Latest news with #Pettitt
The Advertiser
6 days ago
- Business
- The Advertiser
State branded climate change capital as emissions swell
Official figures showing greenhouse gas emissions in WA increasing to near record levels confirm the state as Australia's climate change capital, a Greens MP says. WA emitted 89.37 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022/23, the latest available data shows, an annual increase of nearly four per cent on the previous year. The figures are in the National Inventory Report 2023, recently submitted to the UN climate change secretariat under reporting requirements of the Paris Agreement. The data, which spans 1989-2023, shows WA's highest emissions were 89.64Mt in 2009/10. Greens WA leader Brad Pettitt said it "reinforces what we already knew - Western Australia is the climate change capital of Australia". "WA's emissions have continued to rise under Labor in the critical decade for climate action, peaking again in 2023, almost 17 per cent above 2005 levels," he said. "The Cook Labor government have also dumped their commitment to legislate a pathway to net zero by 2050 - the absolute bare minimum - and continue to use Woodside talking points about WA gas helping to decarbonise Asia - talking points that have been proven to be false and misleading," Dr Pettitt said. Conservation Council of WA executive director Matt Roberts said it was "unfathomable" that Premier Roger Cook had indicated that he expected emissions to go up. He said that "folks are really fired up to try and express themselves in a way that they feel heard," about growing concerns over emissions. He was speaking after protests across the country on Wednesday targeting government MPs, as green groups pressure federal environment minister Murray Watt to consult the public and release the conditions of his approval to extend Woodside's North West Shelf gas project. The approval, announced on May 28, would allow Woodside to extend the project's life from 2030 to 2070, subject to conditions about the impact of air emission levels from the expanded onshore gas plant at Karratha in WA's northwest. Those conditions remain secret and a coalition of 80 groups and prominent individuals have written to Mr Watt demanding he publicly release them, and use his powers under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to allow the public to be consulted. Woodside still has to accept conditions around heritage and air quality at the project on WA's Burrup Peninsula, home to ancient rock art, before the approval is made official. On Wednesday morning, conservation councils coordinated protests against the approval at government and MP offices in all states and territories. Indigenous as well as non-Indigenous Australians "deserved to be heard" in light of recent information on climate, emissions and impacts from the facility on Murujuga rock art, Mr Roberts said. Campaigners fear the extension approval brings Woodside a step closer to tapping the Browse Basin gas field, a vast reserve beneath the pristine Scott Reef, north of Broome. "If the extension goes ahead, it will lock in polluting gas for decades to come, creating demand for new gas projects like Browse, bringing Woodside's toxic operations closer to Scott Reef, and setting back the clean energy transition in WA," Mr Roberts said. Official figures showing greenhouse gas emissions in WA increasing to near record levels confirm the state as Australia's climate change capital, a Greens MP says. WA emitted 89.37 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022/23, the latest available data shows, an annual increase of nearly four per cent on the previous year. The figures are in the National Inventory Report 2023, recently submitted to the UN climate change secretariat under reporting requirements of the Paris Agreement. The data, which spans 1989-2023, shows WA's highest emissions were 89.64Mt in 2009/10. Greens WA leader Brad Pettitt said it "reinforces what we already knew - Western Australia is the climate change capital of Australia". "WA's emissions have continued to rise under Labor in the critical decade for climate action, peaking again in 2023, almost 17 per cent above 2005 levels," he said. "The Cook Labor government have also dumped their commitment to legislate a pathway to net zero by 2050 - the absolute bare minimum - and continue to use Woodside talking points about WA gas helping to decarbonise Asia - talking points that have been proven to be false and misleading," Dr Pettitt said. Conservation Council of WA executive director Matt Roberts said it was "unfathomable" that Premier Roger Cook had indicated that he expected emissions to go up. He said that "folks are really fired up to try and express themselves in a way that they feel heard," about growing concerns over emissions. He was speaking after protests across the country on Wednesday targeting government MPs, as green groups pressure federal environment minister Murray Watt to consult the public and release the conditions of his approval to extend Woodside's North West Shelf gas project. The approval, announced on May 28, would allow Woodside to extend the project's life from 2030 to 2070, subject to conditions about the