2025-09-12
- Speculation climate target will be low
The Australian Greens have warned Labor against caving to pressure from coal and gas corporations as reports speculate Labor has settled on an unambitious climate target which will be announced next week.
Despite net zero by 2035 being the target consistent with the science, and climate and investor groups urging a target of at least 75%, reports overnight have suggested Labor will shortly announce a target at the “low end” of ambition.
- Imminent final approval of North West Shelf after 15 weeks of negotiating with Woodside
The government also looks set to imminently approve the 40-year extension of Woodside’s mega-polluting North West Shelf project, after nearly four months of negotiating with the gas giant over what the environmental conditions should be. The question of what the government has traded away for the approval must be asked.
The extension puts the 60,000 year old rock art at Murujuga on the Burrup Peninsula at critical risk, and has been subject to a three year Federal Court action under the Aboriginal Heritage Protection Act (AHPA) led by Raelene Cooper.
- Labor’s secret climate risk report to be examined at Senate hearing on Tuesday
The National Climate Risk Analysis report was completed in December 2024 and has been kept from public scrutiny through the election campaign. A Greens OPD in the Senate recently compelled the release of the document, which is rumoured to have been delayed again this week in the context of the Prime Minister’s climate conflict with Pacific leaders.
On Tuesday, the report’s contents and implications will be examined by a hearing of the Environment and Communications committee.
It is understood to contain maps showing suburbs up to five kilometres from the coast under water, as well as confronting findings about the impacts of climate breakdown on key industries, communities, and livelihoods.
Quotes attributable to the Leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Larissa Waters:
“The coming week will reveal whether Labor will pass the climate test or once again use a divided Coalition as a smokescreen for simply backing in what big coal and gas companies want.
“Labor must not cave to coal and gas corporations. They must prioritise community safety and nature in the critical decisions coming this next week.
“A weak climate target would be a dangerous betrayal of community safety.
“A weak target would mean Labor has ticked off on 50 degree days, rolling floods and fires, crop failures, mass species extinctions and security crises in our region, all to boost coal and gas profits.
“Labor must stop gaslighting the public – opening new coal and gas is the opposite of climate action.
“Approval of the North West Shelf gas project is a climate crime that shows where Labor really stands: for gas corporations, against a safe climate future and against First Nations heritage and songlines.
“What a betrayal of Australians who believed that Labor was going to act on climate change - so far the Albanese government have fast-tracked coal and gas, ignored leaking methane, continued fossil fuel subsidies, dismissed suggestions to tax polluters’ super profits, and look set to announce a 2035 target the big polluters will be thrilled with.”