Angus Taylor Again Falsely Claims Australia's Greenhouse Emissions Are Falling

The Guardian - Amy Remeikis

The energy minister repeats PM’s line that emissions fell by 1% when the government’s own figures show the opposite

Angus Taylor repeatedly stated emissions had decreased by 1% in an interview on the ABC’s Insiders program. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The energy minister has again insisted Australia’s emissions are going down, when the government’s official figures show emissions continue to increase, as the government struggles to sell the latest incarnation of its energy policy.
In an interview with the ABC program Insiders, Angus Taylor repeatedly stated emissions had decreased by 1% repeating the line first said by the prime minister, Scott Morrison, that Australia would meet it’s Paris commitments in “a canter”.
“Yes, they’re coming down and the department rightly believes they’re going to continue to go down and the result of this is we will reach, not just our Kyoto targets and still in the Kyoto period, we will reach our Paris targets,” he said.
The latest report released by the environment department, looking at emissions between September 2017 and September 2018, showed total emissions in Australia had increased by 0.9%, continuing a pattern of increases over the past five years.

That rise in emissions was largely due to an increase in liquid natural gas exports, but other sectors, including stationary energy, transport and waste sectors also contributed.

Emissions in the electricity sector did continue to decrease, with brown coal supply down by 12.3% while energy generation from renewable sources increased by 14.2%.
The last substantial fall in Australian emissions occurred after the Gillard government put a price on carbon, which was immediately derided as a “carbon tax” by the Abbott opposition, a claim Tony Abbott’s chief advisor, Peta Credlin later admitted was not true and was just “brutal retail politics” which won Abbott the election.
Since then, the Coalition has struggled to settle on an energy policy, with its most serious attempt, the national energy guarantee, leading to the demise of Malcolm Turnbull’s prime ministership.
Under pressure from moderates and the electoral reality the Coalition needs to hold on to its inner city ‘small l Liberal’ seats if it is to have a chance at retaining power, Morrison unveiled a new energy policy late last month, announcing what amounts to a reboot of Tony Abbott’s Direct Action policy.
The emissions reduction fund only amounts to $200m a year. With the election less than three months away, the government has officially signed off on the expansion of the Snowy hydro-project, which began under Turnbull’s leadership, and committed at least $56m to the construction of the Marinus link, the so-called “battery of the nation” project, which would send Tasmania’s renewable power to the mainland.
However a feasibility study into the success of the Tasmanian interconnector project made it clear that its benefits would be realised “when approximately 7,000MW of the national electricity market’s present coal-fired generation capacity retires”, which would mean accelerating the removal of coal from the system.
“The largest single influencing factor in the economic feasibility and timing of Marinus Link is the trajectory of coal-fired generation retirement in the national electricity market,” the feasibility report concluded.
The government has not ruled out underwriting coal-fired generation projects in the future, with resources minister Matt Canavan admitting last week to Sky News the number was “around 10”, after Taylor repeatedly declined to put a figure on it.
But to underwrite coal-generation projects, while supporting the Tasmanian ‘battery of the nation’ project, the success of which relies on the removal of coal from the system, would establish a situation where the government was competing with itself, potentially making one project un-viable.
In his Sunday interview, Taylor still declined to put a figure on how many coal projects the government was considering underwriting, stating “I’m the energy minister, I am not going to commit to a number here and now”, but he said more competition was good, despite the contradiction in projects.
“You put your finger on it – we want more competition,” he said.
“We want more competition, not less. And if what we’re doing with Snowy 2.0 and what we’re doing with battery of the nation and what we’re doing with underwriting results in more competition against ourselves, as you put it, that is a great thing because the result of that is lower prices, keeping the lights on and avoiding the situation we had in Victoria in January – 200,000 houses lost their lights.
“Portland Aluminium smelter had to go off-line. If the battery of the nation had been up and running when that happened, it wouldn’t have happened.
“We got to address this. It is urgent. That’s why we’re doing it a number of ways. It will result in more supply, it will result in more competition as you rightly point out and that will drive down prices.”

