28/10/2021

(NEWS.com.au) World Reacts To Australia As PM Defends Plan

NEWS.com.au - Matt Young

Australia has copped a barrage of criticism in global headlines as world leaders and the press react to Scott Morrison’s net zero plan.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has rejected criticism from David Attenborough and a tech billionaire over Australia’s climate change policy.

Net Zero Plan at a glance
  • Australia projected to reduce emissions by 30 to 35 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030
  • Australians will be almost $2000 better off on average in 2050, compared to if there was no action on climate change
  • Gross national income will be 1.6 per cent higher
  • 62,000 new regional mining and heavy industry jobs
  • Household electricity bills will be lower than today
  • The real value of Australia's exports will more than triple by 2050
Australia has copped criticism across global headlines overnight as the world reacted to Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s new plan to tackle climate change.

Mr Morrison on Tuesday outlined his plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050 ahead of the major trip to the UN climate summit, using a late-night interview to reject concerns the government has broken a promise not to increase climate targets.

Under the plan, more than $20 billion will be invested in low emissions technologies including carbon capture and storage.

The Prime Minister also unveiled new projections, which if reached, could see Australia reduce emissions by 30 to 35 per cent by 2030.

But there are concerns. The modelling, which supports the plan, will not be released until a later, unspecified date.

Australian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes hit out at the government’s commitment, calling it “just more bulls**t”.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman
Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman
Labor Leader Anthony Albanese also slammed Mr Morrison, posting: “The word plan doesn’t constitute a plan no matter how many times you say it”.

In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson congratulated Australia for joining “a growing club” and said he was looking forward to “welcoming” Mr Morrison in days at the highly publicised global climate change summit, COP26, in Glasgow. Australia had “earlier refused” to join Johnson and others to pledge the targets.

The EU Commissioner’s Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis also called it a “positive signal”. But for the most part, the news wasn’t good. The Evening Standard focused largely on the fact Australia “won’t end coal production” and “will not legislate the goal and instead rely on consumers and companies to drive emission reductions”.

Australia was also criticised in numerous publications for being one of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases “on a per capita basis”.

The Inquirer described the nation as “long under fire as one of world’s top producers of coal and gas” and the Financial Times said Australia remains “wedded to fossil fuels”.

Keith Pitt was also called out. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage
Keith Pitt was also called out. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage



Across in the United States, the New York Times said Australia’s “last-minute commitment” was “built on hope for new technology, and little else”.

CNN said Mr Morrison was “begrudgingly rolling out the weakest climate pledge of the world’s richest countries” and called out MP Keith Pitt, who won a cabinet position under the prime minister’s climate deal with the Nationals after leader Barnaby Joyce demanded a spot.

The Washington Post joined the chorus, claiming Australia “bowed to growing domestic and international pressure”.

“The nation is on the front lines of global warming, with popular support for swifter action surging after devastating bush fires early last year,” reporter Michael E. Miller wrote.

The Indian Express also deemed the net zero announcement “relatively late”, comparing it to New Zealand’s commitment back in 2019.

Meanwhile the BBC reported overnight Australia had been “widely criticised” for its ambiguous targets.

“It’s immensely frustrating, I don’t expect we’ll be getting much kudos at all in Glasgow,” Doctor Simon Bradshaw, Head of Research at the Climate Council, told BBC Radio.

“It’s been very clear from the UK, the Biden administration, certainly from our neighbours in the Pacific that they expect a lot more Australia.”

Doctor Bradshaw also appeared on CNBC in the US, urging Australia to “accelerate action now”.
Meanwhile, Liberal MP and Assistant Minister for Industry Energy and Emissions Tim Wilson appeared in a searing interview with the BBC where he proclaimed “we are going to do this the Australian way”.

The BBC’s Razia Iqbal ”roasted” Mr Wilson, claiming Australia “is not a responsible player on the international stage” and that the country falls “far, far behind all other developed countries when it comes to … a commitment to ending the dependency on fossil fuels”.

Mr Wilson slammed the claims as false.
“It’s quite clear the government has not set any ambitious targets for 2030 which is a major objective for the global summit in Glasgow,” Iqbal questioned.

Mr Wilson said: “We’re going to do this the Australian way and make sure that we do things with the trust of the Australian people.

