‘Climate policy is all smoke and mirrors’

‘Australia wants to use creative accounting to meet its greenhouse gas targets’

If the LNP’s proposed coal-fired power station does get off the ground, it would be a private enterprise, not taxpayer funded. Picture: AFP/George Frey

THE recent United Nations Climate Talks - COP25 - have finished for another year and the results can best be described as disappointing.

Australia bears a large share of the blame. The Australian team refused to support any serious suggestions that countries need to come up with more ambitious targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions in order to hold global heating to no more than 2C.

Instead of actually lowering carbon emissions, Australia wants to use creative accounting to meet its greenhouse gas targets under the Paris Agreement.

Instead of pushing for more ambitious targets, Australia actually lobbied to do less.

This is woeful, embarrassing and criminal. Our government's climate policy is all smoke and mirrors, highlighted with untruths and spin.

The truth is Australia's emissions are going up, not down. We will not meet our Paris targets as the government claims; we are on track to miss them completely.

The government also likes to remind us that Australia only accounts for 1.3 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions so our actions will make little difference.

But 1.3 per cent is much more than our fair share as our population is 0.3 per cent of the global total.

Most countries only produce 1-3 per cent of the global total. If we all claimed that our impact was insignificant, then the world would be cooked.

Australia's position on climate action is significant, not only for the 1.3 per cent of greenhouse gases we produce, but for the potential influence on global policy.

As a nation so proud of "punching above its weight" in fields such as sport and technology, Australia is missing a big chance to show global leadership on climate.

Tony Fontes, Airlie Beach

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