Publications

At the recent climate talks organised by the US, Australia tried its best to look as if it was doing something. Ketan Joshi of Renew economy summarises the attempt in his piece Morrison finds shameless new way to fake climate action as world steps up

Japan, Canada and the US announced updates to their 2030 climate targets. Korea promised to end overseas coal financing, and China has promised to peak coal usage by 2025. Australia, meanwhile, announced, very literally, nothing new.

Australia’s current state of climate action falls within two categories. The first is thimbles of cash poured into whichever technology has a zero percent probability of impacting the revenue streams of fossil fuel operations, at least not prior to the retirement age of current executives and politicians. That’s fossil hydrogen and CCS.

The second category is also a dense bush of confusion and misdirection. It involves twisting the numbers tracking and targeting climate action to artificially manufacture emissions reductions where there are none. And in the tiny space of time that Morrison was audible, he crammed in a lot.

The first was representing Australia’s emissions as proportions of either population or GDP, instead of absolute values. That’s because if population or GDP rise, and emissions stagnate, the numbers still look like they’re falling. Morrison has been twisting emissions values into so many different versions he got tangled over his own words, saying that “achieving our 2030 targets will see emissions per capita fall by almost half of our emissions per unit……ah, by of GDP by 70%”.

The sheer density of deceptions in the speech were exhausting. “Already we’ve reduced our emissions by 19% on 2005 levels” – the only dataset I know of that estimates 2020’s total emissions is the December 2020 department emissions projections, and that definitively says it’s 16.6%.… Read more >>

Alex, from AYCC writes:

The Morrison Government has just signed a $1 BILLION energy deal with South Australia – bankrolling millions for polluting gas projects under the guise that it will help Australia “responsibly combat climate change” [1] 

They’re not fooling us. 

The Government’s dirty gas agenda would lock us into emissions for decades to come, exacerbating climate change –  yet instead of prioritising our climate and our communities, the Morrison Government is planning to spend millions of public dollars expanding the dirty gas industry. 

With the upcoming Federal Budget, right now is a crucial moment in the fight for climate action, – Can you chip in $12 to help us rapidly scale up our grassroots organising in order to counter the Government’s vested interests?

Together, we can ensure the Morrison Government doesn’t trade away our futures for corporate profits.

Right now, our public money should be used to create the solutions to the climate crisis that we want to see, that will actually serve our communities– not spending millions of public dollars propping up the greedy gas industry.

At a time when other countries are increasingly ramping up their climate ambitions, Australia is yet to commit to a net-zero emissions timeline [2]. 

So, on Thursday 29 April we’re coming together for a national day of action ahead of the budget, with creative stunts, storytelling, and banners to ensure our message is clear – Fund our future not gas

By raising our voices through collective action, we can harness media attention and public energy to make sure our message is seen far and wide and heard loud and clear. Our communities will not stand for public money going to dirty gas projects that risk our climate and our futures

Actions in Adelaide:

Adelaide – The RiverBank Bridge –  Thursday April 29 @ 11:00am RSVP HERE (AYCC)

Adelaide – Rex Patrick/SA Senator – 31 Ebenezer Place, Adelaide, April 30 @ 12:30pm (350 Aus) RSVP HERE

[1] Scott Morrison signs $1bn deal to shore up energy reliability in South Australia, The Guardian, April 2021

[2] ‘No action on anything’: Australia increasingly isolated as US and others ramp up climate ambition, The Guardian, April 2021

In one of the landmark moments of the decades-long climate debate, Biden’s commitment to cut emissions from 2005 levels by 50-52 per cent by 2030 came as he hosted more than 40 world leaders in an online two-day summit designed to re-boot efforts to deliver on the Paris climate treaty.

[…]The US pledge was designed to encourage others to follow suit. “We have to take action, all of us,” Biden said. “Countries that take decisive action now will be the ones that benefit from it. Time is short. We really have no choice, we have to get this done.”

It was quickly followed by news that Japan and Canada – often peers of Australia in the global “naughty corner” for dragging their heals on emissions – would follow the US example by increasing their targets.

Japan, one of the biggest customers of Australia’s fossil fuel exports, said it would increase its 2030 emissions reduction target to a 46 per cent per cent cut from 2013 levels – from its previous target of 26 per cent.

Prime minister Yoshihide Suga told the summit this was equivalent to a 70 per cent increase in its climate targets. He said the focus would be on decarbonising the power supply and increasing its use of renewable energy. Read: Japan’s pivot to renewables will kick Australian exports right in the thermals

Read the details in the Article by Giles Parkinson on the RenewEconomy website.