“It’s absolutely true, we’re not going to burn the village to save it. We know that coal doesn’t have a stronger future and so what we’re doing is laying the foundations and building new industries so Australia can be a renewable energy superpower.

“Other countries can talk big, the planet only cares about what you actually cut your emission.”

Over on the ABC, Energy Minister Angus Taylor appeared unable to name a single new emissions reduction policy contained in the Morrison government’s climate change “plan” during an interview on Tuesday night.
David Attenborough takes aim at Australia

Mr Morrison’s plan was unveiled hours after environmentalist David Attenborough took aim at Australia’s performance on climate change.

Attenborough was among the first to mention Australia directly in a warning ahead of the COP26 summit in Glasgow, which Scott Morrison will attend.

In his comments, which came before the PM’s plan was announced, Attenborough took aim at “people in Australia” who claimed dramatic climate change events, including fires, were a “one-off”.

British broadcaster David Attenborough had some harsh words for Australia. Picture: Yui Mok / AFP

Attenborough, speaking with the BBC’s David Shukman for his new series, The Green Planet, said people have a “moral responsibility” and outcomes could be “really catastrophic” if we don’t act fast.

“What climate scientists have been saying for 20 years, and that we have been reporting upon, you and I both, is the case – we were not causing false alarms,” he said.

“And every day that goes by in which we don’t do something about it is a day wasted. And things are being made worse.

“There are still people in North America, there are still people in Australia who say ‘no, no, no, no, of course it’s very unfortunate that there was that forest fire that absolutely demolished, incinerated that village, but it’s a one-off’.

“Particularly if it’s going to cost money in the short term, the temptation is to deny the problem and pretend it’s not there.

“But every month that passes, it becomes more and more incontrovertible, the changes to the planet that we are responsible for that are having these devastating effects.”

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(BBC) Climate Change: UN Emissions Gap Report A 'Thundering Wake-Up Call'

BBC - Matt McGrath

emissions
Current plans to cut carbon emissions don't work quickly enough, says the UN. Getty Images
National plans to cut carbon fall far short of what's needed to avert dangerous climate change, according to the UN Environment Programme.

Their Emissions Gap report says country pledges will fail to keep the global temperature under 1.5C this century.

The Unep analysis suggests the world is on course to warm around 2.7C with hugely destructive impacts.

But there is hope that, if long term net-zero goals are met, temperatures can be significantly reined in.

Just a few days before COP26 opens in Glasgow, another scientific report on climate change is "another thundering wake-up call", according to the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

Glasgow
Street art in Glasgow where COP26 begins in a few days time. Grantham Climate Art Prize 2021
This week, we've already had a study from the WMO showing that warming gases were at a new high last year, despite the pandemic.

Now in its 12th year, this Emissions Gap report looks at the nationally-determined contributions (NDCs) or carbon-cutting plans that countries have submitted to the UN ahead of COP.

These pledges run up to 2030 and have been submitted by 120 countries. Unep has also taken account of other commitments to cut warming gases not yet formally submitted in an NDC.

The report finds that when added together, the plans cut greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 by around 7.5% compared to the previous pledges made five years ago.

This is nowhere near enough to keep the 1.5C temperature threshold within sight, say the scientists who compiled the study.

To keep 1.5C alive would require 55% cuts by the same 2030 date. That means the current plans would need to have seven times the level of ambition to remain under that limit. 

drought
Getty Images

"To stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5C, we have eight years to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions: eight years to make the plans, put in place the policies, implement them and ultimately deliver the cuts," said Inger Andersen, executive director of Unep.

"The clock is ticking loudly."

According to the authors, the current pledges would see the world warm by 2.7C this century, a scenario that Antonio Guterres calls a "climate catastrophe".

He believes the report highlights the failures of political leaders.

"The emissions gap is the result of a leadership gap," he said at the launch of the study.

"But leaders can still make this a turning point to a greener future instead of a tipping point to climate catastrophe."

 As Mr Guterres suggests, there are some hopeful signs in the report. 

fire
Fires in California are continuing to burn, made worse by a changing climate. Getty Image
Around 50 countries plus the EU have pledged a net zero target for the middle of this century.

These strategies cover over half of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Unep analysis finds that if these plans were implemented fully, this could shave 0.5C off the temperature rise by 2100.

