Open letter urges Australian Government to further prevent new fossil fuel projects

More than fifty environmental and climate change organisations have joined forces to call on the Government to stop the expansion of, or creation of any new, fossil-fuel projects in Australia.

An open letter has been published today calling on the Australian Government to pay closer mind to scientific evidence on climate change.

The letter coincides with the current Senate debate on proposed laws which are intended to reduce emissions from Australia's biggest polluters.

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Those behind the letter, along with the cross-bench, have raised concerns that the Safeguards Mechanism legislation, currently under debate, will do nothing in its current state to prevent the expansion and creation of more than 100 new gas and coal projects across the country.

In addition to those 50 climate organisations, which include the likes of Greenpeace Australia Pacific, the Australian Marine Conservation Society, the Wilderness Society, Oxfam and more, the open letter has been backed and signed by more than 100 individual Australian scientists and experts.

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Among the signatories are Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty and former Australian of the Year Professor Fiona Stanley.

Carmel Flint, Co-ordinator of the Lock the Gate Alliance, said: "Rural and regional communities across Australia are being forced to live with the devastating direct impacts of coal and gas projects on land and water.

"They are also at the mercy of fossil-fuel-driven and ever worsening climate extremes, including fires, floods and droughts. Rural Australia can't survive new coal and gas projects. We need to act now."

Leading think tank the Australia Institute added that "any serious climate policy must reduce fossil-fuel production and emissions, not expand them."

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The call follows similar ones from larger international bodies, including The International Energy Agency (IEA), the United Nations, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and many global scientists, who all want an end to new gas and coal projects.

You can add your name to the Australia Institute's open letter here.