impact of air emission levels from the expanded onshore gas plant at Karratha in WA's northwest. Those conditions remain secret and a coalition of 80 groups and prominent individuals have written to Mr Watt demanding he publicly release them, and use his powers under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to allow the public to be consulted. Woodside still has to accept conditions around heritage and air quality at the project on WA's Burrup Peninsula, home to ancient rock art, before the approval is made official. On Wednesday morning, conservation councils coordinated protests against the approval at government and MP offices in all states and territories. Indigenous as well as non-Indigenous Australians "deserved to be heard" in light of recent information on climate, emissions and impacts from the facility on Murujuga rock art, Mr Roberts said. Campaigners fear the extension approval brings Woodside a step closer to tapping the Browse Basin gas field, a vast reserve beneath the pristine Scott Reef, north of Broome. "If the extension goes ahead, it will lock in polluting gas for decades to come, creating demand for new gas projects like Browse, bringing Woodside's toxic operations closer to Scott Reef, and setting back the clean energy transition in WA," Mr Roberts said. Official figures showing greenhouse gas emissions in WA increasing to near record levels confirm the state as Australia's climate change capital, a Greens MP says. WA emitted 89.37 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022/23, the latest available data shows, an annual increase of nearly four per cent on the previous year. The figures are in the National Inventory Report 2023, recently submitted to the UN climate change secretariat under reporting requirements of the Paris Agreement. The data, which spans 1989-2023, shows WA's highest emissions were 89.64Mt in 2009/10. Greens WA leader Brad Pettitt said it "reinforces what we already knew - Western Australia is the climate change capital of Australia". "WA's emissions have continued to rise under Labor in the critical decade for climate action, peaking again in 2023, almost 17 per cent above 2005 levels," he said. "The Cook Labor government have also dumped their commitment to legislate a pathway to net zero by 2050 - the absolute bare minimum - and continue to use Woodside talking points about WA gas helping to decarbonise Asia - talking points that have been proven to be false and misleading," Dr Pettitt said. Conservation Council of WA executive director Matt Roberts said it was "unfathomable" that Premier Roger Cook had indicated that he expected emissions to go up. He said that "folks are really fired up to try and express themselves in a way that they feel heard," about growing concerns over emissions. He was speaking after protests across the country on Wednesday targeting government MPs, as green groups pressure federal environment minister Murray Watt to consult the public and release the conditions of his approval to extend Woodside's North West Shelf gas project. The approval, announced on May 28, would allow Woodside to extend the project's life from 2030 to 2070, subject to conditions about the impact of air emission levels from the expanded onshore gas plant at Karratha in WA's northwest. Those conditions remain secret and a coalition of 80 groups and prominent individuals have written to Mr Watt demanding he publicly release them, and use his powers under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to allow the public to be consulted. Woodside still has to accept conditions around heritage and air quality at the project on WA's Burrup Peninsula, home to ancient rock art, before the approval is made official. On Wednesday morning, conservation councils coordinated protests against the approval at government and MP offices in all states and territories. Indigenous as well as non-Indigenous Australians "deserved to be heard" in light of recent information on climate, emissions and impacts from the facility on Murujuga rock art, Mr Roberts said. Campaigners fear the extension approval brings Woodside a step closer to tapping the Browse Basin gas field, a vast reserve beneath the pristine Scott Reef, north of Broome. "If the extension goes ahead, it will lock in polluting gas for decades to come, creating demand for new gas projects like Browse, bringing Woodside's toxic operations closer to Scott Reef, and setting back the clean energy transition in WA," Mr Roberts said. Official figures showing greenhouse gas emissions in WA increasing to near record levels confirm the state as Australia's climate change capital, a Greens MP says. WA emitted 89.37 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022/23, the latest available data shows, an annual increase of nearly four per cent on the previous year. The figures are in the National Inventory Report 2023, recently submitted to the UN climate change secretariat under reporting requirements of the Paris Agreement. The data, which spans 1989-2023, shows WA's highest emissions were 89.64Mt in 2009/10. Greens WA leader Brad Pettitt said it "reinforces what we already knew - Western Australia is the climate change capital of Australia". "WA's