Links

• Coalition is struggling to handle the heat of its own bonfire
• Australia's greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise
• Scott Morrison to reboot Tony Abbott's emissions reduction fund with $2bn
• Australia’s carbon emissions highest on record, data shows
• Instead of 'fair dinkum' power, how about some 'fair dinkum' action?
• PM claims Australia will meet Paris target 'in a canter' despite emissions climbing
• Australia's greenhouse gas emissions highest on record
• Australia's greenhouse gas emissions are rising and forecast to miss 2030 target

The Future Of Farming In The Era Of Climate Change

ABC - Micaela Hambrett

Farmers are having to be increasingly vocal about their prospects in the wake of climate change. (Supplied: FCA)

Seemingly relentless climate-related headlines paint a picture of an agricultural industry under siege.

• A seven year drought concluding in a once-in-40 year flood.
• Bushfires in a normally moist Tasmanian wilderness.
• Mass fish deaths and a river system in peril.
• The entire state of New South Wales is currently in drought.

It has sparked concern among people like Nigel Gibson, who like many others have increasingly taken steps in their own suburban lives to prepare for the impacts of climate change.

Australia's climatic zones are shifting, forcing rural communities to revaluate land use. (ABC Central West: Donal Sheil)

But recent weather events have left Mr Gibson wondering if enough was being done for agricultural communities on a broader scale.
"Will farmers need to move or can they transition to other opportunities?" he asked ABC Central West NSW's Curious project.
"I feel this is something no-one is talking about."
It is true traditional agriculture is being increasingly tested, and until recently conversations around it evolving were largely taboo.
According to many on the ground, rural and regional Australia are now at a critical point in turning conversations into action.
But this is something farmers, by their adaptive nature, are well placed to do.

A redistribution of agricultural zones
Across Australia, our climate zones are moving. It's something Professor Mark Howden, the director of the ANU Climate Change Institute, has been tracking professionally for more than 27 years.
"What we're seeing is a couple of things; one is the whole of Australia is warming, although at slightly different rates and in different places," he said.
"What used to be conditions that we found further north in temperate terms are now happening further south, so you have your temperature migration happening.
"The other thing that's going on is the rainfall patterns are effectively following that.
"So the cold fronts that used to bring most of the rainfall to Perth across to Canberra now tend to be tracking further south and that rain is falling now over the Southern Ocean."

A side-by-side illustration depicting the southerly migration of Australia's rainfall zones. On the left is Australia's seasonal rainfall based on historical date; on the right, how seasonal rainfall zones have changed according to data from 2000 to 2015. (Supplied: David Stephens, Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre)

The implication for the agricultural industry from these climatic migrations varies from region to region in speed and scale.
Professor Howden cites high-rainfall grazing zones as an example.
"What used to be called the high-rainfall grazing zones — around Goulburn or down towards Melbourne or just inland in WA — those are zones that used to be too wet for cropping.

Professor Mark Howden, director of the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute. (Supplied: ANU)

"But now, because the rainfall has reduced by about 20 per cent, they are actually good for cropping."
Climate migrations are changing what is possible to cultivate and where and therefore changing the land use for certain areas.
But those in both research and farming alliances stress this is not a reason to panic but rather time for an overdue assessment of what is happening in rural and remote Australia and how communities can meet and manage the changes.

The political climate
Conversations around climate change have been held back by controversy and politics, stymieing meaningful policy change for people in farming communities.
It's something Farmers for Climate Action (FCA) chief executive Verity Morgan Schmidt is tackling.
The first agricultural climate alliance in Australia, FCA is advocating for climate solutions both on and off farm — and changing the conversation in a sector that has traditionally been climate conservative.
"We find there's a lot of reluctance at a federal level to actually base policy on science, and that means, as farmers and rural communities, that you are making decisions within a policy framework that isn't actually the best informed, and that's deeply concerning," she said.

Farmers for Climate Action CEO Verity Morgan Schmidt with Rockhampton grazier Mick Alexander. (Supplied: FCA)

As a result, Ms Morgan Schmidt believes agricultural communities have been left at a huge disadvantage.
"It consistently sets you up to fail," she said.

"If you don't take into account the speed at which our climate is changing, if you don't take into account, for example, shifting inflows into the Murry-Darling Basin or rainfall zones shifting south, it's very hard to build a sustainable farm operation because you are operating on a policy framework that is at best outdated.

