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Wow, NEVILLE –

Clive Palmer has just thrown a massive climate curveball that will – if all goes as intended – stop Tony Abbott following through on his plans to dismantle our entire suite of clean energy future laws.

We never thought we’d live to see the day when America’s climate action champion would be standing on stage speaking the same language as one of Australia’s largest mining magnates, but that’s pretty much what just happened.

And while we’re still processing what this surprising announcement means in terms of climate policy and politics, this much is clear: despite Abbott’s best efforts to dismantle everything we’ve fought for, climate action in Australia is far from defeated.

Tonight’s news was a mixed bag for climate action. Here’s the lowdown on what just happened:

Saving the price on pollution we fought so hard to achieve is unfortunately looking less and less likely – but Palmer’s Senators have announced that they have conditions…

The good news:

• The Palmer United Party’s three Senators will block the government from making any changes to the Renewable Energy Target, which seeks to bring Australia to 20% renewable energy by 2020,
• They will block the Clean Energy Finance Corporation being abolished, meaning there’s still $10 billion available to fund renewable energy projects,
• Palmer will also save the independent Climate Change Authority Abbott had on the chopping block,
• His party dismissed the government’s Direct Action scheme as a “waste of money” they won’t support.

The not-so-good news:

• He’s siding with Abbott on repealing the price on big polluters, a price that was working to drive down carbon pollution – on the condition that the savings that energy companies make from the repeal must be passed on to consumers
• He notionally committed Australia to implementing an emissions trading scheme — but it’s contingent on our major trading partners stepping up first. Click here to read more.

In short, if our new Senate votes with Palmer, this will mean we can still make significant progress towards a clean energy future that will fund renewable energy projects, create jobs and stop Abbott from taking Australia back into the dark ages.

Now, it’s more important than ever to ensure all the new crossbench Senators – who will determine the fate of our clean energy future on July 7 – realise exactly what’s at stake, how much Australians want action on climate and how far they’ve been taken for a ride by Abbott’s carbon lies.

Here’s how you can help make that happen:

Right now, we’re springing to action – rapidly assembling a film crew, writing scripts and reviewing strategy to create the most powerful ad to cut through to our new Senators – running on air in the places they live, before they come into power in just 12 days.

If we raise enough funds now, we can pre-book the spots to saturate the airwaves, and start shooting a powerful ad first thing tomorrow morning. Will you help us make it happen? http://www.getup.org.au/climate-senate

We have a lot of work to do before the new Senate sits in July. We have just 12 days to hold Palmer, his Senators and the other cross-benchers to a strong stance on protecting critical climate measures. We need to ensure that they listen to us, not Abbott, when they vote.

Now is our chance to expose Abbott as someone who can’t be trusted to keep his word, or to tell the truth about climate. Because here’s the truth Abbott is loathe to admit: the clean energy future laws are working. They are not responsible for rising electricity bills. Instead, they’re reducing pollution, creating renewable energy jobs, the 3 million Australians now have solar panels on their roofs, reducing their energy bills.

Australians are finally waking up to Abbott’s climate con – and not a minute too soon. The most recent polling shows that for the first time more people support carbon pricing than oppose it¹ and that 88% of Australians support reducing carbon emissions². Now we need our Senate to follow suit.

In his press conference tonight, Clive Palmer said, “Listening is one of the most important things we can do – if we listen we can make changes.”

We’ve got a plan to saturate the networks where our incoming Senators live, and with your help, we can kick off as soon as tomorrow. Will you help us deliver a strong message they can’t ignore? http://www.getup.org.au/climate-senate

Thanks for all that you do,

Erin, and the GetUp team

PS – Right now we’re celebrating an unexpected glimmer of hope on climate – but we all know Clive Palmer is no saint, and can’t always be counted on for his word (remember his recent backflip on the RET?). We will continue our fight to save the Reef from unchecked mining interests, but we will also take this moment to congratulate Clive for throwing a last minute life raft to Australia’s clean energy future package. Something our movement has fought tooth and nail for and that we won’t let go without a fight. Help us hold him to his word by taking action here: http://www.getup.org.au/climate-senate

PPS – More information on exactly how these announcements will translate to policy and climate outcomes are still rolling in and will continue to do so over the next few days. We’ll update this page with the details as they emerge: http://www.getup.org.au/climate-senate

References
[1] Poll finds support growing for carbon pricing laws, SMH, June 22 2014.
[2] Roy Morgan poll findings, June 2013 2014.