Although Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has so far struck a conciliatory tone at the U.N. Climate Summit in Paris, known as COP21, he broke with other world leaders Tuesday by refusing to sign a pledge phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.
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He said farmers continued to engage in a range of emissions reduction activities but any reduction commitments must be realised by workable government policies that supported the economy’s continued growth while lowering emissions intensity over time.
Chanting “We want climate justice and we want it now” and other slogans and holding placard such as “People before profit” and “100% Renewable Energy Now”, the marching crowd departed from the lawn in front of the Parliament House, down the Parliament Drive and round to the Reconciliation Point in front of the Old Parliament House.
As the Climate Change Authority’s report noted, the government’s centrepiece $2.55 Direct Action policy to pay polluters not to emit could be scaled up by increasing government funding – but cost could become unsustainable.
While the authority agreed that Australia is on track to meet its 2020 target, the authors said meeting the government’s 2030 target “is likely to remain a substantial task”. Australia, too, was missing from a list of nations pledging $343 million for the most vulnerable countries – some of which are South Pacific neighbours.
A long-time observer of the climate negotiations, Deputy Chief Executive of the Climate Institute Erwin Jackson, said the decision by Australia to ratify the second phase of Kyoto was meaningful and would given Australian business access to global carbon markets.
As hopes of a deal increase, Mr Turnbull said the Paris agreement was only a “step along the way to achieving a net zero-emissions world”.
“It is therefore imperative that industry is comprehensively involved in the development of any future policy and government efforts, to help encourage increased farmer participation in emissions reduction programs”, he said. Speaking in French, Mr Turnbull expressed Australia’s unflinching solidarity with the people of Paris. “So they are actively encouraging sub-national governments to attend”.
In the case of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s generally safe speech, fresh details were in short supply.
“He’s keeping the right wing of his own party happy”, and retaining the substance of Tony Abbott’s policies, Mr Shorten said.
Prof Wright said “the climate finance commitment comes from Australia’s existing, much denuded aid budget”, and did not represent an additional commitment. But advocates for climate action in Paris say the symbolic move, and Turnbull’s lofty rhetoric, don’t go close to undoing the damage done by Tony Abbott.
Mr Shorten’s also promising a review of his party’s long-term climate change goals every five years.
However, most leaders will leave after the first day of the conference, and much of the work will be left to a 40,000-strong force of diplomats and public servants from around the world.
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“It is not simply that we are optimistic about an agreement, we are optimistic because we believe we have, as a global community, as humanity, the ability to innovate and imagine the technologies to enable to make these big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions”.
