That Pulp Mill, Your Footprint "A Petite Jimmy Choo or an Ubber Ugg!!"
and, A Planet on The Edge.
August 2007
As August closes we are experiencing another above average hot winter’s day, 27 degrees Celsius, and I want to reflect on three issues this month. That pulp mill, our footprints and Signing The Climate Protection Bill.
That GUNN’s Pulp Mill “To be or not to be, that is the question”
Seems our friend William Shakespeare has a point, who would have thought only two weeks ago that this issue would have blown wide open. Thanks to the wealthy and high profile Geoffrey Cousins, the pulp mill’s approval has moved to an election cliff hanger in marginal seats like Wentworth . Malcolm Turnbull has announced a 30 day extension until October 11th, after being inundated with over 30,000 responses to his call for submissions. Thank you to all those WFCA members and friends that emailed and wrote in. You can all take great comfort in knowing individual action and individuals working together “can make a difference”.
Mr. Turnbull has extended the approval process, whilst he awaits the recommendation from the government’s Chief Scientist Jim Peacock. However if the recommendation falls during the election campaign , known as the caretaker period, Mr. Turnbull will be bound under election protocol to discuss the mill with Shadow Environment Minister Peter Garrett. So where does that leave us. I think there are four possible outcomes.
a) Approval in current format and location before election
b) Delayed until after election and left to new government – approved or delayed after election
c) Partially modified to new location and some tightening of standards
d) Sustainable Mill relocated, chlorine free and using only plantation timber
Our preferred outcome is d) A Sustainable Pulp Mill and the one WFCA will be advocating and lobbying The Coalition and the Labor Party to recommend. Draft emails are posted to the website see http://www.wfca.org.au/letters.html. The challenge to achieve a sustainable mill is still with us, please adapt, edit and email the ministers today.
Perpetual and Gunns
As a Perpetual shareholder and investor I am even more concerned about the Gunns’ situation. I want to emphasize that the risks associated with a company like Gunns, both reputational and in terms of its long term profitability remain extremely high and well in excess of the current share price performance. I want to again emphasize that as unitholders in managed funds like Perpetual or shareholders of Fund Managers like Perpetual we can express our concern that they are supporting unsustainable business models, and in effect not only supporting the degradation of our environment, but also placing investors money at risk because the business they are seeking to support is so unsustainable. The attached letter to Perpetual has been sent and had over 130 signatures, with many financial advisers expressing their concern. I will advise you all when we receive a response from Perpetual. See letter Perpetual letter (pdf).
Footprints - Are you a Petite Jimmy Choo or an Ubber Ugg?
Now I know the answer, we all want to be a Jimmy Choo, so as a fun prelude to our soon to be announced joint venture with The ACF I encourage all of you to pop onto the ACF website and spend five minutes using their eco calculator to find out what your or your families footprint actually is. Please see
http://www.acfonline.org.au/custom_greenhome/calculator.asp?section_id=86
The ACF and WFCA will be launching a Greenhome project soon and I hope as many of you as possible will attend our launch party at The Royal Motor Yacht Club, Point Piper in October. Details to be announced soon.
As part of the foot print downsizing I continue to recommend for those of you who have not yet switched to 100% accredited green power to do so. Our climate needs all the help it can get. By switching to 100% accredited green power you will personally be supporting Australia’s renewable clean energy sector.
Climate Change- A Planet on the Edge, please Sign the Climate Protection Bill
Members and Friends I want to take a few lines to remind all of you that we are almost 12 months down the track from the release of An Inconvenient Truth and the start of an awakening process on Climate Change. I am writing to remind all of us that this is still an urgent and dire issue that is not being properly addressed by politicians domestically and in most cases internationally, with the exception of a few enlightened politicians like Arnold Schwarzenegger and some European countries that are taking the Kyoto process seriously. As APEC commences and the political rhetoric starts again, please remember that nothing short of following-deep emission reduction targets, a cost on carbon, support for the renewable energy sector, the cessation of deforestation, substantially improved energy efficiency programmes and the removal of fossil fuel subsidies will be enough to tackle the problem and avert Dangerous Climate Change.
The Climate Protection Bill is a powerful tool for community members. It unifies the concerns of Australians across the country, and gives each of us a set of demands to take to our MPs and contesting candidates in the lead-up to the 2007 federal election.
Bearing this in mind I urge as many of you as possible to sign The Climate Protection Bill. See and Sign Now http://climatemovement.org.au/component/option,com_fabrik/Itemid,418/
Hope all you Sydney siders survive the travails of APEC.
Never Give Up
Danielle Ecuyer
President WFCA
