Gippsland Austalia is home to large reserves of brown coal, a fuel of such poor quality that the world will not buy it. Instead it is burnt in Victorian power stations such as Hazelwood, shown above,  and Loy Yang. Each megawatt of electricity produces 1.55 tonnes of carbon dioxide. To put this into perspective, black coal power stations produce 1 tonne of CO2 and gas turbine power stations produce about half a tonne.

Hazelwood is the developed world’s most polluting power station, making China’s new coal fired power stations look clean by comparison. Hazelwood was due to be shut down this year. On a recent visit to the power station I was shocked to see how antiquated and decrepid it was, reminiscent of Eastern Europe factories during the communist era. The Victorian and Australian governments have just granted Hazelwood a new licence which will allow it to keep belching out CO2, NOx and heavy metals until 2031, and to contribute an extra 348 million tonnes (Mt) of climate change pollution.

 But there are many groups working to reduce our climate impacts. Be sure that the future is in good hands with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC), who celebrated their first birthday and launched their website in Melbourne’s Chinatown this week. The Australian Climate Change Education Network (ASCENT) website was launched with the help of Dr David Karoly, climate scientist and IPCC member. Dr Karoly’s sober warning was that the earth is already locked into 450 ppm of atmospheric greenhouse gases, the level the IPCC regards as the tipping point for dangerous climate change and above 2 degrees Celsius average increase in global temperatures. Dr Karoly said that all political parties in Australia, including the Greens, have policies which fall short of preventing dangerous climate change.

Meanwhile EcoHouse In Melbourne’s St Kilda is showing how to retrofit existing housing for sustainable living. They took a 1 star rated 1960s brick veneer house and gave it a makeover to create a 5 star rated building. On the other side of the city, CERES community environmental project in Brunswick is celbrating its 25th year of operation. This 9 acre site in the city is home to community gardens, bicycle repair workshop, renewable enrgy displays, markets, cafes, an African village, an Indonesisn village, sweat lodge and many more community facilities and activities. It is a focus for community building, education, outreach and appropriate technologies.