emissions have continued to rise under Labor in the critical decade for climate action, peaking again in 2023, almost 17 per cent above 2005 levels," he said. "The Cook Labor government have also dumped their commitment to legislate a pathway to net zero by 2050 - the absolute bare minimum - and continue to use Woodside talking points about WA gas helping to decarbonise Asia - talking points that have been proven to be false and misleading," Dr Pettitt said. Conservation Council of WA executive director Matt Roberts said it was "unfathomable" that Premier Roger Cook had indicated that he expected emissions to go up. He said that "folks are really fired up to try and express themselves in a way that they feel heard," about growing concerns over emissions. He was speaking after protests across the country on Wednesday targeting government MPs, as green groups pressure federal environment minister Murray Watt to consult the public and release the conditions of his approval to extend Woodside's North West Shelf gas project. The approval, announced on May 28, would allow Woodside to extend the project's life from 2030 to 2070, subject to conditions about the impact of air emission levels from the expanded onshore gas plant at Karratha in WA's northwest. Those conditions remain secret and a coalition of 80 groups and prominent individuals have written to Mr Watt demanding he publicly release them, and use his powers under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to allow the public to be consulted. Woodside still has to accept conditions around heritage and air quality at the project on WA's Burrup Peninsula, home to ancient rock art, before the approval is made official. On Wednesday morning, conservation councils coordinated protests against the approval at government and MP offices in all states and territories. Indigenous as well as non-Indigenous Australians "deserved to be heard" in light of recent information on climate, emissions and impacts from the facility on Murujuga rock art, Mr Roberts said. Campaigners fear the extension approval brings Woodside a step closer to tapping the Browse Basin gas field, a vast reserve beneath the pristine Scott Reef, north of Broome. "If the extension goes ahead, it will lock in polluting gas for decades to come, creating demand for new gas projects like Browse, bringing Woodside's toxic operations closer to Scott Reef, and setting back the clean energy transition in WA," Mr Roberts said.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gordon Pettitt, creator of Regional Railways and BR executive at the time of the Clapham rail crash
Gordon Pettitt, who has died aged 90, was one of British Rail's most visionary and effective leaders in the years leading up to privatisation, as the last general manager of BR's Southern Region and managing director of its Provincial sector, which he relaunched as Regional Railways. Gentle-mannered but decisive, with a first-rate mind and unruly hair, Pettitt was a key lieutenant of BR's reforming chairman Sir Robert Reid in transforming the railway's component parts from quasi-military fiefdoms into hard-nosed businesses. After three Southern Region trains collided near Clapham Junction in 1988, killing 35 people and seriously injuring 69, he offered Reid his resignation, but his chairman refused it. He trusted Pettitt – who had just given a series of dignified television interviews – to prevent a recurrence, and restore staff and passenger morale. Pettitt, notably, withstood media pressure to sack individual signalling engineers he felt were being scapegoated for a systemic failure. Working alongside Chris Green, the buccaneering sector director of Network SouthEast (NSE), Pettitt at the Southern pushed through the electrification of several lines, improved service quality, and prepared for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. Politically astute, he personally signed every letter to the 62 MPs in his patch. In 1990 he took charge of BR's heavily loss-making Provincial sector, with more than half its route mileage and stations and 37,000 staff. He was tasked with reinventing Provincial – whose offering had already started to improve – as a self-contained business responsible for its own infrastructure. Pettitt launched Regional Railways in April 1991, with an emphasis on 'congestion-busting' in Birmingham, Glasgow and Leeds and driving down costs. But a year later, John Major was re-elected on a manifesto commitment to privatise the railways, and with another upheaval in prospect, Pettitt left. Gordon Charles Pettitt was born on April 12 1934, and brought up at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, by adoptive parents, Charles and Annie Pettitt. His father drove local trains for the London & North Eastern Railway. Father and son sang together in the choir of Hatfield's parish church, until Charles Pettitt suffered a fatal heart attack during an evening practice. Gordon developed a passion for the railways, and leaving St Columba's College, St Albans, at 16 joined what was now British Railways as a junior clerk at Knebworth station. Either side of National Service with the Army in Germany – where he met his wife – he worked in operating posts