The Climate Council rates the Federal Government’s climate performance over the past five-years as the defining leadership failure of the past decade.
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- The Government’s tenure has been characterised by slashing climate science funding, cutting effective climate change programs, rejecting advice from expert domestic and international bodies, misleading claims from Federal Ministers, a lack of any effective climate programs, and consistently covering up poor performance.
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Deep funding cuts and job losses at the CSIRO have
weakened Australia’s climate science capability. As a result, Australia
is unprepared to cope with the impacts of climate change.
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Effective programs have been abolished or scaled back, for
instance, half a billion dollars was cut from the Australian Renewable
Energy Agency, while the Renewable Energy Target was slashed.
The Federal Government has covered up poor performance with misleading claims, dubious accounting and censorship.
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Greenhouse gas emissions have risen for four years
running. Australia is unlikely to meet its 2030 emissions reduction
target according to the government’s own department. Regardless, senior
ministers continue to falsely claim that emissions are going down and
targets will be met.
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In 2016, the Federal Government censored a UN report about
climate change and World Heritage sites, asking the authors to remove
any reference to Australian sites.
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The Federal Government has consistently delayed releasing
information on Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, often publishing
data just before Christmas when it faces less scrutiny.
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The government has used discredited accounting methods,
for instance including land-use emissions or Kyoto “carryover credits”,
which makes its record look better than reality.
The government’s lack of climate change action is the defining leadership failure of the past decade. We have not tackled climate change, the consequences are with us, and we must work very quickly to prevent catastrophic consequences.
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Delaying action has not made the problem go away. It has
just shortened the time we have left to reduce emissions and made it
more challenging to do so. The Federal Government has squandered its
tenure and that will cost us dearly.
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Australia has missed many opportunities to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and transition our economy in the cheapest,
most gradual and effective ways possible.
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Australians are on the frontline of worsening extreme
weather. Heatwaves have become hotter and last longer, droughts, intense
rainfall and dangerous bushfire conditions have become more severe and
now test the limits of our coping capacity. We must now address the
accelerating consequences of climate change and we are unprepared.
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As Australians experience escalating consequences into the
future they will likely view this period of missed opportunities and
failed leadership with deep dismay.
Australia’s next government must adopt credible climate policy and a transparent and accurate approach to reporting and tracking Australia’s climate performance to ensure the public can appropriately evaluate its performance.
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The Federal Government needs to urgently adopt credible
climate policy to help protect Australians from the rapidly escalating
risks of climate change.
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The Climate Council has established a ‘Charter of
Integrity’ for the Federal Government to use as a benchmark to track and
monitor climate performance, specifically around issues of
accountability, transparency, timeliness and accuracy.
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