Anthony Albanese’s speech to the United Nations during “climate week” revealed just how out of touch he and his government is with the widespread community concern over runaway climate change.
Albanese delivered a sort of homily in New York. He said scientists have “warned” us about climate change and that Australia “understands the dangers of global warming and the urgency of climate action”.
He went on to praise firefighters and special emergency service workers for showing the “best of humanity” in the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfire crises and various devastating floods.
With hand on heart, Albanese said: “There’s no avoiding the scale of our responsibility — or the cost of inaction”, before going on to praise Australians for “choosing to electrify” with “clean, reliable, more affordable energy”.
While rooftop solar energy powers at least 13% of our energy, and Australia is on track to meet its rooftop solar targets, it is a wrong to argue, as Albanese essentially did, that the climate can be “saved” by individual households choosing to go green.
As long as the big polluters — fossil fuel corporations — continue to be subsidised by govenrments, climate change will worsen. The Climate Council has done the research and said the big polluters are expected to reduce their share by just 7.6% over the five years to 2030, compared to a 19% reduction across the rest of the country.
We were told the “Safeguard Mechanism” will drive industrial pollution down. But, so far, it has done very little: 197 polluters, covered by the law, have only reduced their pollution by 0.40% — falling short of the 4.9% cut set out.
This is the result of the government’s neoliberal approach to energy and the climate change problem.
“The market” will not reduce pollution and especially as Australia remains dependent on oil, natural gas and coal for its energy needs. Governments continue to refuse to invest the required funds in large-scale public renewable energy infrastructure. This is because they are committed to help fossil fuel corporations profiteer for as long as they can extract the resource and sell it.
Australia is one of the world’s top fossil fuel exporters, selling about 88% of black coal and 74% of gas extracted here overseas. It is a net exporter of climate disruption. Yet, Albanese seems to think that funding “climate resilient infrastructure” in the Pacific will be enough.
Albanese told the UN that Australia will contribute $100 million to a fund which aims to reach $1.5 billion for Pacific Island nations to apply for grants for climate adaptation and disaster preparedness. Australia is also pouring on $350 million to support climate resilient infrastructure in the Pacific.
In other words, Australia is trying to buy a bit of political cover, rather than do what the Pacific nations have been calling for — real action to stop climate change by reducing fossil fuel use. Adaptation is good, but only as long as the root problems of the climate disaster are being addressed.
Australia, a co-host of COP31 with Türkiye, claims to be working with the Pacific Islands to “mitigate” climate change.
But, as the Pacific Islands Forum final communique, The Belau Declaration, reiterated: “Climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of Pacific peoples and communities”. The PIF also reaffirmed a “collective commitment to keeping the 1.5°C Paris Agreement temperature goal within reach and strengthening international action on climate change”.
Australia’s increasing fossil fuel exports is making that goal unreachable.
If Albanese really is as attached to the “Pacific family” as he claims to be, we would be seeing a pro-active whole-of-government approach to phasing out fossil fuels, starting with cutting subsidies to the polluters and making them pay. The coming El Niño portends of more climate disaster, with its gravest impacts on peoples who had the least to do with the problem.
Labor thinks it can get away with words and no action, but it is in for a shock: Generation Z has grown up with Black Summer bushfires and torrential flooding. It knows what is driving the climate disaster and what needs to be done.
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