Signing the Kyoto Protocol was an important symbolic step for the new government – much like saying sorry. In fact, it opened the door for Kevin Rudd to be a global leader on climate change, if he’s prepared to step up to the task. But to do that will require so much more than setting aside next year’s spare change for the renewable energy industry while clinging desperately to the false hope of ‘clean coal’.
Climate science is moving terrifyingly fast, showing that real events are consistently overshooting scientific projections. This is a critical year not only because time is even shorter than we thought, but in Australia it’s the year in which the Rudd government will make the decisions that determine Australia’s response to climate change.
This is the reason we’ve brought the Esperanza to Australia to campaign for an Energy [R]evolution. Our recent report shows that a transition away from coal to clean renewable energy is entirely achievable by 2030 – if we start now. This message is all the more important in light of today’s dredging up of the nuclear debate once more by Bob Carr and the Australian Workers Union.
Over the next 6 weeks, we’ll be travelling up the eastern seaboard of Australia, campaigning hard to get the federal government to acknowledge that renewables can do the job and that the time is up for fossil fuels. So stay tuned – The Energy [R]evolution tour has begun!
