Posts tagged ‘Tony Abbott’
Kelvin Thomson MP lambasts Abbott Government over low climate targets
Kelvin Thomson, Moreland’s Federal MP for the seat of Wills in the House of Representatives, rebuked the Abbott Government for the low climate targets that were announced on 11 August 2015.
Kelvin wrote on his blog on 13 August:
The Liberal Government’s announcement that it plans to reduce greenhouse emissions by 26-28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 falls a long way short of what is needed to effectively tackle extreme weather events.
Its claim to be comparable with the United States is utterly misleading. The US plan is indeed for 26-28 per cent reductions, but by 2025, not 2030. How on earth can we claim to be going as fast as the United States when it will take us 5 years longer to get there?
Moreover the Liberal target is way short of the recommendation of Australia’s Climate Change Authority. The Climate Change Authority was charged with taking into account not only climate science and current and future climate change impacts, it was also tasked with examining what other countries are doing, and the economic and social impacts of climate action. Its investigation was comprehensive and its recommendations deserve to be treated with the utmost seriousness.
Read more at Kelvin Thomson’s blog.
Tony Abbott Government fails on Australian climate targets
Reposted from John Englart’s climate blog with some updates:
Australia’s post 2020 climate targets were approved in cabinet last night ahead of a Liberal and National Party room caucus meeting today. The post 2020 climate targets were announced at a press conference (See transcript and media release) today and amount to 26 to 28 per cent emissions reduction on 2005 levels by 2030.
In comparison, the Climate Change Authority which has investigated both the science and comparative international action, called for a 40 to 60 per cent cut on 2000 levels by 2030. Other reputable organisations have also called for higher targets. The Australian Academy of Science called for emissions cuts of 30 to 40 per cent for the same period. The independent Climate Institute urged a 45 per cent cut on 2005 levels by 2025.
Climate Action Moreland submission to the Climate change Taskforce was that Australia should shift our 2020 target from 5 per cent on 2000 levels to 25 per cent reduction on 1990 levels. This then would place Australian climate action in accord with what the best scientific advice demands as our fair share. For 2025 we should reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent reduction on 1990 levels. Norway has already committed to this target. For 2030 we should reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 per cent reduction on 1990 levels. Switzerland has already committed to this target. Australia is responsible for about 1.5 per cent of global emissions at 18.3 tonnes per capita, but our export coal accounts for another 3.3 per cent of global emissions. Export LNG would also increase global emissions.
.@GreenJ @YaThinkN export #coal adds further 3.3% to our 1.5% global emissions. #Auspol
https://t.co/zLPMvXJ359 pic.twitter.com/EFPH3QzvB0
— John Englart EAM (@takvera) August 12, 2015
“The initial target offer ahead of the Paris climate negotiations in December is a core test of the government’s climate and economic credibility,” said John Connor, CEO of The Climate Institute in a media statement. “This target fails tests both of scientific credibility and economic responsibility in a world increasingly focused on modernising and cleaning up energy as well as economic systems. This target is bad for the climate and bad for our international competitiveness.”
During the press conference Tony Abbott outlined that protecting the coal industry was more important than protecting the environment: “Our policy doesn’t depend upon the demise of coal. In fact, the only way to protect the coal industry is to go with the sorts of policies that we have. That’s why I think our policies are not only good for the environment but very good for jobs.” he said.
In a recent public opinion poll 50 per cent of respondents wanted renewables favoured over coal and only 6 per cent favoured support for the coal industry over renewables.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, to a question whether Australia is still committed to keeping temperature rises below two degrees? how Australia’s target fits in with that goal which we agreed to in Cancun in 2010, responded by evading and not answering the question.
“The Paris meeting is about getting a global agreement where every country puts forward their targets in advance of the meeting and then there will be a discussion about the framework action that would be required in order to meet the two degree goal.” she replied.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt outlined how the Government would achieve these targets without a carbon price. They will continue using the Emissions Reduction Fund with the addition of the safeguards mechanism. Other measures include developing vehicle efficiency standards, implementing ozone and fluoro carbon measures as part of the next round of the Montreal Protocol, and develeopments in technological change such as in battery storage technologies.
When asked if other abatement measures would leave room for lifting the Renewable energy target, Prime Minister Abbott responded, “It doesn’t depend upon a higher Renewable Energy Target. It assumes the target that is now in place, which is effectively a 23 per cent target.”
Moreland residents attend Peoples Climate march while Townsville gives a satirical salute
Did you notice more people on the trams and trains going into the city from Moreland, not to mention more cyclists going into the city? I did. We were all going in to attend the People’s Climate march, a global event at 2700 locations in 160 countries. Some big, most small, and a huge turnout in New York.
New York hosted the main march to send a strong message to the 120 plus heads of state attending the Emergency UN climate summit called by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. And what a march it was with early estimates of 310,000 people, later revised upwards due to the large crowds to 400,000 people. It is the largest climate protest that has so far occurred and compares with similar large protests in the US on moral and ethical issues.
