Concern over jobs in coal mining at sites such as Hunter Valley have taken precedence over climate fears in Australia
Climate change was supposed to have won the Labor Party the Australian election. But yesterday, after having been routed by voters, its panicked leaders backed the mining of a coalfield bigger than the UK.
Fearing
a wipeout in state elections next year amid a rise in pro-coal workers
and a rebellion against its plans to halve Australia’s carbon emissions,
the Labor state government in Queensland accelerated its decision on
105,000 square miles of coal-rich outback land known as the Galilee
Basin.
It came days after the party lost what was dubbed the “climate election”
to the incumbent centre-right, pro-coal government of Scott Morrison,
suffering the most damage — with swings of up to 20 per cent — in the
coal country of central Queensland and the Hunter Valley of New South Wales.
Annastacia
Palaszczuk, Queensland’s premier, announced that she was overturning
all attempts to block mining and all outstanding approvals would be
resolved within three weeks. She said that she was “fed up” with her own
government’s processes, and that the election had been a “wake-up call”
on mining the basin. The move was welcomed by Matt Canavan, the federal
resources minister, who said yesterday that the Galilee Basin
represented a victory for the “hi-vis workers’ revolution” — a reference
to the armies of mine workers in high-visibility shirts who make
Australia the world’s biggest coal exporter, and seemingly a reference
to the yellow-vest movement in France that has challenged President
Macron on his climate policies.
The international climate action
movement argues that if the Galilee Basin’s estimated 27 billion tons of
coal were extracted, exported and burnt, the extra carbon dioxide
released each year would be far more than Australia’s total emissions
and would set back the world’s chances of keeping the increase in global
warming under 2C.
Until yesterday the Labor government in
Queensland had put a series of hurdles in the way of the Indian energy
conglomerate Adani, which wants the basin’s coal to fuel India’s power
stations. In its last attempt to block the extraction, last month the
government argued that a tiny finch might be wiped out if its basin
habitat were mined.
Australia’s Climate Council, an independent
scientific organisation, said it believed that the election result did
not show that people had become less concerned about the threat of
climate change but that instead they feared that jobs in industries that
contributed to climate change — such as coal mining — could not be
easily replaced.
A poll conducted by the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation of more than 100,000 voters found that the environment was
the No 1 issue for most respondents, with 29 per cent rating it as their
biggest concern, up from 9 per cent in the 2016 election.
The Morrison government is ramping up pressure on Labor to support a
bipartisan approach to energy and emissions policy as it rebuffs critics
of its climate change plan in industry and the environmental movement.
Energy
Minister Angus Taylor has dismissed calls from climate change groups to
reach a deal on Labor's proposals to cut greenhouse gas emissions,
insisting his opponents recognise the will of the people and back the
government's plan.
Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor has ruled out reviving the full National Energy Guarantee as a way to cut emissions. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The call came after likely Labor deputy leader Richard Marles admitted on Monday he had been "tone deaf" to welcome the end of coal, in a comment that signals an opposition rethink on its wider policy on climate change.
Mr
Taylor ruled out reviving the full National Energy Guarantee (NEG) as a
way to cut emissions despite a suggestion from former Liberal deputy
leader Julie Bishop on election night that the option should be on the
table.
"We're firmly committed to the policies we took to the
election. We now have a clear mandate to implement those policies – and
we'll be doing so," Mr Taylor said in an interview.
"There's now an opportunity for a bipartisan approach to energy and emissions.
"Labor
should adopt our plan, which was supported by the Australian people,
and I know industry wants to see bipartisanship. Now's the opportunity."
Industry
groups including the Business Council of Australia backed the NEG last
year when it was put forward by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull
and endorsed by his cabinet and party room, only for the emissions
target within the policy to be scrapped at the height of the August
leadership crisis. Labor went to the election with a policy
to revive the guarantee and use a market mechanism to cut emissions, a
stance backed by some industry executives who were uneasy at Mr Taylor's
insistence on using the existing Emissions Reduction Fund to reduce
carbon.
Mr Taylor insists the public funding in the Emissions
Reduction Fund will help meet the government target to reduce carbon
output by 26 per cent by 2030.
Asked
if the government would consider using the NEG to reduce emissions, he
said: "We don't need to." He said another feature of the guarantee, a
reliability obligation on electricity generators, would come into force
as planned on July 1.
