|
December 11, 2009
Climate change is our most pressing global problem and Tuvalu, one of the world's most climate-threatened countries, formally proposed at Copenhagen that countries sign up to a new, strengthened and legally binding agreement that would set more ambitious targets than what is presently being proposed.
More than half the world's countries say they are determined not to sign up to any deal that allows temperatures to rise by more than 1.5C - as opposed to 2C, which the major developed economies would prefer.
Pep Bonet, miner, Poland, 2009, from the Blackfields series in Consequences by Noor
Like Australia Poland has long relied on coal for its energy, and it has been reluctant to force the coal industry to invest billions of dollars to try to clean up smokestack emissions, fearful it would drive up electricity costs to consumers.
Pep Bonet, Belchatów power plant, Poland, 2009 from the Blackfields series
The Belchatów power plant is the largest in Poland, supplying almost 20 percent of the nation’s energy. Each year its chimneys belch more than 31 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.The Australian equivalents are to be found in the high-emitting South Australian station Playford B. T and the Victorian Latrobe Valley generators Yallourn and Hazelwood. Australia hasn't closed a single one for the purpose of reducing greenhouse pollution. We're dusting off old coal-fired power stations and extending their lives instead.
|