"But it's also very difficult for you to do sustainable planning at community level."
In August last year, FCA released its Rural Futures report that confronted climate change-related issues facing many regional communities.
"[The report] stared a lot of these issues in the face and went, 'Right, how do we do things differently, how do we kickstart a conversation with these communities so that we are not walking blindly into that cycle of decline?'" Ms Morgan Schmidt said.
"How can we diversify regional economies, particularly some of these economies that have been through a boom-bust cycle of drought, mining and extracted industries?
"How do we recognise that the climate is making it increasingly challenging for us to continue agriculture in many of these regions?"

The ultimate early adapters

FCA board member Peter Holding giving Scott Morrison a copy of the Farmers for Climate Action Rural Futures report. (Supplied: FCA)

Anika Molesworth is a young farmer from Broken Hill in New South Wales who in 2017 was the state's finalist for Young Australian of the Year.
Ms Molesworth's family moved on-farm at the start of the Millennium drought, and growing up in the grip of climate extremes shaped her early understanding of its role in agriculture and galvanised her commitment to change in the industry.
She has emerged as a strong voice in the next generation of farmers, comfortable discussing the realities of climate change and realistic about its limitations.
"I think farmers are an incredibly innovative, adaptive and resilient breed of people," she said.
"They have always been adapting to changes in temperatures and rainfall seasonal variability and they've done a phenomenal job of it.

"But I think the rate and the scale of the environmental changes being driven by climate change mean that we really have to start thinking outside the box.

Riverina farmer Anika Molesworth on her family's property near Broken Hill in New South Wales. (AOTY)

 "Agritourism, insect farming off waste resources, bush tucker foods — there are options out there, but it's not traditional agriculture in that sense.
"We need support structures, new ideas, people helping us transition to these other production industries."
She believes the first step needs to come from the energy sector to buy more time for other industries to develop response strategies.
"The easiest way to put the brakes on what we are experiencing is to transition away from dirty fossil fuel energy to clean, renewable energy; that then takes the pressure off other industries."
When asked what life will look like if action isn't taken, Ms Molesworth is absolute.

"It has to happen, it's a simple as that.

"We are already seeing these terrible outcomes of mismanagement of natural resources impacting huge parts of Australia, our ecosystem, the biodiversity, the communities.
"We really need to be working together on these issues. Not happening is not an option."

Farmers attend a workshop on combating climate change, as part of Associate Professor Lauren Rickards' Critical Breaking Point study. (Supplied: Birchip Cropping Group)

Thinking outside the box
There are instances of agricultural industries moving their operations in response to climate change, most notably the wine industry's migration south to Tasmania.
There are also individual examples of private enterprise packing up and moving in response to climate limitations.
And while some degree of human migration is likely to be necessary eventually due to climate change, overwhelmingly how rural communities should be thinking is what new, sustainable land use their region could migrate to.
"Agricultural zones that have been our primary grazing zones are drying out, but there's advantage there," said Associate Professor Lauren Rickards, co-leader of the Climate Change Resilience research program at RMIT.
But realising it will require a real-time rewiring of traditional thinking about agriculture, policy and incentives.

"We've got to look past the rusted-on, siloed ideas — so, agricultural land might become energy production land, but the opportunity for that town is not going to be realised if agriculturalists keep talking to agriculturalists," she said.

"To get those new, different alternatives in there like wind farms, solar farms, bio fuels or even new wheat crop varieties; it feels like we're not having the big enough conversations about broad enough options.
"I think a lot of creativity is possible if we actually bring together a broader range of people."

Australia's cropping belt appears to be moving south. The blue areas represent increases in cropping farms in the 2000s relative to the 1990s. Red represents decreases. (Supplied: ANU (Neal Hughes)

Need for a bigger picture
David Littleproud, the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, says measures are being put in place by the Commonwealth to help rural communities.
"Every year, the Federal Government puts $300 million into research, development and expansion to give our farmers the tools, the cutting-edge science to adapt to a changing climate," he said.
"The Future Drought Fund will also go towards an investment — a $100 million dividend each year to look like climate adaptation."
But Ms Morgan Schmidt believes these measures are reactionary and operating in a policy vacuum.
"The reality is it's always going to be a band-aid solution. We need to stop thinking in short-term approaches to managing this," she said.
"If we look at the drought summit that was heralded when the new PM Scott Morrison came in saying that drought was his top priority — the summit didn't even include climate scientists.
"If we are not actively engaging in a conversation about what the future of our regional areas look like under climate change, then we are going to struggle to ever get drought policy right."

