A CAMPAIGN TO SAVE THIS SMALL BLUE PLANET
POLICIES
Save the Planet has outlined a number of policies it believes are needed to give us
the best chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change and saving this planet,
while seeking the maximum protection of human and non-human life.
Our policies fall into the following areas:
Outside of these core climate and sustainability related policies, Save the Planet strives to be politically neutral. Therefore, any decision made by an elected candidate would be made as a matter of conscience, while noting that these decisions must not conflict with our core climate policy in any way and must meet our "good character" test (see the candidate application).
the best chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change and saving this planet,
while seeking the maximum protection of human and non-human life.
Our policies fall into the following areas:
- Eliminating net emissions of greenhouse gases
- Returning to a safe climate (pre-industrial temperature and ocean heat and acidity)
- Emergency speed cooling to avoid current and near-term climate-related disasters.
- Preparing for climate change (that is not avoided)
- Creating a sustainable future
Outside of these core climate and sustainability related policies, Save the Planet strives to be politically neutral. Therefore, any decision made by an elected candidate would be made as a matter of conscience, while noting that these decisions must not conflict with our core climate policy in any way and must meet our "good character" test (see the candidate application).
CORE POLICY SHORT TERM OBJECTIVES
Save the Planet focuses three key short-term objectives which we believe are needed to give us the best chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change and saving this planet.
- Federal and state governments declare a climate emergency. See Philip Sutton's model 'Climate Emergency (Restructuring & Mobilisation) Act’
- The Act will drive the creation of Emergency Plans for Safe Climate Restoration
- Implement an Emergency Speed Transition (i.e. ASAP but not later than 10 years) to a Safe Climate Economy.
1. EMERGENCY PLANS TO RESTORE A SAFE CLIMATE
Planning for action by international, National, State and local GOVERNMENTs
Our political and community leaders immediately develop implementation plans for their areas of responsibility to build a Safe Climate Economy at emergency speed. The sooner we start to implement these plans the better chance we have at avoiding a climate catastrophe and the cheaper it will be.
Save the Planet has been working on this issue at all levels of government since 2013 and had our first major success with Darebin Council in Victoria in 2016 with their Declaration of a Climate Emergency and later adoption of the Darebin Climate Emergency Plan. in 2017. Since then, this model has been copied around the world.
Save the Planet has now divided this campaign into a election-focused campaign which Save the Planet still runs and the non-election focused campaign which is run by a new organisation called Community Action in the Climate Emergency or CACE.
You can see our original campaign plans and supporting documents here.
Save the Planet has been working on this issue at all levels of government since 2013 and had our first major success with Darebin Council in Victoria in 2016 with their Declaration of a Climate Emergency and later adoption of the Darebin Climate Emergency Plan. in 2017. Since then, this model has been copied around the world.
Save the Planet has now divided this campaign into a election-focused campaign which Save the Planet still runs and the non-election focused campaign which is run by a new organisation called Community Action in the Climate Emergency or CACE.
You can see our original campaign plans and supporting documents here.
2. emergency speed transition to a safe climate
These policies (listed below) are designed to drive our emissions to net negative and begin the process of cooling the planet with a focus on maximum protection of human and non-human life.
They are to be rolled out at emergency speed as soon as possible but no later than ten years. This would require significant restructuring of a variety of industries, the closure of some and the creation of others.
Communities and workers would be supported to manage this transition. Opportunities will be created for firms to repurpose as part of structural adjustment planning.
As part of our transition to a Safe Climate we must transition our economy away from dependence on constant material and population growth, human exploitation and high levels of debt, while continuing knowledge growth, and service and technological improvements. If we do this, we have a chance of making a truly sustainable future.
They are to be rolled out at emergency speed as soon as possible but no later than ten years. This would require significant restructuring of a variety of industries, the closure of some and the creation of others.
Communities and workers would be supported to manage this transition. Opportunities will be created for firms to repurpose as part of structural adjustment planning.
As part of our transition to a Safe Climate we must transition our economy away from dependence on constant material and population growth, human exploitation and high levels of debt, while continuing knowledge growth, and service and technological improvements. If we do this, we have a chance of making a truly sustainable future.
2.1 WHAT WOULD WE DO TO REDUCE EMISSIONS?
We have already put too much greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Producing any more simply adds to the twin problems of global warming and ocean acidification. If we are to save our planet and its oceans, we must reduce our current emissions to zero and draw down past emissions.
Below is a list of different economic sectors and how we seek to reduce their emissions to zero or as close to zero as possible. We would seek to do this at emergency speed as soon as possible but no later than ten years after the process was commenced.
Energy
Forestry
Agriculture
General sustainable agricultural policies
Below is a list of different economic sectors and how we seek to reduce their emissions to zero or as close to zero as possible. We would seek to do this at emergency speed as soon as possible but no later than ten years after the process was commenced.
Energy
- 100% renewable energy system based on solar concentrating thermal, wind, solar PV and some biomass back up (see Beyond Zero Emission's Stationary Energy Plan for costed details on how to do this)
- No new investments in fossil-fuel exploration, production and use
- Rapid phase-out of fossil-fuel production and use
- Massive energy efficiency roll-out across all sectors of the economy
- New continually improving minimum standards for electrical appliances
- New minimum standards for buildings
- Solar access rights
- New standards for buildings that better reflect the performance of a variety of design styles and material use – such as thermal mass and more sustainable building materials.
- Massive roll-out and upgrade of walking and cycling infrastructure and electrified rail including light rail, heavy, super fast, and freight. Innovative ideas should be explored that minimise impacts and maximise social benefits.
