Climate Action Merribek: people in Brunswick, Coburg, Fawkner and Glenroy wanting action on climate change

Merribek NGOs advocate for Australian climate commitments for COP27

October 13, 2022 at 11:32 pm John Englart Leave a comment

The following statement was sent to Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen and Federal MP for Wills Peter Khalil on 9 October 2022 urging them to adopt commitments regarding the Global methane Pledge, climate finance and rejoining the Green Climate Fund, to take to the UN climate conference COP27.

We look like already achieving a partial win on this. On 13 October Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said on Radio National that Australia is considering signing the Global Methane Pledge, reports the Guardian.

We, concerned groups and citizens of Merri-bek municipality in Melbourne, would like to emphasise to you a number of actions and positions we think the Australian government should take to the United Nations Climate Conference COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh.

We acknowledge the work in the Federal Parliament in passing the Climate Act setting minimum climate targets of 43 percent emissions reduction by 2030 and submitting a new National Determined Contribution (NDC) to the UNFCCC prior to the conference.

We also highlight that the extent of climate change driven extreme weather climate impacts have affected millions of people this year. This includes more intense and lengthy heatwaves, droughts, more intense hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones, more intense torrential rainfall causing extensive flood events. These are signals we have a climate emergency and need to step up our commitment to climate action both on a national and international level.

Australia has an opportunity to step up at the UN Climate Conference and we think these positions are pivotal for Australia to commit to:  

1. Australia should join the Global Methane Pledge to cut methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030 on 2020 levels. We support developing sectoral plans for mining, agriculture and landfill, and the 10 methane actions proposed by the Australian NGO community. (See Appendix 1)(1)
2. Support increasing Australia’s share of climate finance to AU$3 billion over 2020-2025 alongside the development of a clear plan to achieve Australia’s fair share of the US$100 billion goal by 2025 – which is AU$4 billion annually in ‘new and additional finance.’(2)
3. Make a robust commitment on loss and damage financing and support the proposal from Pacific Islands nations and other low-income countries for a standalone finance arm to address loss and damage in the UNFCCC. (2)
4. Develop an international climate finance strategy to guide the expansion and delivery of Australia’s climate funding, underpinned by the principles of enhancing ambition; rebalancing power; centering affected communities; addressing intersectional inequalities; and improving accountability, transparency and quality. (2)
5. Australia should rejoin the Green Climate Fund which Prime Minister Morrison withdrew from arbitrarily in October 2018. Australia, when part of the GCF, brought efficiency, transparency and accountability. Rejoining could reinforce good finance practice in GCF and ensure fair allocation of multilateral funding to projects in the Asia-Pacific region.(3)

References:

1. Move Beyond Coal, Support Australia’s 10 Methane Actions, https://www.movebeyondcoal.com/australias_10_methane_actions 
2. Oxfam Australia and Action Aid Australia, September 2022 Report – Falling Short: Australia’s role in Funding Fairer climate action in a warming world https://actionaid.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Climate-Finance-Report_Digital-V2.pdf 
3. Climate Analytics, Briefing – Rejoining the Green Climate Fund is an easy win for the new Australian Government’s climate and foreign policy agendas. By Anna Chapman, Nathan Webb, Patrick Pringle, July 2022 https://climateanalytics.org/media/australia_rejoining_the_gcf.pdf 

John Englart, Convenor of Climate Action Merribek on behalf of the following local climate and sustainability organisations.

Group Endorsements:

Climate Action Merri-bek 

Upfield Urban Forest

ACF Community Group North by Northwest

Neighbours United for Climate Action

Appendix 1: Support Australia’s 10 Methane Actions

On behalf of the Australian NGO community here undersigned, we request that the Australian Government rapidly reduce methane and take the following ten actions:

Establish a national framework & commitment to reduce methane

1. Join 120+ other countries and sign the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) by COP27.

2. Establish a national methane target and include this in Australia’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).

3. Develop a national methane action plan, with specific targets and critical pathways for rapid methane emissions reductions, prioritising action to reduce emissions in the domestic energy sector, and across coal and gas, and accelerating R&D investment in the agricultural sector for methane emissions reductions.

4. Work with states to ensure scientific methane emission pathways are reflected in law and state emissions reduction regulation. Coordinate funding and policy to ensure accurate methane measurement, emissions limits, and mitigation.

Restore integrity to Australian methane measurement

5. Ensure actual measurement of coal and gas methane emissions by updating National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting methods for measurement to continuous measurements on all drainage and ventilation systems for underground coal mines sensitive enough to measure 20 parts per million, and continuous methane measurements at all open cut coal mines and gas wells and infrastructure. Default emissions factors should be removed.

6. Build Australia’s scientific methane assessment capability to develop robust national accounts, baseline studies, reporting and verification – including investing in satellite and on-site verification.

7. Increase transparency in corporate reporting of methane emissions to state and federal regulators and the market, including publication.

8. Develop a comprehensive national database of all inactive and abandoned coal mines, to enable mitigation at abandoned coal mines, and ensure proper rehabilitation to prevent methane leakage upon closure. Methane measurements should be taken at all abandoned point sources.

Limit and mitigate methane emissions

9. Ensure federal policy such as the safeguard mechanism restricts methane emissions from coal and gas facilities and the sectors overall in line with a 1.5C target.

10. Catalyse mitigation by requiring the deployment of all feasible technologies across the energy sector, and cost-recovering government investment in mitigation and monitoring from industry. This is the time for the nation to push hard to preserve a safe climate, and to rejoin the international community who have pledged rapid global efforts to cut methane during this critical decade.

Endorse here: http://www.movebeyondcoal.com/australias_10_methane_actions

Entry filed under: news, Policy, submission, UNFCCC. Tags: climate finance, COP27, International, methane, UNFCCC.