Here in Melbourne we were part of a 30,000 strong protest, a rebuff to the anti-climate policies of the Federal and State Governments. There were also events in regional towns around the state. You can read my report of the Melbourne Peoples Climate protest and regional events at my blog.
Tony Abbott the climate Wally
Unfortunately our Prime Minister Tony Abbott is a ‘climate Wally’ and is not attending the Climate Summit even though he is in New York the very next day to discuss the threat of terrorism. Instead he is sending Julie Bishop MP, the Foreign Minister, but with no increased targets to present.
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Peoples Climate Mobilisation calls for action
Are you coming to the climate protest event of the year this weekend? Thousands of protest events around the globe mobilising hundreds of thousands of people to coincide with the Peoples Climate March in New York City being held just before a UN climate summit at the United Nations headquarters.
Tony Abbott will be in New York to speak at the United Nations on terrorism, yet will not attend the climate summit hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon which will have at least 125 heads of state attending. Australian Foreign Affairs minister Julie Bishop will be leading the Australian delegation. The summit is designed to build momentum for national and international climate action, including a new global climate treaty that will be finalized in at the UNFCCC talks in Paris at the end of next year.
New York Mobilization organizers say they are looking for “Action, Not Words” at the summit.
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Join the National Day of Climate Action 17 November
Update: Well done to everyone that attended the 30,000 strong rally (Estimated by the Age reporter) in Melbourne, indeed the 60,000+ people around Australia. CAM member John Englart wrote up a report of the rally for his climate blog, which also provides a wonderful summary of events around Australia. Also see the Getup media summary page.
Come and join the members of Climate Action Moreland and thousands of others at the National Day of Climate Action at 11am Sunday 17 November, Treasury Gardens Melbourne.
Come along to stand in solidarity with Yeb Sano, the Filipino lead climate negotiator at the UN climate Conference in Warsaw, presently on hunger strike in solidarity with the people of the Philippines suffering the devastation of Super Typhoon Haiyan, clearly linked to climate change.
Or stand in support of the people of the pacific island nations under threat from rising seas. Or the residents of the Blue Mountains who so recently faced raging bushfires so unusually early in the season.
It has been the hottest summer on record, the hottest September and October on record, the hottest 12 month period on record according to the Climate Council latest report on Off the Charts: Record breaking October heat & climate change
Today the Abbott Government introduced the legislation to repeal all the work of the previous Labor Government, not only on carbon pricing but also the positive legislation on clean renewable energy.
Our Federal MP for Wills, Kelvin Thomson, stood today with the Climate Guardian Angels in Canberra in opposition to the repeal of the carbon price.
Many nations, including the USA and China, are ramping up action to reduce carbon emissions through carbon taxes, emission trading schemes and even regulatory action. The Federal Government is intent on winding back the small degree of positive action we have in place.
The Climate Change Authority recommended in a draft report recently that our small emissions reduction target of 5 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020 should be lifted to 15 to 25 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020 due to increasing action by a range of other nations and trading partners. Scientists have told us since at least the Bali roadmap in 2007 we should be reducing emissions by 25 to 40 percent on 1990 levels by 2020. Read the Climate Council summary of this draft report.
But the Abbott Government, despite numerous assurances while in opposition of it’s support for the target range commitment of 5 to 25 per cent target by 2020 based upon comparable action by other nations, have now even dropped that pretense of bipartisan support.
All we get now is $3.2 billion as budgeted for emission reduction, mostly to be spent via a reverse auction, with no guarantee we will even achieve the 5 per cent base emissions reduction target. Tom Arup in the Sydney Morning Herald sums up: Tony Abbott stifling Australia’s climate change ambitions
This is a major reversal to ongoing commitments he gave as opposition leader, according to the Climate Institute, who have put together a comprehensive list of assurances (PDF), all now broken.
Already Australia has earned a dubious Fossil of the Day Award at the Warsaw Climate talks, conferred by civil society organisations
The Abbott Government decided not to have ministerial representation at the United Nations climate negotiations in Warsaw. Australia often plays a pivotal role in these negotiations as part of the Umbrella group, and often has a diplomatic importance above our economic status as a middle level power.
“If you are not at the table, you are probably on the menu,” said Erwin Jackson of The Climate Institute. Australia Won’t be missed from these negotiations, which is a missed opportunity and will result in lowering our influence diplomatically on a global level, not only on climate but also on other issues.
John Howard has now stated that the only reason he supported an Emissions Trading Scheme going into the 2007 Federal Election was political expediency in neutralising the issue.
So what we need to do is make repeal of the Australian carbon price an expensive political proposition that will cost Tony Abbott dearly at the next election if not earlier. Malcolm Turnbull is still waiting in the wings and knows Tony Abbott’s climate policy is ‘bullshit’, if anyone had any doubts.
See you on Sunday and hope you can get involved in the grassroots climate action movement.
John Englart
Climate Action Moreland member
Climate Action Merribek: people in Brunswick, Coburg, Fawkner and Glenroy wanting action on climate change 