03/12/2020

(AU) Pacific Leaders Condemn Australia's Climate Target As 'One Of The Weakest' In Open Letter

SBS - Tom Stayner

In an open letter to Scott Morrison, Pacific Island leaders have urged Australia to implement a range of changes to its 'weak' climate policies and targets.

Pacific Island leaders have written an open letter urging Prime Minister Scott Morrison to take stronger action on climate change. Source: AAP

Pacific Island leaders have written an open letter urging Prime Minister Scott Morrison to take stronger action on climate change, warning Australia is failing to take enough leadership initiative in addressing the global challenge. 

A total of 15 Pacific leaders, including former prime ministers and presidents, condemned Australia's emissions reduction target as "one of the weakest amongst wealthy nations".  

They called on Australia to increase the ambition of its commitments to responding to climate change ahead of the international United Nations Climate Ambitions Summit on 12 December.

Former Kiribati President Anote Tong. AAP

Former President of Kiribati Anote Tong told SBS News that Australia must review its commitment to tackling climate change, or risk failing to take leadership against the "existential threat". 

"What we’ve always been hoping to happen is to have Australia take greater leadership from our part of the world to try and influence the global agenda on climate change," he told SBS News. 

"Right now Australia is lagging behind."

In their letter, the Pacific leaders recommended Australia follow international allies in committing to a net-zero emissions target by 2050 and develop a long-term strategy to lower greenhouse emissions by 2021. 

They also want the Australian government to rule out using "carry-over credits" to achieve existing climate targets, casting doubt over the legal and moral justification for embracing the method.

They warned that homelands and cultures in the Pacific are facing "certain devastation" from climate change, and that the challenge remains the region's greatest security threat. 

"Pacific Island nations have long been leaders in driving global progress to combat climate change," the letter reads.

"However, Australia’s current Paris Agreement emission reduction target remains one of the weakest amongst wealthy nations."

The United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, South Korea and the incoming administration of US president-elect Joe Biden have committed to a net-zero emissions target by 2050.

The Australian government has resisted adopting the goal, with Mr Morrison instead saying he wants to reach the target as quickly as possible through a technology-driven approach. 

A spokesperson for the Australian government said it is a steadfast partner in building climate change and disaster resilience in the Pacific.

"Australia is committed to reaching net zero emissions as soon as possible, and focused on driving down the costs of key technologies to achieve this global goal," the spokesperson said. 

"We are committed to the goals of the Paris Agreement. Our targets are meaningful and ambitious and we implement action to achieve them."

Former Prime Minister of Tuvalu Enele Sopoaga told SBS News he has been disconcerted and disappointed by Australia's response to the global challenge. 

"Right now I am very very concerned that there are no clear actions, or commitment to actions, coming out of Australia," he told SBS News. 

"It is a feeling of betrayal and also it is a sense of seeing the denial by Australia of the seriousness of climate change and its catastrophic impacts.

"This is an existential threat to the security and survival of Pacific Island countries."

Tuvalu's Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga addresses the Pacific Islands Forum in Funafuti. AAP
Pacific Island nations have long urged Australia to take a stronger leadership in combating the global challenge, fearing they are most at risk of its potential devastating impacts.  

But at last year’s Pacific Islands forum, Fiji’s prime minister Frank Bainimarama accused Australia of lacking commitment to the cause.

"We cannot allow climate commitments to be watered down at a meeting hosted in a nation whose very existence is threatened by the rising waters lapping at its shores," he said.

This included reports Mr Morrison had resisted including references to coal and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 in the final communique of the forum.

Mr Tong said Australia should reconsider its approach to climate change in line with the ambition foreshadowed by Mr Biden, who has said he plans to be a global leader on the issue.

"If the science is saying that things are going to get worse ... the Australian government needs to review its policy on climate change," he said. 

"Particularly when Australia knows very well the implications of what happens in Australia [and] to neighbouring Pacific island countries."

The federal government's current goal is for a 26 to 28 per cent reduction on 2005 emissions levels by 2030.

It has reduced the nation's total emissions by 16.6 per cent since 2005, according to government data. 

But Australia has faced international pressure over its intention to use Kyoto carryover credits in order to meet its commitments under the Paris agreement.

This involves claiming credit for exceeding emissions targets under the previous climate agreement.  

Mr Morrison last month said the government only intended to use them to the extent it is required, and that ideally "we will not need them".

The Prime Minister has long touted the importance of ties to the region, committing to a "Pacific Step-up" campaign including assisting them in addressing climate concerns. 

Amid the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia has committed some $300 million to assist with economic and social recovery in the Pacific region. 

It has also pledged $80 million to the COVAX global alliance, designed to help distribute a vaccine to help countries less capable of accessing the health resources. 

Mr Tong said the Black Summer of bushfires in Australia should have also reaffirmed the need for strong action to limit the effects of climate change.

"It is a clear message that Australia is not immune to the effects of climate change and the leadership needs to take action on this," he said.

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(AU) Australia Endures Hottest Spring Ever, With Temperatures More Than 2C Above Average

The Guardian - 

Maximum heat in November was average of 2.9C above long-term mean, despite a La Niña event, which typically brings cooler patterns

Clouds over Sydney after heatwave
Clouds over Sydney’s skyline as a cool change moves in after two successive days of temperatures above 40C. Australia broke numerous records for heat in spring 2020, despite the La Niña climate event. Photograph: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

Australia has sweltered through its hottest spring and November on record, with both the season and the month more than 2C (3.6F) warmer than the long-term average.

