"Farcical"; "Abysmal"; "Hamstrung" - Australia's Decade Of Denial And Inertia On Climate Continues

[hatrack]

Right now the government is utterly hamstrung on the issue of climate change. After more than a decade of obstruction and doing the least possible, the rest of the world is changing fast and the debate in Australia needs to get real. As Katharine Murphy put it so well on Tuesday, the government has no real climate change policy to speak of, but they do have a hell of a lot of fighting over pretending that there is.

Which is more abysmal – the farcical electric vehicles discussion paper that does not seek to reduce emissions, or the deputy prime minister suggesting agriculture be “carved out” from any net zero target that does not actually exist? It is all a symptom of treating climate change as an issue that should be put off until later.

To be honest, even the ALP is susceptible to this when it remains unwilling to commit to cutting emissions by 2030, out of a (probably correct) belief that any such target will be politically damaging. As I noted last week, pushing things off till later will not only require more drastic cuts, but that we will also quickly reach points where any cuts will not be enough to prevent temperatures from rising above either 1.5C or 2C above pre-industrial levels. And with the EU now exploring a carbon border tax, all those years of refusing to act and obstructing action to notionally protect our economy are about to cause a massive economic shock.

EDIT

The latest government projections have only electricity emissions falling by 2030, while the stationary energy, transport and agriculture sectors will increase emissions. The transport, agriculture and stationary energy (which is, for example, the emissions produced in manufacturing and construction) sectors are expected to grow from a combined 263Gt C02 in 2020 to 277Gt C02 in 2030 – a 5% increase in the next decade and some 13% above the 2005 levels.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2021/feb/11/australias-climate-policy-is-a-mix-of-delusion-and-denial-we-need-to-get-real

[Mickju]

1. This is what happens when you repeatedly elect right wing governments.

The Rupert Murdoch effect