in BR's King's Cross division, being selected for management training in 1960. Pettitt became BR's Sheffield divisional commercial manager in 1974 and regional freight sales manager in 1977. Next year he was transferred to the Western Region as chief passenger manager, just as the High Speed Train fleet was introduced. He returned to the Eastern Region in 1979, as divisional manager at Liverpool Street, a demanding role in operating and industrial relations terms. He was heavily involved in planning the redevelopment of Liverpol Street station, preparing and presenting BR's evidence to Select Committes of both Houses of Parliament. The creation of BR's sectors alongside the regions in 1982 brought Pettitt's appointment as deputy director, London & South East and deputy general manager of the Southern Region; two years on, he was promoted to general manager. The Clapham disaster, during the morning peak on December 12 1988, overshadowed his eight years of achievement on the Southern. The 07.18 from Basingstoke to Waterloo was approaching Clapham Junction when the driver saw the signal ahead of him change from green to red. Unable to pull up at that signal, he halted at the next and urged the signaller to set all signals at danger and contact the emergency services. Shortly afterwards, the 06.30 from Bournemouth ran into the back of the Basingstoke train. Then a third, empty, train passing in the other direction ploughed into the wreckage. The driver of a fourth train managed to pull up. Pupils and staff from the adjacent Emanuel School were first on the scene, being commended for their help by Margaret Thatcher. The rescue operation was hampered because the railway is in a cutting, with a metal fence at the top and a wall at the bottom. Hurrying to the scene, Pettitt met key staff, then briefed the media. He said more work was needed to establish the exact cause of the accident, but the fault appeared to be with how BR had installed the signalling equipment, rather than the system itself. Accepting responsibility on behalf of BR, Pettitt said: 'You can rest assured that no trains will run until we are satisfied with the safety.' He then rallied his shell-shocked management team, reminding them that they still had a railway to run. The collision turned out to have been caused by a wiring fault. New wiring had been installed, but the old wires had been left in place and loose. The work had been done weeks before, but the previous day equipment had been moved and the loose, uninsulated wire had created a false feed to a relay. An inquiry, chaired by Anthony Hidden QC, heard that the technician responsible was working his 13th consecutive seven-day week and his work had not been independently inspected, as it should have been. In particular, a wire count that would have shown a wire had not been removed was not carried out. Hidden was critical of the health-and-safety culture within BR, and among his 93 recommendations were that a senior project manager be responsible for all aspects of any major, safety-critical project such as re-signalling. BR was fined £250,000 for violations of health and safety law in connection with the crash. As Reid made way to a second Bob Reid (from Shell) as BR chairman, in May 1990 Pettitt took charge of the Provincial sector. A month later, the BR Board announced the abolition of the regions from April 1992, with each sector gaining full responsibility for the infrastructure and safe operation of its railway. Pettitt covered 15,700 miles by rail getting to know his territory – being most concerned at BR's 'awful' offering between Birmingham and Manchester. Setting out to 'run Regional Railways like a company', he moved its headquarters from London to Birmingham, split it into five geographical profit centres – one for ScotRail – and recruited finance and planning directors from industry. Chris Gibb, later chief executive of Virgin and ScotRail, says: 'Gordon had been given a lot of railways that didn't make financial sense, and he turned them into something we could be proud of.' Closures – of the Settle & Carlisle line and in Lincolnshire – were still on Whitehall's agenda, but despite having himself pushed through closures in the past, Pettitt held the line against more. Commissioning research that showed the worst lossmakers were rural lines recommended for closure by Beeching in 1963 but reprieved, he concentrated investment on getting commuter traffic off the roads. When BR's workshops put up the price of new electric trains Provincial was expected to buy for Birmingham and Manchester, Pettitt found a private-sector supplier. When the Government vetoed new trains for newly-electrified lines into Leeds and Bradford, he secured redundant units from NSE to plug the gap. Regional Railways increased its income despite the economy going into recession, and opened or reopened 25 stations and three branch lines. Regional Railways operated for just 374 days before Major was re-elected and privatisation came in prospect. By the time Pettitt put his 'congestion-busting' proposals – plus plans to electrify the trans-Pennine route – to the transport minister Roger Freeman, the government's mind was on other things. Pettitt was prepared