locals, students, workers and the general public. The group has a track record of creative protests, occupations and lock-ons as well as producing a variety of informative media. More information about the coalition and its history can be found at http://www.savehappyvalley.org.nz/aboutus.htm

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