‘CLIMATE HUSTLING!’    IS THIS AUSTRALIA’S INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE ACTION SHAME?!

 

The following is based on an article written by Polly Hemming, Director, Climate & Energy Program, The Australia Institute. 

Polly attended the recent United Nations Climate Ambition Summit in New York. The Summit is an important opportunity for talks on climate action by countries, prior to COP28 in December. 

Her article, ‘Meet the climate hustlers’ was published in ‘The Saturday Paper, No 470, October 2023, p7. It raises serious questions about Australia’s:

  •  lack of action on climate change;
  •  significant role in contributing to Greenhouse gas emissions internationally; AND PARTICULARLY, 
  • representations at international meetings on climate change and the strategies of its negotiators deliberately designed to preserve Australia’s intentions of continuing to contribute to climate change and its significant impacts through the continued AND EXPANDED extraction, export and burning of fossil fuel while at the same time attempting to appear as though it is doing the very opposite!

 

  • The following is a summary of the main points of Hemming's article. But the title, ‘Meet the climate HUSTLERS’ is strongly indicative of the major arguments!

 

  • Australia’s negotiators at international climate meetings are regarded generally as ‘charming, easy to get along with and fun’. These same people, however, are also identified by Hemming as those ‘directly involved in gaming, obstructing and undermining international climate agreements’!

 

  • Australia and its negotiators are ‘very sophisticated at a few things. Protecting our gas and coal industry is one of them. Australia’s climate policies are all designed to protect fossil fuels!’ - while at the same time convincing the international community of the opposite!

 

  • The strategies used to achieve this duplicity? – ‘rebranding as a renewable energy superpower: feigning ambition through increased climate’ TARGETS' [not necessarily with BUDGET or ACTION]; having a ‘thriving carbon offset industry’ [a major strategy of previous and current Australian governments costing millIons of dollars with dubious, if any, impact on permanently reducing greenhouse gases but allowing big emitters to keep emitting ; ‘greenwashing’– see the article by Nick Feick, The Great Swindle: Stock ‘N Coal ‘The Monthly’, March, 2023, pp 26-32] also summary of his article on this website].

 

  • Australia’s ‘diplomacy and foreign policy ,… at international gatherings such as the UN, the G20 or Pacific Islands Forum,.. is designed to either secure ongoing markets for our gas and coal or to obstruct the climate ambition of others so those markets are not undermined.’ Example- Kyoto Protocol agreements- Australia successfully lobbied strongly – and long- to INCREASE its emissions! There is even an ‘Australian clause’ – a loophole that allows Australia to claim emissions reductions made– BEFORE the Protocol!

 

  • Invited Keynote speaking spots at the New York Climate Ambition Summit are reserved for ‘only countries that could demonstrate overarching leadership and credible action in response to climate change.’ AUSTRALIA WAS NOT INVITED!’

 

  • ‘Australia makes an effort to have a presence at international climate meetings like the Summit.‘ ‘It does so to ensure it can control the narrative.’

 

  • An example of Australian ‘climate hustling’- TUVALU. Tuvalu is a tiny nation chain of low lying atolls in the Pacific Ocean. Its highest point is 4.5 metres above seal level. 40% of the main island is already submerged with king tides. Some islands in the Pacific Ocean have already disappeared below the ocean as a result of sea level rise because of the impacts of climate change.

 

  • Just after the 2022 election, Australia’s Foreign Minister toured the Pacific Islands. Meeting with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat she pledged, on climate change, ‘Australia will stand shoulder to shoulder with our Pacific family in response to this crisis’

 

  • At the UN New York Climate Action Ambition meeting she announced a ‘long-term climate adaptation plan’ in partnership with Tuvalu. But as Hemming reports, the words of this announcement subtly [??!] but significantly changed to ‘Australia will stand shoulder to shoulder with countries in the Pacific region TO BUILD RESILIENCE to climate change.’ 

 

  • INTERPRETATION OF THE CHANGE HEMMING SUGGESTS: Australia ‘is not going to stop the thing driving up sea levels, temperatures, exacerbating disasters and food shortages, but we’ll help you live with the damage we’re doing!’  

 

  • Australia gives more aid to the fossil fuel industry THAN it does to the Pacific region! The Australian government major energy projects data base lists 100 + fossil fuel projects in stages of development and approval!  Even though every climate scientist in the world says that to AVOID a critical rise of 1.5 degrees in global temperatures - which would totally destroy Tuvalu and other Pacific island and some Torres Strait island nations-  THERE MUST BE NO NEW fossil-fuel mines and projects.

 

  • In the same week of the NY meeting and the announcement of the adaptation partnership with  Tuvalu, Australia’s  Environment Minister was in the Australian Federal Court with two major coal companies arguing that the government was right in ignoring any link between fossil fuels and climate change when giving approval for any of the 100+ new coal and gas mines!

 

  • The final word on Australia’s two-faced duplicity and shame in regards to its participation in international climate meetings like COP and Climate Ambition Summits are maybe provided by the Finance Minister of Tuvalu. He observes:

 

        ‘ The Australian government says all the correct words in terms of the need to address climate change and the priority accorded to it’ but shows a corresponding ‘lack of initiative.. to address the course of climate change in terms of fossil fuel’.

 

  • Hemming closes her article with these, for me sad and shameful observations:
  • With more than a year now in office ‘the Australian government has had opportunities to demonstrate action on climate and provide increased support for Pacific countries. Instead it has focused on measures that arguably benefit Australia far more than the Pacific.’
  • In regard to action on climate, ‘behind the smiles and charm, Australia is, and always has been, a petrostate and a bad-faith actor’
  • UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, opened the Climate Summit with ‘humanity has opened the gates to hell’. Hemming concludes her article with,’ … if humanity has opened the gates of hell then the Australian government , with its spin, obfuscation and protection of the fossil-fuel industry seems determined to help drive us through them’.  

 

  • EQUITY between different groups in one country and between countries, especially between the rich and the poor, and the big emitters and the very small emitters is one of the most important moral issues in every one of the actions and strategies to combat the impacts of climate change [solar panels, batteries, renewable energies’ infrastructure, financial subsidies and supports, changes to our legal systems and structures, reparations and support for mitigation and adaptation etc, etc].

 

  • In the interests of equity Australia, as one of the richest and high emitting countries [both domestically and internationally through the exported burning of fossil fuels] OWES A DEBT to countries who, like Tuvalu, have caused very little of the reasons for climate change through greenhouse emissions BUT have suffered, are suffering and will continue to suffer some of the worst impacts of it.

 

  • And if high-emitting countries, like Australia do not change policies and actions and begin to pay reparations for their continuing actions to sustain climate change then the international legal systems and community may well enforce it to happen. Tariffs on the imports of goods NOT made by renewable energy are already beginning to be applied. Legal cases, like those mounted recently by the Vanuatu student-led coalition in the International Court of Justice and that of the Torres Strait Islands peoples  will simply increase until reparations are won and high emitting countries are shamed!

 

  • Australia, maybe, as a country whose economy is based on international commodity trade, should be not only vigilant but also more honest and authentic in its international diplomacy, words and actions in regard to its policies and decisions on climate action both domestically and especially in our surrounding Pacific region.

 

[David Smith, for Electrifying Bradfield Inc]