By Margie Maccoll
A handful of people wearing face masks and carrying AYCC placards calling for “Clean recovery renewables not gas“ fronted Noosa MP Sandy Bolton’s office Friday morning as part of a “Clean Recovery day of action“ demanding funds be put into renewable energy instead of gas projects.
Ms Bolton said Noosa had for years been working on ways to transition to greener energy and established groups such as Zero Emissions Noosa (ZEN) to do so.
“If they could find a way we could do it quicker they would,“ she said.
She said Queensland had been making progress but there were processes to go through and it was not happening as quickly and people wanted. She said the government had to ensure service delivery was maintained and vulnerable people were not disadvantaged.
Not everyone could afford to live off the grid and the technology may not be available, she said.
The protest was organised by the Queensland Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) in response to a Queensland government announcement to invest $500 million in publicly-owned renewable energy projects, spokesman Logan Costa said.
“We see cross-benchers like Sandy Bolton as playing a critical role in getting action on climate change. We need more MP’s like Sandy using their decision making power to stand up for young people’s future,“ he said.
“Young Queenslanders here on the Sunshine Coast think Labor’s $500 million renewables investment is a great first step, but all parties need to do more. We want to see all MP’s committing to ambitious renewable targets, and rule out any taxpayer funding for polluting gas projects.”
“There are no jobs in gas. Gas is a dangerous fossil fuel that’s fuelling climate change. Renewables are the cheapest form of energy and would create thousands of jobs. Spending public funds on gas is a waste of money that is also putting my future at risk.”
AYCC called for the construction of 4GW of publicly-owned renewables through existing state-owned power generators over the next 3 years and no public money to be invested in fossil fuels especially gas projects.
