Australian Candidate To Lead OECD Trying To "Pivot" On His Wretched Record On Climate Policy
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Mathias Cormann, one of the final four contenders to replace Ángel Gurría as OECD secretary general, was finance minister in the conservative government that abolished a carbon pricing scheme that had driven cuts in Australia’s emissions. Despite his record of campaigning against the previous Labor government’s “job-destroying carbon tax”, Cormann has put environmental action at the centre of his OECD campaign, arguing the body “can and must provide important global leadership to drive ambitious and effective action on climate change”.
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“Cormann also tried to abolish Australia’s green bank, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Thankfully he didn’t succeed. The CEFC and the renewable energy target – which they also tried to kill – and the Renewable Energy Agency – which they also tried to kill – unleashed a wave of investment in clean energy.”
Merzian had a close-up view of many of these developments, having working on climate change in both the Department of Climate Change and the Department of Foreign Affairs between 2009 and 2018, which included acting as Australia’s lead negotiator on adaptation to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. He notes Cormann was also instrumental in backing a Liberal party leadership challenge in 2018 against the then prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, “who was trying to bring forward a very modest reform to the electricity sector” known as the national energy guarantee. Some conservatives in government ranks wanted to avoid legislating emission reduction obligations and the push led to Scott Morrison becoming prime minister.
“As much as Cormann talks about a shared approach to green recoveries, his government has pushed a gas-fired recovery [from the pandemic] – one that he was involved in pulling together last year as the minister for finance,” Merzian says.
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/19/mathias-cormann-the-australian-oecd-candidate-trying-to-airbrush-his-climate-record
