Community members have picketed Russell Vale mine this morning, joining a Global Climate Strike calling for urgent action on climate change.
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Russell Vale mine, which mines the Greater Sydney Water catchment around the Cataract Reservoir, has signalled that it intends to expand coal production.
"We are calling for an end to mining in our water catchment and an urgent transition away from coal," Stop Russell Vale spokesperson Jacqui Besgrove said.
"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated unequivocally that fossil fuels need to stay in the ground if we are to have a chance of avoiding the worst climate crisis."
A number of Illawarra-based environmental and climate action groups are supporting the picket, which started at 8am this morning and precedes the Wollongong Global Climate Strike rally in Crown Street Mall at 1pm.
"The window of opportunity to limit global warming to 1.5°C is closing," Ms Besgrove said.
"Already we are experiencing climate disruption with extreme weather events, such as the recent floods, becoming more common. We need to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels.
"Over 5 million people rely on our water catchment. The drinking water reservoirs and their catchments are Greater Sydney's most important resource and should be off limits to underground mining.
"A few Indian billionaires and Wollongong Coal executives are going to make a motza out of Russell Vale coal.
"But the community, the environment and future generations will pay the cost, in damage to our water catchment, to the environment and biodiversity, and in the fuelling of the climate crisis."
More to come.
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