This would bring the global temperature level down to 2.2C, which would see dramatic and deadly impacts from warming but would be a step in the right direction from where the world is currently headed.

The problem, though, is that many of these net zero goals are ambiguous, say the authors - particularly among the world's 20 richest nations, where a dozen long-term plans are said to be quite vague.

Many delay significant cuts until after 2030, raising serious doubts about whether they can really deliver net zero just 20 years later.
Another hopeful sign relates to methane. The report also says there is great potential to make progress on these emissions, which are the second largest source of warming.

Up to 20% of these emissions from fossil fuels, from waste and from agriculture could be curbed at low or no cost. 

drought
Boats on a lake where the water level has fallen significantly due to drought. George Rose
However, the opportunity to develop a far greener world as the world recovers from Covid is in danger of being lost, say the authors.

They find that around 20% of recovery investments will support renewables and the green economy.

"The huge sums spent to recover economies from Covid-19 are a once-in-a-generation opportunity to boost low-carbon technologies and industries. In most cases, this opportunity is not being taken," said Brian O'Callaghan, project manager of the Oxford University Economic Recovery Project, and an author on the Unep report.

"This is a particular slap in the face for vulnerable nations who are suffering the worst consequences of climate change…we remain without a commitment from the highest emitters to cover the loss and damage that they have brought on the world."

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(AU ABC) Pacific Island Climate Groups Demand World Leaders Halt Support For Fossil Fuel

ABC - Joshua Boscaini

Pacific climate action groups made the desperate plea ahead of COP26 in Glasgow. (ABC: Evan Wasuka)

Key Points
  • The group called on rich nations to pay developing countries billions of dollars to help with climate resilience
  • The former Kiribati president told a virtual gathering that Pacific Island nations' days were numbered
  • Britain's High Commissioner to Fiji said countries need to rapidly phase out domestic investment in coal power
Pacific Island climate action groups have demanded countries including Australia end support for the fossil fuel industry during the COP26 Climate Change Summit in Glasgow.

The Pacific Islands Climate Action Network (PICAN), which includes environmental activist group Greenpeace, issued a list of demands to world leaders on Friday, saying they must provide "a safe and habitable future for the Pacific Islands".

It called on wealthy countries to pump billions of dollars a year into developing nations to help them tackle the effects of climate change and cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.

PICAN demanded wealthy nations provide developing states $US100 billion ($133.25 billion) annually until 2025 and increase that sum to $750 billion a year beyond 2025 so they can invest in technologies to help live with a changing climate.

"We do need finance and we're talking about billions … we need the technology," former Tuvalu prime minister Bikenibeu Paeniu said.

Former Kiribati president Anote Tong told the virtual gathering of Pacific climate-action organisations the COP26 meeting would be the last chance to save Pacific Island nations from the worst effects of climate change.

Anote Tong said for most people in the Pacific, their days were numbered. (ABC News: Sarah Hancock)

"I think what I've always acknowledged — and I think we must also acknowledge — is for most of us in the Pacific, our days are already numbered because whatever happens, even if we cut emissions to zero tomorrow ... our future cannot be assured," he said.

Pacific Island nations have become increasingly anxious about inaction on climate change and its looming consequences for their countries if the world does not reduce emissions.

An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in August found the world had warmed by 1.1C on pre-industrial levels.

It found that on the current trajectory, the Earth was likely to hit 1.5C warming about 2030.

Documents leaked to Greenpeace and obtained by the ABC, showed Australia sought to change a major international draft report on climate change to promote a future for coal-fired power.

'Rapid' phase out of coal needed

British High Commissioner George Edgar, who also spoke at the meeting, called on countries that had not submitted ambitious climate targets to step up.
The IPCC report explained


"A growing number of countries have committed to ending overseas investment in coal, but we need to see an end to domestic investment as well and plans for the rapid phase out of existing coal-fired plants," he said.

Former secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum, Meg Taylor, said she understood reservations about the shift away from fossil fuels but insisted the change would benefit communities in the long term.

"I understand the sentiments about the transition of economies from fossil fuel to carbon neutral. My own country will face that challenge itself," she said.

"In the Paris Agreement, it's very clear that in terms of the transition … economic development is very much part of the climate transition and countries are going to have to make those tough decisions themselves."

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