Malcolm Turnbull joins calls for national response to bushfire emergency

Former PM Malcolm Turnbull has joined Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese in calling for national leadership to combat Australia’s bushfire crisis.

There are growing calls for a co-ordinated national
response to this year's bushfire season.

“When Australians’ lives are at risk, when they are being threatened, when their families and their homes and their crops and properties and everything they hold dear is being put at threat, that’s the national security issue,” Mr Turnbull told the ABC’s Q&A on Monday night.

“If it isn’t a national security issue, what is? The national government has to provide leadership.”

On the same program, Mr Albanese said he had written to Prime Minister Scott Morrison three weeks ago seeking a national response to the fires. He said it was clear Australia was not fully in control of bushfires and that fires “don’t recognise state boundaries”.

“He wrote back to me saying [a national response] wasn’t required and that everything was in hand,” he said.

“Quite clearly, it’s not.

Read the story from The New Daily - “Malcolm Turnbull joins calls for national response to bushfire emergency.”

Climate scientist calls for 'world war type mobilization' to combat climate change

Climate scientist Michael Mann is calling for a “world war-type” mobilization to address climate change.

“We do need a world-war type mobilization and that means putting in place incentives to move our economy as quickly as we can away from fossil fuels to renewable energy,” Mann, a scientist at Pennsylvania State University who is known for taking on climate skeptics, told Hill.TV in an interview that aired Wednesday.

“Now how we do that, there’s a legitimate policy debate to be had about how we do that but there isn’t a legitimate debate to be had anymore about the need to do that,” he added.

Mann warned that lawmakers should take immediate action, arguing that the Trump administration is actively seeking to dismantle 50 years of environmental protections put in place by both Democratic and Republican administrations.

Read the story from The Hill by Tess Bonn - “Climate scientist calls for 'world war type mobilization' to combat climate change.”

More than 1.6 million sign petition to sue France over climate inaction

More than 1.6 million people have so far signed an online petition launched by environmental groups last week calling for the French state to face court for not doing enough to fight climate change.

Screen grab from the laffairedusiecle.net website.

Greenpeace, Oxfam and two French environmental groups launched the petition last week and received an outpouring of support in just a few days, including from French film stars Marion Cotillard and Juliette Binoche.

“The more we are, the harder it will be for the government to ignore us," Greenpeace France director Jean-François Julliard told FRANCE 24.

"What we want, in the end, is that a court ruling requires France to do more in its fight against climate change,” he said, ideally with “a binding decision”.

Read the France24 story - “More than 1.6 million sign petition to sue France over climate inaction.”

Woodside boss Peter Coleman calls for Australia to introduce a carbon price

Woodside's Peter Coleman.

Australia's biggest oil and gas producer Woodside is now calling for a carbon price.

Speaking on the ABC's The Business, chief executive Peter Coleman said the time to act on climate change was now.

"We need a price on carbon, we need to ensure that the most effective energy gets into the system," he said.

"Our legacy needs to be one that both our children and our grandchildren are proud that their parents gave to them and that opportunity is now, so we think there is a will to act, the time is now, and we need to start having good policy debate.”

It is a major reversal from the company's stance several years ago, when its then-chief Don Volte campaigned against the Gillard government's emissions pricing scheme.

Read the ABC News story by Elysse Morgan - “Woodside boss Peter Coleman calls for Australia to introduce a carbon price.”