Australia: Greenpeace declares war on coal

Greenpeace has called for all Australian coal-fired power stations to be shut down by 2030 as part of a radical energy plan.

The group wants an immediate ban on new coal-fired power stations – and extensions to existing plants – and for the Rudd government to plan to close their doors for good.
The group has released a roadmap – called Australia’s Energy (R)evolution – to turn the tide of increasing greenhouse-gas emissions.

“Avoiding catastrophic climate change means an inevitable phasing out of coal,” the roadmap said.

“The single biggest contributor to Australia’s greenhouse-gas emissions is coal-fired electricity.”

“Currently, Australia is one of the worst greenhouse-polluting countries in the world on a per capita basis … we are literally filling up the sky with greenhouse pollution”.

Greenpeace’s vision is for the coal industry to be completely replaced with wind, solar and geothermal power.

The Age