We’ve all become accustomed to environmental whistle blowers, and endless reports and reviews on the state of our climate are nothing new. But late last week, something somewhat different occurred when the long established Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) launched its report entitled Australia’s Top 10 Climate Polluters. Not surprisingly, the seven most serious offenders are energy generators and the remaining three are major mining corporations.
What is most revealing, however, according to the report, is that between them they are responsible for 29 per cent of Australia’s total greenhouse gas pollution. In fact, both the brown and black coal plants of Energy Australia, Macquarie Generation, AGL Energy, GDF Suez Australian Energy, Stanwell Corporation, Origin Energy and CS Energy produce higher emissions intensity than China, and twice those of other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.
The ACF report also compares this years’ ranking of the 10 biggest polluters with their position in the 2012-13 list and profiles in considerable detail, each company’s business activities, their public stance on climate change and energy policy in Australia and, perhaps most revealing of all, their donations to political parties.
Launched on the ABC’s Lateline by the ACF’s new president, Geoff Cousins, this authoritative report makes for very sobering yet essential reading.
To find out more about Australia’s Top 10 Polluters, please visit the ACF website.