2022-12-01
Greens Leader Adam Bandt says the first Annual Climate Statement to Parliament is a good result of the Greens’ deal to pass the government’s Climate Change Bill and marks a welcome change from a decade of climate denial, but that the statement was missing the elephant in the room: the impact of new coal and gas.
Mr Bandt also said the latest Quarterly Emissions Projections also released today showed pollution from oil and gas projects was rising.
Quotes attributable to Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP:
“It’s welcome that the government is now talking about climate in Parliament, but the Minister’s statement was missing two very important words: ‘coal’ and ‘gas’.
“The government’s figures see gas pollution rising. Gas is fuelling the climate crisis and pollution is forecast to be even higher in 2030 than today.
“The government has pledged methane cuts of 30% by 2030, but their figures have it rising instead.
“The 114 new coal and gas projects in the pipeline will blow the government’s climate targets out of the water, but the government has no plan to deal with them.
“Next week's response to the environmental laws review must include a ‘climate trigger’ to ensure the climate impact of proposed new coal and gas projects are assessed under our environment laws.
“Over the coming months we will be talking with the government about its proposed reforms to the Safeguard Mechanism, which covers the coal and gas sector. We want to work with the government to ensure the Safeguard Mechanism delivers real and deep cuts to pollution, not just fake offsets and an excuse for coal and gas to expand and keep polluting.”