"Now is the opportunity for Labor to accept
the policy we took to the election and create a bipartisan approach to
these issues," Mr Taylor said.
While
industry executives had speculated that Prime Minister Scott Morrison
might appoint a new energy minister, he instead confirmed Mr Taylor in
the position in the cabinet reshuffle on Sunday.
Mr
Taylor's priorities include signing contracts with 12 projects
shortlisted to gain government support to add new generation to the
electricity grid, as well as legislating price benchmarks to start on
July 1 to act on recommendations from the Australian Competition and
Consumer Commission.
"We've
been clear that we'll bring as much supply and competition into the
market that we need to get back to a reasonable wholesale price," he
said.
"If these shortlisted projects provide us with enough, so be it. If we need more, we'll look for more."
On
calls from the Nationals to support a new coal-fired power station in
Queensland to provide baseload power, he said the government would take a
"balanced" approach.
"Coal has a role to play in our energy mix.
Renewables are playing an increasing role, so whichever way you look at
it there will be balance," Mr Taylor said.
"Picking
fuels is much less important than focusing on outcomes, so we'll focus
on the emissions and price and reliability outcomes we want."
Ms Bishop, speaking on a television panel on election night, questioned the Coalition's decision to dump the NEG. Incoming Labor leader Anthony Albanese said on Monday
that "the science is in" on climate change and that action was needed,
but he left scope to change Labor policy on the mechanism to be used to
do so.
"I am neither a climate sceptic nor am I a market sceptic
when it comes to action on climate change, because I have listened to
business and sat down with them," he said. "But the time for the ongoing
conflict over these issues surely is over."
Anthony Albanese says
"the science is in" on climate change and action is needed, but he left
scope to change Labor policy on the mechanism to be used to do so. Credit: Cole Bennetts
Labor
has been stung by its defeat in Queensland electorates, where voters
did not back the party's equivocal position on the Adani coal mine and
greater ambition to cut emissions by 45 per cent by 2030.
Mr
Marles accepted on Monday that the party suffered for his remarks in
February that the collapse of the market for thermal coal was good "at
one level" despite fears over job losses.
"The
comments I made earlier this year were tone deaf and I regret them and I
was apologising for them within a couple of days of making them," he
told radio station 3AW.
Asked where he stood on Adani, Mr Marles said the party valued working people.
"Coal
clearly is going to play a significant part of the future energy mix in
Australia and it's clearly going to be a significant part of our
economy," he said.
"And it's really important that we acknowledge
that people who work in the coal industry need to be valued by us and
that we thank and celebrate their work. That's important."
Woodside
chief executive Peter Coleman will call on Tuesday for more agreement
in Parliament on climate change and energy, an area where gas exporters
face significant costs if a future government seeks to impose a market
mechanism to reduce emissions.
"Our
goal should be an approach to climate policy that is national,
consistent with the Paris Agreement and which balances the environment
and industries that support jobs and economic growth," Mr Coleman says
in a draft of his speech to a gas industry conference.
"Once again, these are not competing goals but need to be aligned if outcomes are to be sustainable."
A king tide breaching a defence wall at Sabai Island in the Torres Strait, 2011.
AAP Image/Suzanne Long
Climate change threatens Australia in many different ways, and can
devastate rural and urban communities alike. For Torres Strait
Islanders, it’s a crisis that’s washing away their homes, infrastructure
and even cemeteries.
The failure to take action on this crisis has led a group of Torres Strait Islanders to lodge a climate change case with the United Nations Human Rights Committee against the Australian federal government.
It’s the first time
the Australian government has been taken to the UN for their failure to
take action on climate change. And its the first time people living on a
low lying island have taken action against any government.
This case – and other parallel cases – demonstrate that climate change is “fundamentally a human rights issue”, with First Nations most vulnerable to the brunt of a changing climate.
The group of Torres Strait Islanders lodging this appeal argue that
the Australian government has failed to take adequate action on climate
change. They allege that the re-elected Coalition government has not
only steered Australia off track in meeting globally agreed emissions reductions, but has set us on course for climate catastrophe.
In doing so, Torres Strait Islanders argue that the government has failed to uphold human rights obligations and violated their rights to culture, family and life.
Our Islands, Our Home | Torres Strait Climate Justice Case
This case is a show of defiance in the face of Australia’s years of political inertia and turmoil over climate change.
