2024-04-30
Communicating the Greens Climate Change policies in 60 seconds isn’t easy, but the essential points are a rapid and just transition out of fossil fuels to deliver an emissions reduction of 75% by 2030 and using our abundant sunshine and wind to become a renewable energy superpower.
By Rob Delves, Green Issue Co-editor
“What are you Greens doing about the threat of climate change?” Well, a hell of a lot actually, which sort of makes it challenging to provide a concise response. Given that I don’t expect the questioner to listen intently for more than about 60 seconds, how can I communicate the most important crucial points in an interesting, persuasive way?
Climate change and energy is such a huge and complex topic, but given the wording of the question, at least I can assume two things. Firstly, the person is interested to know about our plan. Secondly, the person accepts the warnings of climate scientists. So I don’t need to talk about how extreme the climate crisis really is and how little time we have left to make the changes required.
Before doing research on what The Greens have been saying and doing, here are my gut feelings about the three most important things that should be said:
- No new or expanded fossil fuel projects for domestic consumption or export.
- A rapid transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources in every sector of the economy, reducing carbon emissions by 75% by 2030.
- This transition will be difficult and must be done fairly to support communities affected by the changes ‒ but will also have many positives, including health benefits and job opportunities.
So, how do these stack up against what The Greens MPs and policy wonks have actually been saying and doing? I think the best place to seek conversation messaging isn’t the very detailed Climate Change and Energy policy, but rather the campaign-oriented plan we took to the 2022 federal election.
Five highlights from our climate plan for the 2022 election ‒ “Powering Past Coal and Gas”
1. RAPID EMISSIONS REDUCTION: Shift electricity generation to renewables and storage. Increase electricity production to allow the electrification of all households, businesses, transport and industry. The targets are for a 75% reduction on 2005 levels by 2030 and for net-zero emissions by 2035. Critical to this task is not only the removal of fossil fuel production from our domestic economy, but also to phase out our exports of coal and gas.
2. RENEWABLE ENERGY SUPERPOWER: Aim to be a net-negative emissions economy with over 100 million tonnes of net drawdown every year by 2050. Our goal of reaching 700% renewables is critical as it will allow us to become a renewable energy superpower developing new export and manufacturing industries such as green hydrogen, direct transmission of renewable energy and the production of green metals.
3. REGENERATIVE LAND USE: Soak up the remaining emissions and move to negative emissions by protecting our forests and landscapes and reform our agriculture to drawdown carbon from the atmosphere, so we can start to return to a safe climate.
4. A JUST TRANSITION: This will be a significant but manageable structural adjustment to our economy and some regional communities. That is why support for affected workers and their communities to shift to employment in other mining sectors or new industries is vital.
5. LOTS OF ADVANTAGES: Not only will it create 805,000 jobs, but it will improve the budget bottom line by $51.9 billion over the decade as we remove handouts for coal, oil and gas industries and make them pay for the damage they are causing.
The plan also contained important mechanisms for delivering this transition, while supporting communities and businesses. These included:
- $25 billion FutureGrid fund to enable the rewiring of Australia
- Subsidies to electrify homes
- A levy on coal exports, with the funds raised used to support disaster recovery and resilience, as well as investment in green hydrogen and green metals
- A national energy efficiency scheme
- An economy-wide price on carbon
I’d like to include these practical measures when I’m talking about climate action, but probably not in the initial statement – maybe if there’s a follow-up question, such as “how are you going to do all that?”
My 60 second answer
I think my original three main points do some justice to our climate message, but I’ve edited them to arrive at the following:
To limit the damage now apparent with the onset of climate change, the Greens believe we must reduce emissions by 75% by 2030. Fossil fuels are the main cause of global heating, so we need to get out of coal, gas and oil fast. Absolutely no new or expanded fossil fuel projects and transition to a clean energy economy. It must be a just transition. That is why support for affected workers and their communities to shift to employment in other mining sectors or new industries is vital. With our abundant sunshine and wind, we can become a renewable energy superpower developing new export and manufacturing industries such as green hydrogen, direct transmission of renewable energy and the production of green metals. And creating over 800,000 new jobs.
That’s about 55 seconds speaking at a steady pace. But still a bit too much information overload? And yet nothing about the transport or land use sectors. I’d appreciate feedback from others who have experience in climate change conversations.
Header photo: Solar panels, wind turbines, and an electricity pylon; unidentified location. Credit: https://pixabay.com/en/users/hpgruesen-2204343/ CC
[Opinions expressed are those of the author and not official policy of Greens WA]