When it comes to emissions reduction, Australia needs a proper national conversation and a long-term plan. The climate change bill about to pass parliament doesn’t provide this.
Leaders of the world’s wealthiest 20 countries failed to reach any major commitments on climate action, including a timeline to phase out fossil fuels.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is poised to announce Australia will adopt a target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But it’s too little, too late.
The United Nations climate summit in Glasgow next month is the first real test of whether the world can limit global warming below catastrophic levels.
Reaching net-zero emissions will require intense policy focus, private investment and clear accountability – conditions only a firm numerical target can provide.
Humanity can still limit global warming to 1.5°C this century. But political action will determine whether it actually does. Conflating the two questions amounts to dangerous, misplaced punditry.
Lesley Hughes, Macquarie University; John Hewson, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University; Malte Meinshausen, The University of Melbourne, and Will Steffen, Australian National University
We hear a lot about the Morrison government ‘kicking the can down the road’ on emissions reduction. New research reveals the precise burden that forces onto young Australians.
Fitzgibbon’s right-wing parliamentary colleagues seemed to accept his public undermining of Mark Butler. It will be interesting to see if they permit the same treatment of Bowen.
Many Asian nations are shunning fossil fuels, presenting a huge opportunity for Australia’s renewables sector. And one massive project has stepped up to the plate.
Deep Saini and Michelle Grattan discuss the acts of civil disobedience by climate activist group Extinction Rebellion, and consider what Australia’s responsibility is in the Turkey-Syria conflict.
The climate policy has become an article of faith within Labor, and among many supporters. It’s also a policy that in the election split voters Labor needed, attracting some but driving away others.
Opposition resources spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon has had his proposal to bring Labor’s climate change target into line with the government’s immediately torpedoed by the party’s climate spokesman Mark Butler.
Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Discipline of Politics & International Relations, Macquarie School of Social Sciences, Macquarie University