Grains for solar

Peter Mailler says successive governments have failed to see agriculture as socially imperative and climate change has been ignored. (ABC News)

Peter Mailler, a farmer from Boggabilla on the NSW-Queensland border, read the writing on the wall and transitioned part of his grain operation for solar farming in 2015.
He believes the Commonwealth is yet to provide any powerful or realistic market incentive to migrate rural communities away from unsustainable farming practices.
"If you want practice change in agriculture, there has to be a market signal to incentivise it, and at the moment it's not there.
"The transition to solar, for me, is a no-brainer. And in terms of mitigating our economic risk, diversifying out of agriculture is really important at being able to sustain the agricultural enterprise."
But planning and policy roadblocks throughout the set-up meant the Maillers actually had to go back to agriculture to subsidise the project.

Solar panels on Peter Mailler's family's property at Boggabilla in New South Wales. (ABC News)

"At the moment, the lack of policy consistency is slowing it down and hampering [new technology transitions]," Mr Mailler said.
"If the Government want structural change in agriculture, they have got to provide incentives, they have got to make it commercially viable."

A practical solution for a practical problem
Peter Mailler describes a dearth of political leadership addressing the impact of climate change impact on agriculture, just when the problems faced couldn't be more complex to solve.
He believes there need to be a collective, government led response to the threats facing agriculture, rather than the responsibility of solution resting with individuals.
"The problem is beyond my internal business strategy. We've invested in solar and some other things, but unless the country moves with it, we're doomed to fail and it's a really bad situation."
"As a farmer, I can't farm they way I really want to - I'm doing my best. But I know that I'm compromising on any long term strategy just to survive at the moment. And that terrifies me."

Associate Professor Lauren Rickards sees alliances like Lock the Gate as opportunities for new thinking about climate change solutions for rural communities. (ABC News: Dan Cox)

Ms Morgan Schmidt sees this void as an opportunity for rural communities to take their futures into their own hands, especially at a local government level.
"Communities tend to be less bound by the politics of fear and dare to imagine a different future," she said.
"However, we need to ensure they have the information flow so these communities have the courage to ask: 'How do we start diversifying our economies?'"
Farmers like Ms Molesworth believe the industry needs to run towards the problem, not away from it.
"I think we're in for a very bumpy ride in the next few years [and] the next few decades," she said.

"But if we use our wisdom, if we use our technology, if we use our knowledge, we should be able to support farmers who are in the more fragile regions, like I am, and we should be able to support the new farmers coming through too."

A 'climate smart' agriculture workshop in Mackay, part of a push to equip communities directly with climate change skills. (Supplied: FCA)

Who asked the question?

Nigel Gibson says the technology is there to transition to 100 per cent renewable energy. (Supplied: Nigel Gibson)

Nigel Gibson grew up in Brisbane, where he still lives and works.
"I have made my career in technology and the last 30 years in supporting science and research in Australia.
"I guess my reason to ask why we are not doing more for climate change and if farmers should move is pure logic as the centre of Australia is like a hot plate in
summer.
"There are challenges, but shouldn't the Australian government be giving us some direction?"
Mr Gibson said the issue is serious and wants to see conversation across the country.

Links

• 'We Have Death And Devastation At Every Turn': The Flood Massacre Of Queensland Cattle
• In A Country So Dry Even Cows Take Showers, Climate Change Gets Ignored
• Drought-Stricken Farmers Challenge Coalition's Climate Change Stance In TV Ad
• Dear Politicians, Get Your Heads Out Of The Coal Pit And Into The Real World
• Climate Change Making Drought Worse, Farmers' Federation Chief Says
• 'No Real Appetite': Former Farmers Chief Lashes Ministers Over Climate Link To Drought
• Australia Is Devastated By Drought, Yet It Won't Budge On Climate Change
• Australia Struggles With A Devastating Drought While The Government Ignores Climate Change
• New Study Reveals Evidence Of How Neolithic People Adapted To Climate Change
• Drought in Australia Turns Farmland to Barren Dustbowl: Heartbreaking Photos

Youth Climate Strikers: 'We Are Going To Change The Fate Of Humanity'

The Guardian - Damian Carrington

Exclusive: Students issue an open letter ahead of global day of action on 15 March, when young people are expected to strike across 50 nations


Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks at four school strikes in a week.

