Author Dr John Hewson AM is an honorary professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, and is a former leader of the Liberal party. |
Kerry warned: "Future generations will measure us by whether we acted on facts, not just debated or denied them. The verdict will hang on whether we put in place policies that will drive the development and deployment of clean technologies, re-energise our economies, and tackle global climate change. Every day that goes by that we’re paralysed by the Luddite in the White House is a day in the future that our grandchildren will suffer. That’s not hyperbole — that’s science."
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| The demolition of the Hazelwood power station in May. Credit: Joe Armao |
Australia is an embarrassing global laggard, with a Prime Minister who has proudly defined himself by coal and gas. While the United Nations calls a “climate emergency”, and while 71 countries submitted more ambitious emissions plans to the Climate Ambition Summit last week, Scott Morrison sticks with our modest target for 2030, about half that recommended by Australia's Climate Change Authority.
The renewed global commitments and targets are welcome, but they still fall well short of the needs of the planet. To get even net-zero emissions by 2050, they basically need to be halved by 2030, and halved again by 2040. Some, such as former coal executive Ian Dunlop, fear the world is at its “tipping point” and needs to reach net-zero by 2030.
Morrison is still burdened with the image of carrying a lump of coal into Parliament, and still he allows his henchmen – Craig Kelly, Matt Canavan, Barnaby Joyce and George Christensen – to campaign for a new coal-fired power station or two, ignoring the fact that renewables are much cheaper, while he advocates a gas-led recovery.
Morrison's ministers are out there attacking banks such as ANZ for embracing a climate strategy in their lending, and calling for an inquiry into why banks, investors, and insurers won’t support coal projects, and attacking the NSW Coalition government’s clean energy roadmap as “anti-coal”. Without evidence, they claim, it is likely to drive away private investment and put up power prices.
Morrison was obviously miffed at not being allocated a speaker's spot at the Climate Ambition Summit (because Australia's policy response failed the ambition test). Then he demonstrated his hubris by claiming to be defending our “sovereignty” and “national security”, ignoring the fact that climate is the major threat to both.
In Morrison's speech to the Pacific Islands Climate Forum, delivered when he wasn’t invited to speak at the Climate Ambition Summit, he arrogantly and dishonestly boasted of Australia's climate record, yet he ignored an open letter sent to him, published in The Sydney Morning Herald a few days earlier, from high-profile Pacific political and religious figures. Among their pleas: for Australia to commit to net zero by 2050.
Morrison is squandering a significant opportunity to build a COVID-19 recovery strategy around a climate transition – indeed, to lead rather than lag the world. That would require ditching the Coalition's ideological obsessions.
It would mean bringing forward the closures of coal-fired generators, but with adequate transition planning that could avoid the pain at Victoria’s Hazelwood and South Australia's Northern stations. In transport, a transition to electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles needs to be encouraged and vehicle charging and other infrastructure must be provided.
We need a national program of regenerative agriculture, reafforestation and carbon credits to supplement farm incomes. Greener building codes and focused industry policy can spur the new economy, from recycling waste into power, fuels and bio-plastics to mining graphite and lithium, even developing a lithium-ion battery industry.
Morrison has improved his poll standing in managing COVID-19, largely on the back of the states. This will be ephemeral if he fails to confront the climate challenge and seize the sustainable jobs and growth that it can deliver.
Links
- Please Explain podcast: How will Australia weather the UN climate conference snub?
- UN defends excluding Morrison from climate summit, Canberra livid with Johnson over snub
- Paris climate summit is delivering on its promise but in some unexpected ways
- Coastal regions assess erosion damage, wary of more 'perfect storms'
- Q&A: Short-Term 'Tribal' Politics Is Failing On Climate Action, John Hewson Says
- Retirement Savings At Risk From Climate Change: John Hewson
- John Hewson Slams Coalition On Climate Change While Business Takes Lead Reducing Emissions
- John Hewson Urges Liberal Conscience Vote On Climate Emergency
- Liberal Statesman Tells Malcolm Turnbull To Stand And Fight Tony Abbott On Climate
- Climate Change: John Hewson Accuses Coalition Of 'National Disgrace'
- We Can't Leave Climate Policy To Our Short-Sighted Politicians
- Fake News, Politicians' Dishonesty Skewing Climate Debate, John Hewson Warns
- (AU) John Hewson: The Morrison Government Has Abrogated Responsibility For The Climate Crisis To The States
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