emission reduction: how Australia's efforts are viewed internationally
So how are Australia’s efforts to reduce their greenhouse emissions viewed overseas?
Not very well, in fact. In May 2020, the Government released a so-called carbon road map of (mostly) green technologies that the government may support, including gas and carbon capture and storage (CCS), on the advice of an expert panel in order to create an economy that emits less carbon provided it maintains growth and jobs.
But the road map did not contain a quantifiable set of objectives, lacked any clear targets for emissions reduction, and did not outline how much less carbon the government wants Australia to emit over the coming years, or how it might meet such targets, this despite the fact that the entire global effort in combating climate change is predicated on setting and meeting targets.
As Australian National University Emeritus Professor Will Steffen points out in the same article: "To stay within the two degrees predicated by the Paris accord we need to reach net-zero emissions by 2040-2045 at the very latest: 2050 (as suggested by the Minister who spoke of reducing emissions to net-zero ‘in the second half of the century’) is too late, we've already put too much carbon into the atmosphere," and the Paris Agreement also includes an interim target. For Australia, that means reducing emissions by at least 26 per cent by 2030, based on 2005 levels, or a cumulative 695 million tonnes of carbon.
According to the UN the world is currently on track for a 3.2C temperature rise. In order to pull back towards 1.5 degrees of warming the world now needs to cut its emissions by 7.6 per cent annually. Each year we delay action, that figure rises. Scientists tell us that to stave off the worst impacts of climate change we need to keep global warming under 2 degrees and as close to 1.5 degrees as possible. Australia agreed to this at the Paris climate talks in 2015. As we have seen Australia ranks among the highest per capita carbon emitters on earth: with 0.3 per cent of the world's population we release 1.07 per cent of greenhouse gases.
So what would a comprehensive plan look like? According to Professor Malte Meinshausen, founding director of the University of Melbourne's climate and energy college, it would:
Not very well, in fact. In May 2020, the Government released a so-called carbon road map of (mostly) green technologies that the government may support, including gas and carbon capture and storage (CCS), on the advice of an expert panel in order to create an economy that emits less carbon provided it maintains growth and jobs.
But the road map did not contain a quantifiable set of objectives, lacked any clear targets for emissions reduction, and did not outline how much less carbon the government wants Australia to emit over the coming years, or how it might meet such targets, this despite the fact that the entire global effort in combating climate change is predicated on setting and meeting targets.
As Australian National University Emeritus Professor Will Steffen points out in the same article: "To stay within the two degrees predicated by the Paris accord we need to reach net-zero emissions by 2040-2045 at the very latest: 2050 (as suggested by the Minister who spoke of reducing emissions to net-zero ‘in the second half of the century’) is too late, we've already put too much carbon into the atmosphere," and the Paris Agreement also includes an interim target. For Australia, that means reducing emissions by at least 26 per cent by 2030, based on 2005 levels, or a cumulative 695 million tonnes of carbon.
According to the UN the world is currently on track for a 3.2C temperature rise. In order to pull back towards 1.5 degrees of warming the world now needs to cut its emissions by 7.6 per cent annually. Each year we delay action, that figure rises. Scientists tell us that to stave off the worst impacts of climate change we need to keep global warming under 2 degrees and as close to 1.5 degrees as possible. Australia agreed to this at the Paris climate talks in 2015. As we have seen Australia ranks among the highest per capita carbon emitters on earth: with 0.3 per cent of the world's population we release 1.07 per cent of greenhouse gases.
So what would a comprehensive plan look like? According to Professor Malte Meinshausen, founding director of the University of Melbourne's climate and energy college, it would:
- begin with an optimistic vision of an Australia in 2030 with a bustling outwardly focused economy fuelled by renewable energy and meeting emissions reduction targets;
- and chart a course on how to achieve that goal based on four pillars:
o the first would be regulatory reform centred on some form of carbon price.
o the second would outline how the government would help to strengthen the grid and buttress it with batteries and technologies such as pumped hydro to store and dispatch power. o the third would consider how our land management practices could arrest carbon emissions from forestry loss and boost the amount of carbon we stored in soil via agricultural practices, and o the fourth would detail how the government would help Australia become a heavy industry powerhouse, supporting green energy intensive manufacturing. |
"We already know what the technologies are”, he said. “We need regulatory reform and a plan to use them." Surveys of emerging technologies have been used to delay real action.
Of the 61 nations whose climate policy was considered by a group of think tanks including the NewClimate Institute, the Climate Action Network and Germanwatch when the Climate Change Performance Index for the year 2020 was published earlier this year Australia ranked as being among the bottom five performers, 56th, down from 55th the previous year. The table below tells the story:
Of the 61 nations whose climate policy was considered by a group of think tanks including the NewClimate Institute, the Climate Action Network and Germanwatch when the Climate Change Performance Index for the year 2020 was published earlier this year Australia ranked as being among the bottom five performers, 56th, down from 55th the previous year. The table below tells the story:
Fast forward to September 2020, by which time Australia’s Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor had released his statement detailing the five low-emissions technologies the Australian government would prioritise for funding as the basis of the government’s emission reduction policy.
Let's have a look at the independent scientific analysis of this "initiative" by the Climate Action Tracker, which tracks progress towards the globally agreed aim of holding warming well below 2°C, and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C. First of all, the bad news:
Let's have a look at the independent scientific analysis of this "initiative" by the Climate Action Tracker, which tracks progress towards the globally agreed aim of holding warming well below 2°C, and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C. First of all, the bad news:
And from there, it only gets worse. The comprehensive assessment made as at 20 September 2020 is that "Australia’s economic recovery is not ‘green’, but follows a gas-led recovery and continues support for fossil fuels through a so-called ‘technology-neutral’ approach". After dealing with the fall in Australia's GHG emissions projections for 2030 due to COVID-19, it goes on:
The Australian government has initiated a gas-led recovery rather than a green recovery, and has continued to signal its support for the coal industry. The government has shown no intention of updating its Paris Agreement target nor adopting a net-zero emissions target, with the Prime Minister specifically ruling this out. The Government is focusing on what it calls a “technology neutral” approach, which is contradicted by its focus on gas. Renewable energy investments have dropped to 2017 levels due to the uncertainty in government policy direction. There is a lack of climate action, despite rising climate impacts such as the catastrophic bushfires that enveloped several states in late 2019 and early 2020. The CAT rates Australia’s Paris Agreement target as “Insufficient”.
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For the full report which is well worth reading see here.