- Upgraded and expanded electrified rail in rural areas, including light rail systems for rural towns
- Support for electric vehicles including a national system of charge stations
- Extremely limited biofuels produced largely as a by-product from biochar production
- Switch existing electrified rail systems to renewable energy immediately
- No further expansion of the road system until the transition to a zero emissions, high resource efficiency economy has been completed.
Forestry
- End industrial-scale native forest logging
- Preserve remaining native vegetation
- Allow previously logged areas on state-owned land to recover as carbon sinks
- Increase minimum area of native vegetation for each bioregion to 20%, including paying landowners to manage this land as a carbon sink and restore native vegetation
- Move fibre production to hemp and farm forestry, restorative forestry, and analogue forestry on already cleared or damaged lands
- Support urban forestry combined with water-sensitive devices and storm-water collection to minimise the heat island effect and reduce deaths from heatwaves while acting as carbon sinks
- Workers displaced from cessation of native forest destruction can be retrained and re-employed in repairing the area they helped destroy or other areas of the new economy
Agriculture
- Support organic and low-input agriculture
- End broad-scale land clearing and compensate land owners
- Recapture nutrients from the urban waste stream
- Support urban agriculture and farmers' markets
- Support practices that build soil carbon
- Reduce methane production from agricultural sources (see Emergency Speed Cooling below)
General sustainable agricultural policies
- Ban suspect chemicals or chemicals already banned in other countries
- Ensure chemical-free water catchments
- Ensure that genetic rights of heirloom agricultural species continue to be owned by the people and culture from which they come
- Labelling of all food containing any genetically modified organisms or material
- Ensure that research into effects of genetically modified food is carried out independently of the corporations creating the food
- GE seed and plant sellers to be responsible for the cost of any genetic pollution and removal of any GE modified organisms that escape into the environment or adjacent properties.
2.2 emergency spEed cooling
We have already gone beyond what is a safe level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere [i.e. beyond 300-320ppm CO2) and we must now reduce these levels in order to end the heating of the planet and start an emergency speed global cooling to avoid current and near-term catastrophes, which include the death of the Great Barrier Reef, the drowning of low-lying Pacific islands and coasts, and the death of over hundreds of thousands of people annually (figure based on a 2009 estimate). These actions will also be critical to the restoration of pre-industrial temperatures.
Measures to achieve this include:
1. METHANE REDUCTION
Measures to achieve this include:
1. METHANE REDUCTION
- Reducing methane production by encouraging a massive reduction in the number of sheep and cattle and in the methane released through fossil fuel mining and extraction will be critical in achieving a global cooling. We would seek to drive methane released from these sources to zero. Methane is a short-lived and highly potent greenhouse gas that adds significantly to global warming.
- Sequestering atmospheric CO2 in soil and vegetation is a key way of drawing down atmospheric CO2 using and range of systems including long-rest short-rotation grazing systems and pasture-cropping systems, reforestation of cleared land and using biochar as an agricultural soil improver. Other systems of drawdown need to be investigated.
- Using safe and reversible geo-engineering options to speed cooling. World leading scientists and engineers would need to judge which of a large number of strategies and technologies will cool the globe and produce the most positive environmental and social outcomes for the least risk.
2.3 Preparing for Climate change
We are already seeing the effects of climate change including extreme weather events, killer heat waves, extreme fires, floods and storms. Rebuilding community and improving community capabilities to respond to increasing climate impacts is a vital part of the response to climate change.
- Rebuild community connections to encourage people to support each other
- Ensure that vulnerable members of the community are looked after
- Support localised food production – including suburban open space such as backyards – to ensure that people have access to food-growing spaces. Also provide access to mechanisms to reduce lead contamination issues.
- Boost planning and preparation for extreme weather safety strategies for floods, storms, fires and heat waves including: strengthen building codes, strengthen existing infrastructure, retreating from vulnerable coastal and flood-prone areas; make high bushfire-risk homes and property less vulnerable, including planting of fire-resistant and fire-suppressing species.
- Support urban forestry designed to reduce the heat island effect and mitigate impacts of heat waves by growing and maintaining shade creative such as oaks, elms, etc in public parks and on side roads, supporting thee trees with storm-water harvesting systems.
- Strengthen the civil emergency system
- Accept regional climate refugees and begin integration and migration of the populations from the drowning Pacific islands
2.4 MANAGING GROWTH
Our current economic system which is dependent on constant material and population growth is impossible to sustain within a finite system and has led to the ecological and social crises we are now facing.
This approach to physical growth is explored in the paper "100% decoupling" below.
- Transition our economy away from one dependent on constant material and population growth, human exploitation and high levels of interest-bearing debt, while continuing knowledge growth and service and technological improvements
- Allow our population to decline naturally to a stable sustainable level
- Limit expansion of cities into greenfield sites by creating urban boundaries.
This approach to physical growth is explored in the paper "100% decoupling" below.
| 100-decoupling.pdf |
2.5 clean politics
Our current political system is full of examples of corruption and undue influence of individuals and corporations over our political processes for the purposes of personal or corporate profit and rent seeking. Save the Planet believes that cleaning up our political processes is critical to creating the political environment needed to act on global warming.
- National anti-corruption watchdog
- Limit and/or ban political donations from some industries
- Reinstate limits on media control by individuals and corporations
- Strengthen our democracy by, for example, ensuring proportional representation at all levels of government
2.6 Bring climate criminals to justice
A large number of individuals and corporations have invested time, money and resources in stopping humanity's response to global warming by seeking to discredit the science, scientists, campaigns and campaigners. Many have sought to manipulate our political systems to maximise their personal or corporate profit. As global warming is already a humanitarian and ecological catastrophe (as at 2013) those involved in delaying meaningful action on global warming should be held to account.
