The Guardian - Adam Morton | Katharine Murphy | Jessica Elgot
Australian PM last week insisted he would address forum to ‘correct mistruths’ about Coalition’s action on emissions
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The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, hopes to
address an online climate summit this weekend but speaker’s
slots are only open to leaders announcing new measures to
tackle climate change.
Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP |
A government spokesman on Monday night said Australia had been invited to take part in the 12 December summit “both personally by [British] prime minister Boris Johnson during a phone call with prime minister Morrison, and again in writing by the leaders of hosting nations: the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Chile and also the United Nations”.
But diplomatic sources have told Guardian Australia there had been debate among the co-hosts including Britain – which is hosting the next major climate conference in Glasgow in 2021 and has taken a leading role in calling on countries to do more – as to whether Morrison should be approved to speak at the summit given the widespread view Australia is a laggard on climate commitments.
Australia does not at this point have final confirmation that it will be granted a speaking slot and a government spokesman confirmed: “The final speaker list is a matter for the event hosts.”
Australia’s high commissioner in London, George Brandis, is now back in
Canberra, in part to help aid Australia’s preparations for the virtual summit.
Brandis flew into the nation’s capital on Sunday.
The countries
hosting the summit wrote to national leaders in October calling on them to
make ambitious new commitments to combat the climate crisis in return for a
speaking slot.
They said such slots would be given only to leaders who set stronger targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade; announced a long-term strategy to reach net-zero emissions; made a new financial commitment to help developing countries; or put forward ambitious policies to adapt to locked-in climate change.
As reported by Guardian Australia, the letter stated “we hope to see you in December with a bold new commitment” but noted there would be “no space for general statements”.
A Downing Street spokesman said on Monday the program of speakers would be announced over the coming days but the summit was “an opportunity to announce new commitments”. He declined to say whether Australia’s commitments were insufficient.
There has been speculation in some media that Australia had been granted a speaking slot and would use it to confirm it would drop its bid to use controversial “carryover credits” to help meet the 2030 emissions target it set as part of the Paris agreement.
While Morrison telegraphed a potential shift on carryover credits to business leaders in a speech, the Coalition has resisted calls for it to set a net-zero emissions or carbon neutrality target for 2050 despite the goal being backed by more than 100 leaders, all Australian states and multinational companies.
After the inauguration of
Joe Biden as US president
in January, all members of the G7 and China will have a net-zero goal.
The
Morrison government was criticised for its plan to use the credits
at the Madrid climate summit a year ago. It has said it does not plan to increase its 2030 emissions target – a 26%
to 28% cut below 2005 levels – and
stopped making contributions
to the global climate fund which was set up to help developing countries
respond and adapt to the crisis.
Britain last week announced it would increase its 2030 target to a 68% cut compared with 1990 levels. The EU is meeting this week to decide on a potential 55% cut.
The host countries have asked leaders to specify what they will say in prerecorded videos to be played at the summit before being granted a slot. More than 60 countries had been given slots by Monday.
The Climate Change Authority recommended in 2015 that Australia should be cutting emissions by at least 45% and up to 65% by 2030 to play its part under a meaningful global deal.
During the previous sitting week, the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, asked Morrison in parliament whether he intended to attend the 12 December summit and whether he proposed making a meaningful announcement.
Morrison
did not attend
a UN climate action summit in New York last year despite being in the US to
visit the Trump administration at the time. Speaking slots at that event were
also reserved for countries announcing new commitments.
But the
prime minister was clear about his intentions for this week’s event. He told
Bandt he would be attending the summit and it would be “a great opportunity to
correct the mistruths spoken by the leader of the Greens”.
The independent MP Zali Steggall said the host countries should not offer Morrison a speaking slot unless he committed to net-zero by 2050.
Steggall, who has a climate change bill before parliament, said if the prime minister did “not have sufficient authority in his party room” to set the goal he should allow a conscience vote.
“As the rest of the world moves forward in drastically reducing their emissions, the government appears unable to commit to anything other than not cheating by counting carryover credits – and this still has to be passed in the party room,” she said on Monday.
Australia’s position on net-zero by 2050 was a focus of last week’s Australasian emissions reduction summit hosted by the Carbon Market Institute.
Nigel Topping, who has been appointed by Johnson as “high-level climate action champion” for the Glasgow conference, told reporters on Thursday that Australia was “on track for the wooden spoon” on climate change but had a chance to be a leader in new energy systems based on renewables and hydrogen.
Topping said he did not know if Morrison had been confirmed to speak at the 12 December event but noted it was an “ambition summit”.
“Without a commitment to net-zero 2050 it would be very surprising to me if there is an Australian voice on the stage,” he said.
Links
- Scott Morrison says Australia will attend climate ambition summit to 'correct mistruths'
- Scott Morrison's climate language has shifted – but actions speak louder than words
- Malcolm Turnbull: The Coalition will lose more former heartland seats to independents without a climate plan
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- A change in the weather: new demand for TV presenters to include climate in forecasts
- Frydenberg proposed delisting part of wetland to allow Queensland's Toondah Harbour development
- Why Australia has no clear policy on electric vehicles
- NSW's clean energy plan means the federal government is even more isolated on fossil fuels
- Scott Morrison's climate language has shifted – but actions speak louder than words
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