(AU) It's Not Too Late For Australia To Pivot On Climate Change - Tim Flannery

Sydney Morning Herald - Tim Flannery

Author Professor Tim Flannery is chief councillor of the Climate Council. Note The Climate Ambition Summit is on December 12.

This time last year the federal government was caught dangerously off-guard. Having ignored the clear warnings, our national leadership was woefully unprepared as vast swathes of Australia went up in flames in a disaster fuelled by climate change.

A year on, the government is sailing headlong into a different kind of crisis, having failed once again to read the signs. With all our major trading partners and strategic allies now stepping up their commitments to climate action, Australia faces a diplomatic firestorm, not to mention decades of economic fallout, if it fails to act.

Vast swathes of Australia went up in flames in a disaster fuelled by climate change. Credit: Nick Moir

This weekend’s Climate Ambition Summit is set to up the stakes for Australia even more, with significant new announcements expected.

Just a few months ago, only a fifth of Australia’s two-way trade was with countries committed to net-zero emissions by around mid-century. Today, with more and more countries seeing clean energy and jobs as the path to economic recovery, that figure has shot up to over 70 per cent. The three biggest buyers of Australian coal and gas – China, Japan and South Korea – have all now signalled their intention to get out of fossil fuels, casting a cloud over three-quarters of Australia’s fossil fuel exports, worth a whopping $76 billion.

Just as importantly, the world’s three biggest emitters – the US, China and EU – are all strengthening their 2030 targets. It is, after all, the pace of emissions reductions over the coming decade that will prove decisive in whether we avert a full-blown climate catastrophe or sentence our children to a barely survivable future.

The federal government’s stubborn refusal to either commit to net-zero emissions before mid-century or to strengthen its extraordinarily weak 2030 target means we are now a total outlier among comparable countries, leaving our industries and economy vulnerable.

The world’s three biggest emitters – the US, China and the EU – are all strengthening their 2030 targets. Credit: Getty Images

Prime Minister Morrison’s announcement that Australia no longer plans to use dodgy accounting tricks to meet its current and clearly inadequate 2030 target is an early indication that the government is starting to feel the heat. Though a mere announcement that we no longer plan on cheating will not be enough to convince the international community we are serious. Having watched Australia burn, our international peers continue to look at our recalcitrance with a mix of impatience, anger, and utter bewilderment.

Closer to home, Pacific leaders are growing angrier with Australia for recklessly endangering their future. Significantly, Australia’s anxiety over China’s growing presence in the region means Pacific Islands countries have more leverage than in the past. If we want to remain the Pacific’s security partner of choice, then we are going to have to start doing more to tackle the global climate crisis.

In recent years, Australia had some cover from the US in international negotiations. We were able to hide behind our key ally’s own deeply flawed stance on climate. By contrast, the Biden-Harris administration intends to use every tool at its disposal to push other countries to raise their ambition.


Prime Minister Scott Morrison is facing pressure to make significant climate policy pledges ahead of a United Nations summit with world leaders.

Similarly, while we look forward to seeing more detail on how China plans to meet its net-zero pledge, the favourite excuse of Australia’s naysayers – that there’s little point in raising a finger until China, the world’s biggest emitter, starts getting out of coal – makes even less sense than before. In a further sign of the growing economic risks of Australia’s inaction, the EU – our third-largest trading partner – is on course to place carbon tariffs on imports from 2023, if the producing country does not have a carbon price of its own.

In hindsight, the federal government should surely have seen that such a storm was brewing. Fortunately, it is not too late for a pivot. Australia has everything it needs to flourish in a post-carbon world. We have an unparalleled natural advantage when it comes to developing a renewable export industry and tapping into growing global demand for zero/low-carbon manufactured goods.

Leadership from the states and territories has ensured some welcome progress on renewable energy despite the federal government’s failures. Though with other countries now working quickly to establish new clean industries, without stronger national leadership Australia will soon be left behind.

The Climate Ambition Summit – coming on the five-year anniversary of the Paris Agreement – is but the first in a series of major political moments leading up to COP26, which will take place in Glasgow next November. Only those countries with new targets and actions to announce are being given a platform.

It’s no exaggeration that decisions made between now and next November, including on how governments choose to direct the trillions of further spending on economic renewal, may be our very last chance at leaving a future in which our children can survive and thrive.

As John Kerry, the newly appointed US Special Envoy on Climate Change, has said: “At the global meeting in Glasgow one year from now, all nations must raise ambition together, or we will all fail together. And failure is not an option.”

Links

• Tim Flannery warns of adverse climate impacts if South32 coal mine expansion approved
• Australia, the climate can’t wait for the next federal election. It’s time to take control
• Malcolm Turnbull says a 'toxic troika' is stopping the Morrison government from acting on climate change
• The megafires and pandemic expose the lies that frustrate action on climate change
• We need to talk to our kids about the climate crisis. But courage fails me when I look at my son
• I now look back on my 20 years of climate activism as a colossal failure
• Australia's 'black summer' bushfires showed the impact of human-wrought change
• Tim Flannery: people are shocked about climate change but they should be angry
• Faced with catastrophe, David Attenborough and Tim Flannery search for a cure