https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/394668/fonterra-reduces-reliance-on-coal-ahead-of-plan
Cows Join Protest
11 MayFriday 10/5/2019 
A couple of cow costumes livened up the journey home for commuters passing Fonterra’s Head Quarters in Fanshawe St this afternoon. Auckland Climate Action was joined by two supporters dressed in fashionable colour-ways, the dramatic black and white Friesian, and the reliable beige and brown Jersey, dairy cow costumesas once again around 20 members and friends of ACAturned out to send a message to our biggest dairy company – that THERE IS NO PLACE IN TODAY’S CLIMATE-ENDANGERED WORLD FOR AN INDUSTRY THAT STILL BURNS COAL.
By now everyone knows the atmosphere is overheating and the climate IS changing. That this directly endangers the dairy industry is well understood by all farmers. But this same dairy industry is by now right up there with New Zealand Steel in its level of coal consumption – and is using sub-bituminous coal as fuel for its factory boilers, which is more pollutant than the high-qualitycoal necessary to manufacture steel. This is not a record to be proud of. Fonterra could, and should, at least be trialling alternative methods of production including burning the forestry industry’s wood waste (which is plentiful in the north Waikato area) as a renewablealternative to local coal. Using Electricity to heat the boilers is another alternative which other dairy companies are looking at. We call on Fonterra to please, get their act together and show some sense of responsibility towards the future generations whose only home is this lovely planet called Earth.
Fonterra Must Rapidly Quit Coal
10 MayPress Release
Fonterra, New Zealand’s second largest coal user, has said its goals are to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2030 and to install no new coal boilers from that date. But the IPCCreport, released last October, shows that this rate of action is disastrously slow, according to Auckland Climate Action spokesperson, Peter Whitmore.
“The report says that to hold global warming to under 1.5 °C, coal emissions must be reduced world-wide by around 67% by 2030. To make this possible, developed countries, and industries like Fonterra that have other clearly available sustainable energy options, realistically need to be right out of coal by this date.”
Whitmore says that although the need for action has now been clear for decades, Fonterra’s manufacturing-related emissions, as shown in their recently released 2018 Sustainability Report, have still not yet started to fall. “The report shows that Fonterra is currently emitting over 800,000 tonnes of CO2 a year from coal usealone, which at an indicative damage figure of $150 a tonneamounts to over $120 million dollars of damage”, says Whitmore.
“While their very recent move at one of their smallest plants to start co-firing with coal and wood biomass, and their announced plans to move another small plant from coal to electricity, are little steps in the right direction, they are way too slow.”
“Because of lack of global action, the world is now facing acatastrophic climate crisis”, says Whitmore. “To play its part in preserving a livable planet for mankind and other species, Fonterra needs to be right out of coal by 2030, and preferably by 2025. This requires a quantum leap in how they respond to the issue. Fonterra needs to take major action to address this, starting right now.”
Members of Auckland Climate Action and other local groups plan to hold a protest outside Fonterra’s head office at 109 Fanshawe St (corner of Fanshawe and Halsey Streets, opposite Victoria Park, Auckland), from 3pm on Friday 10 May 2019, calling for Fonterra to immediately start taking much more rapid action to reduce its emissions.
Spokesperson
Peter Whitmore
Auckland Coal Action
021 457 465
Ghost of Christmas future visits Fonterra
7 Dec
Auckland Coal Action demonstrated outside Fonterra’s head office in Auckland yesterday against the company’s continued reliance on coal-fired boilers at its dairy factories around the country. The protest caught the eye of passers-by, many stopping to take photos of Fonterra’s “climate ambassador”.
Fonterra, New Zealand’s second largest coal user, claims it will quit coal, but its progress to date is much to slow. Its current targets of “no new coal boilers installed from 2030”, and a 30% emissions reduction by that date, are way too slow to protect us from the serious consequences of climate change.
Auckland Coal Action calls on Fonterra to make these commitments:
- No new coal-fired equipment to be installed.
- Existing coal-fired boilers to be steadily phased out and replaced with alternatives using sustainable fuels.
- IPCC target of 67% reduction in coal emissions by 2030 to be adopted and complied with.
We need action starting right now, not in 2030.