The students striking from schools around the world to demand action on climate change have issued an uncompromising open letter stating: “We are going to change the fate of humanity, whether you like it or not.”
The letter, published by the Guardian, says: “United we will rise on 15 March and many times after until we see climate justice. We demand the world’s decision makers take responsibility and solve this crisis. You have failed us in the past. [But] the youth of this world has started to move and we will not rest again.”
The Youth Strikes for Climate movement is not centrally organised, so keeping track of the fast growing number of strikes is difficult, but many are registering on FridaysForFuture.org. So far, there are almost 500 events listed to take place on 15 March across 51 countries, making it the biggest strike day so far. Students plan to skip school across Western Europe, from the US to Brazil and Chile, and from Australia to Iran, India and Japan.

At least 500 protests are planned for 15 March

“For people under 18 in most countries, the only democratic right we have is to demonstrate. We don’t have representation,” said Jonas Kampus, a 17 year old student activist, from near Zurich, Switzerland. “To study for a future that will not exist, that does not make sense.”

Young environmental activist Jonas Kampus, from Zurich Switzerland. Photograph: Dominik Waser

The letter says: “We are the voiceless future of humanity ... We will not accept a life in fear and devastation. We have the right to live our dreams and hopes.” Kampus helped initiate the letter, which was created collectively via a global coordination group numbering about 150 students, including the first youth climate striker, Sweden’s Greta Thunberg.

The strikes have attracted some criticism and Kampus said: “We wanted to define for ourselves why we are striking.” Another member of the coordination group, Anna Taylor, 17, from north London, UK, said: “The importance of the letter is it shows this is now an international movement.
Taylor said: “The rapid growth of the movement is showing how important it is and how much young people care. It is vital for our future.” Janine O’Keefe, from FridaysForFuture.org, said: “I’ll be very happy with over 100,000 students striking on 15 March. But I think we might reach even beyond 500,000 students.”
Thunberg, now 16 years old and who began the strikes with a solo protest beginning last August, is currently on holiday from school. She was one of about 3,000 student demonstrators in Antwerp, Belgium on Thursday, and joined protesters in Hamburg on Friday morning.
In recent days, she has sharply rejected criticism of the strikes from educational authorities, telling the Hong Kong Education Bureau: “We fight for our future. It doesn’t help if we have to fight the adults too.” She also told a critical Australian state education education minister his words “belong in a museum”.
The strikes have been supported by Christiana Figueres, the UN’s climate chief when the Paris deal to fight global warming was signed in 2015. She said: “It’s time to heed the deeply moving voice of youth. The Paris Agreement was a step in the right direction, but it’s timely implementation is key.” Michael Liebreich, a clean energy expert, said: “Anyone who thinks [the strikes] will fizzle out any time soon has forgotten what it is to be young.”
In the UK, about Taylor said more than 10,000 students went on strike on 15 February: “I’m anticipating at least double that on 15 March.”

Thousands of UK students strike over climate change

The strikes would not end, Taylor said, until “environmental protection is put as politicians’ top priority, over everything else. Young people are cooperating now, but governments are not cooperating anywhere near as much as they should”. She said students were contacting her from new countries every day, including Estonia, Iceland and Uganda in recent days.
Kampus, who was invited to meet the Swiss environment minister, Simonetta Sommaruga, on Wednesday, said: “The strikes will stop when there is a clear outline from politicians on how to solve this crisis and a pathway to get there. I could be doing so many other things. But I don’t have time as we have to solve this crisis. My dream is to have a life in peace.”

Links

• Read the climate strikers’ letter
• 'Our leaders are like children,' school strike founder tells climate summit
• Young Climate Strikers Can Win Their Fight. We Must All Help
• How A 7th-Grader’s Strike Against Climate Change Exploded Into A Movement
• Climate Change: Young People Striking From School See It For The Life-Threatening Issue It Is
• The Guardian View On Teenage Activists: Protesters Not Puppets
• 'I Feel Very Angry': The 13-Year-Old On School Strike For Climate Action
• The Human Survival Summit: The Next Wave Of Climate Change Protests Is Coming
• Greta Thunberg Dresses Down More Global Elites For Climate Inaction
• Teenage Activist Takes School Strikes 4 Climate Action To Davos
• ‘Grown-Ups Have Failed Us’