for the possibility of privatisation, but assumed that Regional Railways would be sold off as a whole. When it became clear this would not happen, he retired. For the next three decades, key figures in the railway industry queued to pick his brain, on a commercial basis or informally. Asked by the Department for Transport for his opinion on the structure of privatisation, Pettitt suggested separating Glasgow commuter services from the rest of ScotRail, but was told that this was politically unacceptable. He worked as railway adviser to the first rail regulator, John Swift QC; contributed to the development of High Speed 1 and the railway to Heathrow Terminal 5; and was involved with French-owned Connex as it bid for franchises. From 2003 to 2006, he served on Network Rail's property advisory board. In 2004, a preserved former South West Trains electric unit was named Gordon Pettitt. He told the naming ceremony at Waterloo station: 'I was bowled over when I was told I would have a train named after me. The unit has been beautifully restored and for the general public it's a piece of history.' It was brought back to Waterloo for his 90th birthday. Since 2014, Pettitt had been president of the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society, having been instrumental in securing the steam railway's reconnection to the main line at East Grinstead. He was at various times president of the Institution of Railway Operators, a governor of Middlesex Polytechnic and a trustee of the Woking Homes and Railway Charities. He is the author (with Nicholas Comfort) of The Regional Railways Story (2015). He was appointed OBE in 1991. Gordon Pettitt married, in 1956, Ursula Hokamp. She survives him, with their three daughters. Gordon Pettitt, born April 12 1934, died March 31 2025 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
The Guardian
02-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Premier claims WA a ‘renewable energy powerhouse' but leaked document shows wind and solar projects have ‘stalled'
Officials have warned the Western Australian Labor government that work to build wind and solar farms for the state's main electricity grid has stalled under its leadership, a leaked document shows. A confidential state government document reveals state bureaucrats advised the government that the 'decarbonisation work program' in Perth's electricity grid had 'stalled to date'. It said there were 'few new wind developments' advanced enough to be added to the grid before the promised closure of a coal power station in 2027. The advice, seen by Guardian Australia, was written late last year, before a state election campaign that will be decided on Saturday. It reinforces independent data suggesting the amount of electricity from large-scale wind and solar developments has effectively flatlined at about 18% of total generation in the grid, known as the South West Interconnected System, or Swis, since 2021. WA organisation Sustainable Energy Now found no major wind or solar developments were added to the grid in the first three years of the last term of parliament, between 2021 and 2023. One wind project, the 76 megawatt Flat Rocks farm at Kojonup, was connected last year and a solar farm, the 128MW Cunderdin plant, came online in January. The organisation said only two further windfarms had been confirmed by 2028. The clean energy slowdown does not apply to electricity from rooftop solar panels, which last year provided 19.8% of Perth's electricity – for the first time more than the total from solar and windfarms – or utility-scale batteries. Several large batteries are in development and the government has promised a rebate scheme for household batteries if re-elected. The premier, Roger Cook, last week told Guardian Australia that Labor wanted WA to be a 'renewable energy powerhouse, utilising the extraordinary solar and wind assets that we have', and that zero-emissions generation in the grid had more than doubled since it came to power 2017. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email But the Liberal energy spokesman, Steve Thomas, said it was 'the worst-kept secret in energy discussions in Western Australia' that the government was 'years behind any sort of schedule that would keep the lights on while an energy transition plan was in place'. 'They will not be able to shut the coal-fired stations on the timeframe they have predicted,' he said. Greens MP Brad Pettitt said there were no large renewable energy developments currently under construction in the state's main power grid. He accused the government of 'putting its foot on the hose' in developing major renewable energy projects despite promising to close the state's coal-fired power plants by the end of the decade. 