Mining industry delegates greeted by protesters on tour of Rotowaru and K1
18 Sep
Delegates from the AusIMM (Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy) conference were taken on a field trip to Rotowaro and Maramarua (K1) mines on Sunday 16 September.
At both venues they were met by protesters with the clear message that the coal must be kept underground for the sake of the climate.
This action was a joint effort between Auckland Coal Action, Coal Action Network Aotearoa with support also from Auckland Peace Action and Auckland 350.org.
The conference is being held in Tauranga on Monday and Tuesday of this week.
The reception for mining industry delegates at Rotowaro Mine
At the gates of K1 Mine, Maramarua
Cows protest Fonterra’s lack of climate action
26 Jul
Press release 26/07/18
A herd of bellowing cows have joined a protest on busy Fanshawe St today, outside Fonterra’s Auckland Office, calling for it to stop sitting on the fence with regard to climate change, and to start taking urgent action to reduce its climate-wrecking emissions from coal burning. Protesters are from Auckland Coal Action, and other local groups that are highly concerned.
Fonterra presents itself as an environmentally friendly business and has joined the recently-formed Climate Leaders Coalition business group. But Auckland Coal Action spokesperson, Peter Whitmore, says that, based on available information, New Zealand’s second largest coal user still has not taken any meaningful steps to reduce its emissions by switching to sustainable fuels or to other processing methods in its major dairy factories.
“The need to rapidly phase out of coal use has now been clearly articulated by many scientists over a long period”, says Whitmore. “It is over 10 years since leading climate scientist, James Hansen, said that to maintain a liveable planet coal must be phased out in developed countries by 2025 and in developing countries by 2030, a finding that has also been backed up by more recent studies.”
“It is essential for industry to do its part so that this country can meet the internationally agreed Paris objective of holding global warming to under 2°C, and preferably to under 1.5°C”, says Whitmore. “Fonterra needs to step up by urgently phasing out all its coal-fired boilers, with the aim of none being operational after 2025 and definitely not after 2030”, he says. This is a challenge, but the assessment of his Auckland Coal Action group and others is that it is achievable, if Fonterra starts right now.
This is also a challenge that Fonterra must not shirk as we are already seeing serious impacts of climate change occurring globally.
ENDS
Spokesperson
Peter Whitmore
Auckland Coal Action
021 457 465
Auckland Coal Action urge Fonterra to ‘Quit the Greenwash’
20 AprClimate change campaigners aired Fonterra’s ‘dirty laundry’ in public yesterday. Auckland Coal Action have called the dairy giant’s promises to reduce its coal use largely ‘greenwash’ – an attempt to appear environmentally friendly without taking any substantive action.
“Now that the Government has signalled an end to offshore oil exploration, it is high time we turned our attention to coal, the fossil fuel that makes the largest contribution to causing climate change”, said spokesperson Jill Whitmore. “Fonterra cannot claim to be ‘the world’s leading milk processor’ if this requires it to be the second largest coal user in this country.”
Fonterra recently announced that it would install no new coal boilers after 2030. Whitmore calls this a “feeble target” because coal boilers have a typical life span of 40 years. She points out that 2030 is the date by which leading climate scientists say the world must have completely phased out coal if we are to maintain a liveable climate.
With an improvised washing line of messages for Fonterra, including a giant pair of bloomers urging Fonterra to ‘Quit the Greenwash’, protesters made their view heard, opposite Fonterra head office.
Images from the protest below.
Climate Change: The Challenge – Movies & Messages
11 Jul
Thursday 27 July 2017
6:00pm – 8.30pm
University of Auckland, Owen Glenn Building, OGB 3/260-092
Come and watch:
Earthrise – Take the Power Back
How ordinary people are mobilizing to disrupt the fossil fuel industry.
Disobedience
Shows the amazing things the regular people are willing to do when faced with the biggest crisis in human history.
Come and hear:
Russel Norman
Executive Director of Greenpeace NZ
Chlöe Swarbrick
Past Auckland Mayoral Candidate and now Parliamentary Candidate for the Green Party
Sarah Thomson
Hamilton Law Student taking NZ Government to court over lack of action on climate change
Entry by koha
Auckland Climate Action 