Rising Tide Australia

Who Is Responsible For Climate Change?

26^th June, 2005

In February 2005, Bryce Gaudry told NSW parliament that “Coal is King in the Port of Newcastle” – and he’s right. Australia is the biggest exporter of black coal in the world, and Newcastle’s current contribution is about a third of the nation’s total – amounting to 225 million tonnes of carbon dioxide after burning. Clearly, coal is king, for Newcastle and Australia. But is being the largest exporter of black coal in the world something of which we should continue to be proud?

While Newcastle City Council continues its progressive work cutting the city’s energy use, the coal capacity of the port is about to be dramatically expanded. The rail flyover to be built by the Australian Rail Track Corporation at Sandgate will allow a continuous stream of coal trains from the mines to the port. This will increase the throughput capacity of the port by 62%. Using data from the US Energy Information Administration, we have calculated that, following the construction of the Sandgate flyover, Newcastle coal alone will be responsible for 1.7% of total global emissions of carbon dioxide.

That’s a hefty responsibility.

Currently, emissions from our exports, like emissions from international airline flights, are not included in Australia’s greenhouse accounting. If they were, our current ‘official’ greenhouse gas emissions would be more than doubled. The people of Tuvalu and the Cook Islands, who contribute virtually nothing to the climate crisis, but are among the first being devastated by it, cannot save their future while Newcastle continues to gloat about our coal exports.

Apportioning blame for climate change is a tricky business. There are so many nations and corporations around the world profiting from climate vandalism: It’s a collective responsibility that requires a collective solution. After all, it wouldn’t make a great deal of difference to Tuvalu and the Cook Islands if the 1.7% of CO₂ emitted globally by Newcastle coal wasn’t. But we have a responsibility to the world be to good global citizens. Given our current activities, our government has no credible right to point the finger at India or China, or any other nation, as if they carried a greater burden of responsibility than we do.

Ethics is not a matter of manipulating the truth to devolve oneself of responsibility; it’s about humility and honesty. We are responsible for the emissions generated by our own energy consumption habits, and for those generated by energy production in the 35 nations to whom we sell coal. Living next door to, and living the lifestyle generated by, the largest coal port in the world makes us culpable for the devastating effects those exports inflict.

The Sandgate rail flyover will weld Newcastle and the Hunter even more tightly onto what is ominously referred to as the “Hunter Valley Coal Chain”, and make it more difficult for us to break that chain.

A letter writer to the Sydney Morning Herald recently asked: “Is this the greatest turning point in human history since Eve ate the apple?” These are radical times, but individuals living through historic moments often do not recognise how profound they are. The task before us, weaning the nation off the $121 billion we make from coal, seems impossibly hard, but reversing climate change is much harder.

Georgina Woods is a campaigner for Rising Tide, Newcastle.