STATES OF AFFAIRS
THE WINDS OF CHANGE THE PAST FEW MONTHS have seen a wave wash over the
Pressure is mounting on Australia as more nations commit to carbon emissions reductions targets and strategies to hasten the transition to renewable energy with electrification of all sectors.
world that will translate into greater action to tackle the climate emergency. Among the most significant, the commitment by China for zero carbon emissions by 2060, Japan’s 2050 zero emissions target, the commitment by the incoming Biden Administration for sweeping energy changes across the US, and the call by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to up the ante on Europe’s carbon emissions reductions from 40 per cent to 55 per cent from 1990s levels by 2030. The UK has been vocal in its move to embrace a range of renewable technologies to meet the goal of net zero emissions by 2050 and “build back greener” through a green industrial revolution that will phase out petrol and diesel cars, possibly by 2030, while delivering thousands of jobs. And Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hosting next year’s UN climate conference, has signalled he wants Australia to commit to bolder action on climate change. Another noteworthy event is the re-election of Jacinda Arden in New Zealand who has doubled down on the island nation’s zero emission targets, to the delight of Fiji’s leader. Closer to home the re-election of Queensland Labor
On January 21 2021, the day after President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration he intends re-signing the Paris climate accord. Within just one month that will take effect. On February 20 the world applauds and breathes a sigh of relief, while holding hope for more. In all Biden has earmarked $US2 trillion over four years on climate-friendly actions including major incentives for electric cars, zero-emissions public transport and the roll out 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations on highways. The Build Back Better plan will help decarbonise the electricity sector by 2035 through massive wind and solar projects and building 1.5 million sustainable homes and housing units, with a commitment to strike net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Can Biden deliver? A hostile, climate sceptic Republican-controlled Senate could well scuttle plans for the ambitious agenda that is light years from the incumbent Administration’s direction that would pump an additional 1.8 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere before 2035 in the country already responsible for around 15 per cent of global emissions. Under Biden’s rule the US will usher in carbon tariffs on imported goods from nations failing to rein in
premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and ACT’s Labor-Greens
emissions. It’s a move that will send ripples across the
Government delivers greater certainty around climate
globe. Already a barrage of questions has been lobbed
friendly policies for the foreseeable future, despite the
at Australian policy makers about domestic emissions
lack of direction from the nation’s capital.
reductions targets, or the glaring lack thereof, and
Momentum can also be seen right across the business sector with broad consensus for net zero emissions among business groups, the mighty (and ever growing)
Australia is looking increasingly like a pariah on the world stage.
RE100 collective, the National Farmers Federation and
Out in the cold
Farmers for Climate Auction, investors and lenders
The disconnect from reality is manifest in the fossil
including BlackRock, APRA, ASIC, the Reserve Bank and others mindful of climate risk to assets. ANZ is divesting its coal interests (a move slammed by Coalition ministers!), and NAB which currently has about $700 million worth of thermal coal assets plans
fuel, gas-led economic recovery and a climate denying government talking up its Technology Investment Roadmap. A plan to pump $18 billion of Commonwealth taxpayer investments into hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, soil carbon, storage
to reduce that figure to $350 million by 2028, and to
options and ‘low-carbon’ steel and aluminium
$0 by 2035 in order to manage risk as the bank “tilts
production.
itself much, much towards renewables.”
The Roadmap has received widespread criticism. Not
The community has rallied in big numbers behind
only does the ‘map’ fail to set out a timetable for results
former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s petition for a royal
but it also proposes costly unproven carbon capture and
commission into the Murdoch media monopoly and
storage technologies and debases clean energy agencies
climate denying NewsCorp that backs Australia’s pro-
the CEFC and ARENA by facilitating polluting gas assets.
fossil fuel government. With more than half a million
As Simon Holmes à Court states, the best way to
signatures, it’s taken top billing as Australia’s largest
improve CCS, “a colossal failure that’s already gobbled
ever e-petition. A sign of the times, and of discontent?
up a fortune in government handout”, is to redeploy
The clock is ticking down to next year’s UN climate conference, but some even bigger forces are at work,
8 SUMMER 2020
Liberty and democracy
the money into energy storage. The ANU’s Frank Jotzo commented the plan would
and now all eyes now on the United States whose
drive down Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions in the
incoming Democratic commander-in-chief has made
long run, but “we are not facing a modest long-term
clear his mission is to steer America and “build back
problem, [in climate change] we have an immediate
better”.
large-scale problem.”
