CPA - The Guardian

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh welcomed the opening of possibly the largest coal mining venture in the world last week. In NSW, the government is pushing ahead with new coal mines. Yet the major contributor to climate change is the combustion of fossil fuels, including coal, which results in the emission of vast amounts of carbon dioxide.

The big mining corporations that profit from coal, the coal-fired energy generation companies, the aluminium smelters and other major polluters have no interest pursuing alternative, renewable energy sources. They prefer emission trading schemes (ETS) under which they can purchase the “right” to go on polluting. They are quite comfortable with the Rudd Labor government’s ETS under which they could buy the “right” to pollute.

For the first 10 years or more the government will subsidise their permits to pollute. They will be able to purchase credits for greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries and sell their free government permits at a profit. Their profits are safe, their shareholders’ “interests” protected, with little pressure to make serious reductions in emissions. (See Liberal or Labor – Profits win over environment.)

They try to justify their “business as usual” and opening of new mines as providing employment. Anna Bligh promoted the new Queensland mines as job creators, omitting to mention the billions of dollars in corporate profits they would generate, let alone their impact on the environment.

The questions of addressing climate change, jobs, and corporate profits are interconnected. Unless environmental damage and climate change are brought under control, global catastrophe will result from a collapse of the planet’s ecosystem. Millions of lives and jobs will be lost. Australia is not immune to the impacts of global warming. We are already experiencing changes in weather patterns, extremes of droughts and flooding, and bush fire conditions of an unprecedented nature. Strong action on climate change that meets the findings of science is imperative.

Decisive action will inevitably involve plant closures and the loss of jobs. The question is how it is done. Workers’ rights must be protected; workers should not be disadvantaged as a result of environmental protection measures. The Political Resolution adopted by the Communist Party of Australia at its 11th Congress in 2009 emphasized this point: “Workers whose jobs are at risk from measures to protect the environment must be offered employment in environmentally friendly occupations and new green industries without loss of wages or any conditions and with full involvement of workers and their unions… It is necessary to promote jobs growth in the sustainable energy sector and to ensure that job creation is equitable and targets geographic areas and economic sectors disadvantaged by the transition to a sustainable energy future.” Climate change should not result in the destruction of rural and regional communities, but enhance opportunities there.

The CPA resolution also stated that it is “crucial that the working class becomes involved in the struggle to save the planet from environmental catastrophe. Workers must be confident that protecting the environment is in their interests and the interest of their children and future generations.”

The global environmental crisis has its origins in the heedless drive of capitalism for profits regardless of the social or environmental costs. The response of federal and state governments to the climate crisis is directed at safeguarding corporate profits. This was evident in Copenhagen where the Rudd government set out to kill the Kyoto Protocol and now with its token five percent target in emission reductions by 2020 – a target that could be reached through buying emission reduction credits from developing countries and “business as usual” in Australia.

“Job creation and good employment opportunities are central to sustainable development because workers and workplaces are at the centre of production and consumption in society and have a key place in transforming production at all levels,” the CPA Resolution said.

The way of achieving this is through a planned economy with the government exercising its responsibilities to govern in the interests of the people and planet. This requires polices where the government:

controls and plans development taking into account that environmental factors are the basis for a sustainable future;
halts further privatisation and takes over electricity generation, distribution and supply infrastructure;
develops a national energy plan, with legislated timetables and targets, for transition to an ecologically sustainable energy system.

A planned economy which has eliminated the private profit motive has the maximum potential for solving environmental problems. Ultimately, this will be achieved at the highest level under socialism, but action must be taken now in the face of the environmental disaster we are all now threatened with.

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