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Australian Climate Change spokesperson says more innovation needed to help families

Christine Milne, Australia's Climate Change spokesperson for the Green Party, says if the government is serious about reducing the impact of petrol prices, inflation and climate change, they should be tackled together. She says, "Petrol price rises are driven by the global oil price and spectre of peak oil far more than by any domestic attempts to fix pricing or increase supply.. Petrol prices and the climate change drought are key drivers of inflation, pushing up the prices of basic consumer goods.. A serious attempt to deal with this problem would see the government prioritise a major investment in new infrastructure that will reduce our reliance on oil and coal...

This anti-inflationary approach can be funded by scrapping handouts to fossil fuels, including the ridiculous Fringe Benefits Tax Concession on motor vehicles and other wasteful resources such as the private health insurance rebate, as well as wisely investing in a cost-neutral energy efficiency drive such as the Greens' EASI scheme to retrofit the nation's 7.4 million homes!.

Independent newspaper urges environmentalists to consider other parties

The UK's Independent newspaper is probably best at highlighting climate change issues, and journalist Andrew Grice wrote a great piece on Saturday, asking where all the green issues have gone with the two main parties, now electioneering has begun - where did they put The Ecologist's Zac Goldsmith (a committed Conservative environmentalist)?

Andrew finishes the article, "The two main parties will continue to pay lip service to green issues in the run-up to the general election. But something has changed in the last week. Both parties will put saving seats before saving the planet. If they carry on like this, voters who still put the environment at the top of their list will have to vote Liberal Democrat or Green if they want to change the climate of British politics".

Canada leader welcomes carbon tax proposals

In Ottawa, Canadian Greens have welcomed a carbon tax for fossil fuels, while at the same time reducing income tax. Leader Elizabeth May said, "If the liberals do this and they're the first federal political party other than The Green Party to call for a carbon tax, I'll be saying "good for them".

Studies show that Canada now has 10% public support.

Canada asks government for swift help to Burma

Canada's Green Party has asked the government to commence deployment of their own stand-in Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) that can provide purified water, medical aid and disaster coordination. Formed in the early 1990s, DART has already helped disasters in Turkey, Honduras and Sri Lanka.

International Affairs spokesman Eric Walton says, "We need to get relief much faster into these complex emergency situations and if necessary pre-deploy DART - like GlobalMedic - as political details are being sorted out with the military Junta".

Green Party leader Elizabeth May added, "We are going to see more of these extreme weather event disasters due to the climate crisis. It is remarkable that this event included rain falling so hard that survivors' faces bore scars from the rain. This is unprecedented. We need to speed up disaster assessment and response time at the political level in order to activate DART, in the crucial early days of an incident".

MP Nandor Tanczos speaks on climate change

New Zealand Green Party MP Nandor Tanczos (who has announced he is stepping down at this year's general election) has been speaking to students at Southland Institute of Technology about climate change. Although the subject is serious, students were positive and he urged communities to "come up with solutions for themselves".

Australian Climate Change Spokesperson calls for feed-ins through Tasmania

Senator Christine Milne (Climate Change Spokesperson for the Australian Greens) has brought in a Draft Bill to ask Tasmanian politicians to adopt feed-in systems, to help reach the state's Zero Emissions targets.

For those who are unaware of this idea, which is recommended by The Stern Report (feed-in expert Miguel Mendonca says environmentalists should be shouting about it from the rooftops), feed-ins are where governments set targets for utility companies to buy some energy from clean suppliers on fixed tariffs, which means investors start investing, customer get clean and cheap energy - and less speculation benefits smaller energy producers.

Germany is the best example of feed-ins, where since 2000 they have created a quarter of a million jobs in the clean energy market, saved 100 million tons of carbon dioxide, and now generate an eighth of all energy from renewable sources - at a cost of around $1.80 per household. Their law requires solar prices to reduce by 5% each year (6.5% for ground-mounted systems), and the market now generates $14.5 billion, compared to the UK's £280 million. Spain and Turkey have also introduced good systems.

Says Christine, "Feed-in laws are regarded around the world as the most sophisticated and effective mechanism to boost renewable energy production. They give specifically targeted support to a range of renewable energy technologies, directly encouraging people to install them by guaranteeing a fair price for the energy generated. With a feed-in law, homeowners will get a fair price for energy they generate from a rooftop solar array. Farmers will get a fair price for the energy generated from crop waste or manure, putting a micro-hydro system into a running creek or investing in wind or solar power. Business owners will get a fair price for energy generated from solarising their warehouse or office space.