It is the first time people living on a low-lying island – acutely
vulnerable in the face of rising sea levels – have brought action
against a government. But it may also be a sign of things to come, as
more small island nations face impending climate change threats.
Breaching multiple human rights obligations
Driving this case is an alliance
of eight Torres Strait Islanders, represented by the Torres Strait land
and sea council, Gur A Baradharaw Kod, along with a legal team from
ClientEarth and 350.org. They argue that their way of life has come
under immediate and irreversible threat.
“They are losing everything - they can’t just pick it up and go somewhere else; their culture is unique to that region." Torres Strait Islanders lodge a claim against the Australian government for failing to act on climate change. Via @nytimes@livia_arhttps://t.co/iX8PN4xNns
On this basis, they accuse the Australian government of breaching multiple articles
of the UN Human Rights Declaration, including the right to culture, the
right to be free from arbitrary interference with privacy, family and
home, and the right to life.
In the early 1990s, the Torres Strait Islands were at the centre of
struggles to secure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land rights in
Australia.
Securing these rights were made possible through the historic Mabo Decision,
and these rights remain central to land and human rights debates today
as Torres Strait Islanders’ land and seas are threatened by climate
change.
Torres Straight Islanders are on the frontlines
Some Torres Strait Islands are less than one metre above sea level and are already affected by climate change.
Rising tides have delivered devastating effects for local communities, including flooding homes, land and cultural sites, with dire flooding in 2018 breaking a sea wall built to protect local communities.
Thursday Island in the Torres
Strait. The ancestral lands of these islands are being washed away by
sea level rise from climate change.Shutterstock
Increasing sea temperatures have also affected marine environments,
driving coral bleaching and ocean acidification, and disrupting habitat
for dugong, salt water crocodiles, and multiple species of turtle.
In the same way settler colonial violence dispossessed First Nations
people from their ancestral homelands, climate change presents a real
threat of further forced removal of people from their land and seas,
alongside destruction of places where deep cultural and spiritual meaning is derived.
Parallel threats across the Pacific
While the Torres Strait appeal to the UN is groundbreaking, the challenges facing Torres Strait Islanders are not unique.
Delegates at the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji last week described climate change as the “single greatest threat” to the region, with sea level rise occurring up to four times the global average in some countries in the Pacific.
Climate change is already causing migration across parts of the
Pacific, including relocation of families from the Carteret Islands to
Bougainville with support from local grassroots organisation Tulele Peisa.
What is taking place in the Torres Strait Islands because of rising sea levels and rapid erosion is a tragedy. I fully support what the Torres Strait Islanders are doing at the United Nations with ClientEarth and I hope you will, too. https://t.co/lVJiu4QO8w#ourislandsourhome
The Alliance of Small Island States, an intergovernmental organisation,
has demanded that signatories to the Paris Agreement, including through
the Green Climate Fund, recognise fundamental loss and damages
communities are facing, and compensate those affected.
The growing wave of climate litigation
Across the Torres Strait, the Pacific, and other regions on the
frontline of climate change, there are a diversity of responses in
defence of land and seas. These are often grounded in local and
Indigenous knowledge.
They show the resolve of First Nations and local communities, as captured in a message from the Pacific Climate Warriors:
We are not drowning. We are fighting.
There are parallel appeals to the Torres Strait Islanders’ case. Around the world,
First Nations people are calling on the UN to hold national governments
to account on human rights obligations, including in the context of
mining and other developments that drive greenhouse gas emissions.
In Australia, Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners have submitted multiple appeals, including last year alleging government violations of six international human rights obligations in their effort to advance Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine.
There is an array of other climate litigation
underway. This includes citizens suing their governments for failing to
take action on climate, such as in the Netherlands, where a judge
ordered the government to take hefty action to reduce national emissions.
Similarly, a group of 21 children in the United States are pursuing a lawsuit to demand the right to a safe climate.
Given the parlous state of climate politics in Australia, further
litigation can be expected. The significance of the current appeal by a
group of Torres Strait Islanders lies in its potential to lay bare the
adequacy or otherwise of Australia’s response to climate change as a
human rights issue.
First Nations people already have a moral authority in defending
their human rights in the era of climate change. Over time, they and
others, including children, will also test the grounds on which they
might have the legal authority to do so.
