Community Dialogues on Coal

Six Degrees - the coal campaign of Friends of the Earth in Brisbane - formally launched the report Community Dialogues on Coal earlier this month.

The report is an overview of the findings from a coal communities listening tour conducted by the campaign in last November.

In November 2008 Six Degrees undertook a listening tour of coal affected communities in Queensland. The purpose of the tour was for Six Degrees to improve our understand of the impacts of the coal industry in Queensland, and to gauge the attitudes of affected communities to climate change and the expansion of the coal industry.

Following the formal launch of the report at the Griffith University Ecocentre today, the findings from the listening tour are now publically available.

This report provides a snapshot of regional attitudes to the coal industry. It is intended to serve as a point of reference for those with an interest in future of Queensland's industry, and an interest in the prospects of a just transition for Queensland to a sustainable future.

As quoted from the introduction to the report:

The coal industry in Queensland is entering a period of enormous uncertainty and risk, with continuing job losses, shrinking global demand, and massive sector-wide restructures due to climate change policy responses. In all this, it is the people of Queensland's coal communities who will have to deal with the very real impacts of this period of transition. It is time for a serious and sober dialogue in this state about the role that coal plays in our future prosperity and in the way we respond to climate change. We hope that this report can begin to inform that dialogue.

You can download a copy of the report from the Six Degrees website here.