Temperatures in spring were 2.03C hotter than average across night and day. In November, they were 2.47C above the long-term mean, which is measured across the years 1961-90.

Maximum heat in November went even further beyond what Australians are used to, on average reaching 2.9C above the historic mark. The previous record average was 2.4C above the long-term mark, set in November 2014.

Large areas in the east and south-east experienced maximums more than 10C above average on a number of days late in the month, with many weather stations in New South Wales breaking their record for the hottest day and night on 28 or 29 November.

Australian spring mean temperature anomaly (1910-2020). Illustration: Bureau of Meteorology


The rise in heatwaves is consistent with a recent state of the climate report by the Bureau of Meteorology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), which said Australia had entered a new era of sustained extreme weather events linked to increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide.

Dr Andrew Watkins, the bureau’s head of climate operations, said the record-breaking temperatures were particularly remarkable as they had been recorded during a La Niña, a climate event in the Pacific Ocean that typically brings cooler and wetter weather.

“As a climatologist, it is really not what you would expect during a La Niña,” he said.

Watkins said the heat spike in November could partly be explained by the La Niña temporarily weakening, tropical rainfall patterns being “stuck” in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and a weakening of the southern annular mode, which moved weather systems northwards. Together, they reduced cloud cover and contributed to higher air pressure and lower rainfall than expected during a La Niña.

These changes occurred against a backdrop of climate change. Australia has on average warmed by 1.44C since 1910, and a La Niña year was now as warm as an El Niño year was in the last century, Watkins said.

The records in the most recent climate data include new highs for minimum night-time temperatures across the continent: 1.91C above average for spring and 2.04C for November.

The extraordinary heat last weekend broke heat records for November in South Australia, Victoria and NSW. Smithville, in north-west NSW, reached 46.9C, Andamooka, in the far north of South Australia, hit 48C and Ouyen in Victoria equalled the previous high for the month of 45.8C.

The only national measurement not to set a new record was for the average maximum temperatures in spring. It was the fifth hottest recorded, 2.15C above the long-term benchmark.

Australian November mean temperature anomaly (1910-2020). Photograph: BOM

Temperatures in Western Australia in November were also an exception. The average maximum temperature in the state’s south-west was cooler than average.

Rainfall in spring was slightly below average across much of the continent, though not as low as the incredibly dry spring last year, which set the scene for the worst bushfires on record over spring and summer.

Total rainfall was 8% below average, and notably down in significant parts of Queensland, north-east NSW and western Tasmania. It was above average in the Kimberley and Pilbara in Western Australia, much of South Australia, western NSW and far south-west Queensland.

Despite the extreme heat in spring, Watkins said summer was expected to be more benign on average than the past couple of years. A strengthened La Niña was likely to bring warm muggy nights and increase the likelihood of tropical cyclones, but daytime temperatures were likely to be lower than last summer, he said.

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(AU) World Awaits Action By 'Suicidal' Australia, Says Former Climate Chief

Sydney Morning Herald - Nick O'Malley

The world is waiting for a " suicidal" Australia to reverse its stance on climate change, says one of the world's most senior diplomats.

Christiana Figueres, who was executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change through the Paris Agreement talks, said the world expected more from Australia in the lead-up to the so-called COP26 climate talks to be held in Glasgow next November.

Former UN executive secretary for climate change, Christiana Figueres. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

"The climate wars that have been going on in Australia for over a decade now are just – honestly they are such a suicidal situation because Australia... holds such promise with renewable energy," she told John Connor, chief executive of the Carbon Market Institute, in a conversation recorded for the Australasian Emissions Reductions Summit, which begins online on Wednesday.

"There is no other country that has as much sun potential as Australia," said Ms Figueres, who is now the director of the global climate movement Mission 2020.

"I've been pretty vocal about my frustration for so many years of a completely unstable, volatile, unpredictable stand and position on climate change in Australia."

She likened the possibility that Australia might use what the government calls carry-over credits from the Kyoto agreement to using points scored in one sporting match towards the results of another.

"It is just a total lack of integrity and not something that does Australia proud," she said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has pledged to work closely with the US President-Elect Joe Biden on key issues such as climate change.

Last month Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that he believed Australia may be able to reach Paris targets without relying on Kyoto credits.

In a second conversation for the conference, United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment chief executive Fiona Reynolds said anyone who failed to accept that climate sustainability had now moved into the mainstream and was being embedded in financial regulations would soon be left behind.

She said that soon it would not be enough to ask individual companies to set net-zero targets, because investors were now demanding such targets across their whole portfolios.

She predicted that the next frontier in investing would be in so-called negative emissions technologies and practices, which reduce the amount of greenhouse gas already in the atmosphere.

Climate solutions based on avoiding deforestation and other "viable near-term opportunities" in removing carbon could generate $US800 billion in revenues by 2050 and assets valued at well over $US1.2 trillion, more than the current value of the major oil and gas companies.

The conference is being held in the lead-up to a December 12 United Nations meeting in which national governments will be invited to present more ambitious climate plans – including COVID-19 recovery plans – designed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius.

Others to address the first day of the conference on Wednesday include Alok Sharma, president of COP26 and British Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Jim Skea of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as well as Australian business leaders Shayne Elliott from ANZ and Mike Cannon-Brookes of Atlassian.

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