2020-11-27
This month the world continued to change before our eyes, in some ways for the better. All of this is leaving Australia out in the cold, with nowhere left for Scott Morrison to hide.
By Adam Bandt
Biden and Boris
The world is changing. While Biden is no Bernie, the end of Donald Trump is a good thing for America, and it’s looking like a great thing for global efforts to get moving on climate. John Kerry, upon being appointed the US Climate Envoy was clear: the existing Paris Agreement commitments are not enough to stop runaway global heating.
President-Elect Joe Biden has committed to hold a global climate summit in the first 100 days of his Presidency to increase national emissions pledges. Everyone will be asked to pledge to do more over the next ten years, which scientists are calling the ‘critical decade’. The Liberal and Labor parties must now align Australia’s 2030 targets with the science.
And how about Boris Johnson? Not exactly what we’d consider a model leader on most issues, but he’s trying to step up on climate by outlining a ‘Green Industrial Revolution’, with everything from zero-carbon electricity for the whole nation to phasing out combustion engine cars by 2030.
All of this is leaving Australia out in the cold. With Trump gone, there is nowhere left for Scott Morrison to hide. If we don’t drastically and rapidly change our tune, we’ll be left hanging out with the demagogues and deniers from Russia, Brazil and Saudia Arabia at the next climate conference.
I’m confident that the Australian people do not want to be global pariahs. It’s our job to make sure that people understand just how far out of whack with the rest of the world the Liberals and Labor are. If we can make that understood, they will either move rapidly or be severely punished at the ballot box.
Cormann
While we’re on the rest of the world and climate change, how about Mathias Cormann trying to convince the OECD he’s a climate champion! He’s the guy who fought to kill any positive climate or energy policy in Parliament for his whole political career. Now, he’s charging the public $4300 an hour to fly around in a military jet, angling for a job that will get him $375k a year tax-free, saying he believes in a ‘green recovery’. I wrote to the OECD nations this week to lay out his record, and why I don’t think he should get the job. The last thing we need is for major global bodies to be run by climate wreckers.
Narrabri
Make no mistake: the Narrabri Gas Project is a climate bomb. The Federal Environment Minister lit the fuse this week, and sadly Labor is backing it.
But there’s still time to stop it. Despite Federal Government approval for the Santos Narrabri gas field, the community still has two years to stop the project and save Narrabri. Santos has until 2022 to decide whether to proceed with the project following an 18 month appraisal phase. With the project not stacking up economically, environmentally, or against our obligation to stop global warming, pressure must be kept on the government and Santos to not proceed.
Gas is as dirty as coal, and significantly more expensive. Cracking open the Narrabri gas wells doesn’t stack up economically or environmentally and Santos has two years to realise that. Over the course of this 18 month study, Santos will see the world increasingly choose renewables over fossil fuels like coal or gas. A gas-fired recovery doesn’t make sense now, and in 2022 it will be as out-of-date as whale oil.
Environment Minister Sussan Ley may have waved this through, with her Labor counterpart Terri Butler’s support, but it’s far from over. The community has been fighting this climate bomb for a decade, and they’re not going to stop now. When the Liberals look at this project they only see big donations coming their way from the methane industry. The community looks at Santos and sees poisoned water, expensive energy, and a dead climate.
People are angry, and they’re not going to give up that easily. To everyone fighting against Narrabri, whether it’s on the picket lines in the Pilliga or from further afield, we’re right there in the thick of it with you. If we want to save our climate, this project can’t go ahead, and the Greens will join you in the fight against climate destruction.
Yours in the fight for climate justice,
Adam.