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Australia green activists to block world's biggest coal port
08 Jul 2008 03:06:42 GMT
 Source: Reuters
CANBERRA, July 8 (Reuters) - Environmentalists plan to block one of two rail lines into Australia and the world's biggest coal export port at the weekend, they said on Tuesday, amid international wrangling over efforts to combat climate shift.

Any disruption to coal shipments from the Newcastle port could give another boost to benchmark coal prices that are already near record highs at nearly $195 a tonne, having more than trebled in a year. [COAL/ASIA] Up to 1,000 protesters are planning on Sunday to block the rail line into Newcastle port, north of Sydney. The export terminal plans to ship 95 million tonnes of coal over the next year.

"You could say it's drastic action but it's simply because these are drastic times. We need to actually start taking serious action," Friends of the Earth spokesman Cam Walker said.

Activists from a coalition of green groups would start a "camp for climate action" from Wednesday and planned to sit on one rail line into the port to halt coal trains travelling from the nearby Hunter Valley coal mining region, Walker said.

Smaller protests would also happen on Monday and could include more rail line sit-ins, as well as actions aimed at other port installations, another Friends spokesman, Damien Lawson, told Reuters.

With consistent demand, mainly from energy-hungry China, 38,679,777 tonnes of coal were exported from Newcastle in the first five months of 2008, versus 37,154,848 tonnes a year earlier, port data showed last week.

Coal exports from Newcastle port surged to 2.059 million tonnes last week, while queues for loading slightly eased to 38 ships. The port is aiming to cut the shipping queue to around 20 vessels before the end of September.

The Newcastle protest will follow the G8 meeting of rich nations in Japan, where leaders were on Tuesday were preparing to take an "important step" forward on fighting climate change after negotiators agreed on a joint summit statement.

The European Union has pressed the United States to go beyond a commitment at last year's summit in Germany to "seriously consider" carbon emissions cuts of 50 percent by 2050 by now agreeing to that target and the need for shorter-term action.

"We want to send a message to the G8 and to Australia's government following the recent Garnaut report (into climate change and emissions trading)," Lawson said. "Coal is a major cause of global warming."

Australia is the world's biggest coal exporter and the biggest per head producer of greenhouse gases, emitting five times more per person than China, due to use of coal for for almost 80 percent of the country's electricity.

Australia's net greenhouse emissions totalled 576 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, or about 1.5 percent of world emissions. (Reporting by Rob Taylor; Editing by Valerie Lee)


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Last updated:Tue Jul 8 03:08:56 2008