'This should be a point in time when we are seeing renewable projects expanding thick and fast,' Pettitt said. Pettitt said WA Labor had been more focused on supporting new and expanded fossil fuel developments – particularly a 50-year life extension for Woodside's North-West Shelf gas exporting facility and new gas basins to feed it – than on ensuring a rapid expansion of renewable energy in the south. Part of the delay in connecting new large-scale renewable energy has been blamed on a lack of new transmission links to join them to the grid. The confidential document shows officials backed a government proposal to release $500m funding to develop the Clean Energy Link north of Perth, which they say will need to be finished by December 2027. It shows the estimated cost of that link had increased by more than 50% from $655m to $1bn. The document stated the state-owned energy generator Synergy was operating in a 'challenging financial position' and required new subsidies. The government has committed $3.7bn for new state-owned windfarms and battery storage but 89% – about $3.25bn – had been allocated and there more than 900 megawatts of wind and storage capacity was yet to be funded. In a statement, the Labor energy, environment and climate action minister, Reece Whitby, said the Cook government was 'already delivering on its clean energy plan', with the total share of renewable energy increasing from 14% to 38% since 2017. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion He said there were 'scores of major wind projects under development', listing four: the second stage of the Warradarge windfarm, Synergy's King Rocks farm, the Atmos Renewables Parron farm and Neoen's Narrogin Farm. 'This is part of our comprehensive plan, under way since 2022, to use wind, rooftop solar, utility scale solar and big batteries, backed by gas when required, to remove coal from the system,' Whitby said in a statement. Whitby accused the Greens of 'talking down WA's achievements in decarbonisation' and said the Liberals were 'environmental vandals' that 'oppose renewable energy projects at every turn', wanted to extend the life of coal plants and build a nuclear reactor. Pettitt said modelling by the grassroots group Sustainable Energy Now had found the cheapest Perth grid of the future would get 87% of its electricity from renewable energy. He said getting there would require a 'huge amount of extra wind' – 4,800MW – but the state government was aiming to build only 810MW. The chair of Sustainable Energy Now, Fraser Maywood, said there were several major proposals 'in the pipeline' but investors were not making financial decisions as it was difficult and expensive to get connected to the grid. 'It is dire. There is little sign of life in that pipeline,' he said. Maywood said 1.2 gigawatts of large renewables had been added to the grid over 20 years and government forecasts suggested another 50GW would be needed in the next two decades to replace retiring plants and meet rising electricity demand. He said if the lack of construction was not addressed, it would lead to a greater reliance on gas, which currently provides about 30% of electricity, and higher greenhouse gas emissions. The Liberal party has proposed extending fossil fuel generation by building a 300MW gas-fired power plant and keeping coal plants open for longer than Labor. Thomas said he expected Labor would announce it would extend the life of generators, including the Collie power station that is scheduled to shut in 2027, if it won re-election. He said all parties agreed it was inevitable the state would get out of coal but the Liberals believed it would be needed until about 2036. Labor won 53 of 59 lower house seats at the last WA election in 2021 and is an overwhelming favourite to win another term.
BBC News
27-01-2025
- General
- BBC News
Treasure trove of pictures reveal Exeter's history
A "unique and irreplaceable" record of photos of 20th Century Exeter is being saved from destruction with a £178,000 National Lottery grant, according to the South West Heritage trust said it would use the money to digitise 24,000 images taken by photographer Henry Wykes, which are suffering from vinegar syndrome - a chemical process that destroys Wykes, who was born in Australia and opened his first studio in Exeter in 1914, documented key moment's in the city's history, including the devastation caused by the Baedeker raids in April and May was the UK's oldest working photographer when he retired at the age of 88 in 1962. The Isca Photographic Collection Project will preserve 24,000 of the 50,000 images the collection holds and the work is likely to take 15 will help catalogue the photographs and make them available Pettitt, the head of archives at Devon Heritage Centre, said: "The Isca Collection is one of the most significant visual records of Exeter of the past century. "It offers an extraordinary account of the city and its inhabitants during a period of unprecedented transformation."He said the collection was "a social document of the city and its inhabitants". He said Mr Wykes, who was also a portrait photographer, "captured the changing faces of the city".Mr Pettitt added: "By the 1960s there was more diversity and he captured things like changes in women's fashion."There will be an exhibition at Custom House in Exeter in 2026 and community events will also take place, including an environmental McLeod, from the National Lottery, said the project would lead to more people getting "involved with, protecting and learning about the exciting heritage right on their doorstep".He said heritage had a "huge role to play" in instilling pride in communities and boosting local economies.
