Australia shamed on climate change in full-page New York Times advert
A massive full-page advertisement in the New York Times has been taken out to slam Australia and it doesn’t pull any punches.
One of Australia’s leading policy think tanks has taken the unusual step of taking out a full-page advertisement in the New York Times to call out Australia’s record on climate change.
The bold move coincides with the UN general assembly this week and Climate summit on Wednesday in New York City.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Jenny McAllister, are both attending the summit.
The advertisement calls on the Australian government to end “new fossil fuel approvals and subsidies”.
There are currently over 100 new coal and gas projects in development in Australia.
“If all these projects proceed, research by the Australia Institute shows they would add a further 1.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent to the atmosphere every year,” the open letter said.
It urges Australia to follow the advice of the United Nations, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and prevent any further new fossil fuel developments.
The letter has been signed by over 200 scientists, including Nobel Laureates JM Coetzee and Laureate Professor Pete Doherty.
In the New York Times today! "Australia must accelerate climate action, not climate annihilation" 220 scientists and experts have called on Australia to stop approving and subsidising fossil fuels. @billmckibben@MichaelEMann@ClimateHuman#climate#auspol@TheAusInstitutepic.twitter.com/gpz7YsIgLF
— Polly Hemming (@pollyjhemming) September 19, 2023
Polly Hemming, the director of Australia’s climate & energy program, said the Australian government had “already approved four new coal mines and there are 110 more gas and coal mines in the pipeline”.
“If Australia succeeds in its fossil fuel expansion plans, the other nations of the world will fail in their efforts to prevent dangerous climate change,” she said.
“Australia is already the world’s third largest fossil fuel exporter, behind only Saudi Arabia and Russia. But despite the dire warnings from the world’s scientists and the clear language from the UN Secretary-General, the Australian government is not only approving new fossil fuel projects, it is subsidising them and fighting in court to smooth their path.”
Senator Wong, questioned by a reporter outside the summit, said Australia was trying to undertake “a big transition in a short space of time”.
“We will be, by 2030, in excess of 80 per cent renewable energy – when we came to government, we were just over 30 per cent,” she said.
“We recognise our history and the nature of our economy … we are genuinely motivated to change that.”
On Tuesday Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, told world leaders their efforts to address climate change had come up “abysmally short” and called on them to end coal, oil and gas production”.
“Every continent, every region and every country is feeling the heat, but I’m not sure all leaders are feeling that heat,” he said in his opening remarks at the General Assembly.
In July, Mr Guterres said the Earth had transitioned from global warming to “the era of global boiling”.
US, China absent from climate meeting
China and the United States, the world’s top two emitters, will be absent from speakers at a UN climate summit after promises only to include the most ambitious.
Mr Guterres, announcing the summit in December, said he would make the summit “no nonsense” and include only leaders of countries with concrete plans to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
A list released by the United Nations showed 41 speakers that did not include China or the United States.
US President Joe Biden is in New York for the United Nations and has launched sweeping legislation to reduce carbon emissions.
He has set a goal of a net-zero emissions economy by 2050 but critics say the United States has not yet taken enough action to reach the goal, especially with political opposition on climate from the rival Republican Party.
The “Climate Ambition Summit,” however, will include California, represented by Governor Gavin Newsom.
Countries invited to participate include Brazil, Canada and France as well as the European Union. Speakers include London Mayor Sadiq Khan but not the United Kingdom as a whole.
Guterres, addressing the General Assembly on Tuesday, pointed to record-breaking climate chaos and said he did not want the “same old broken record” of countries waiting for others to go first.
“To all those working, marching and championing real climate action, I want you to know that you are on the right side of history and that I am with you,” he said.
Tiny nation’s warning
Last year, the tiny, low-lying Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu delivered a spine-chilling address to world leaders at COP27, confirming climate inaction has forced it to become “the world’s first digital nation”.
Tuvalu’s foreign affairs Minister Simon Kofe made the bleak address to the summit via a video from what appeared to be a natural island, before it panned out to reveal he was on a digitally recreated island in the Metaverse – what he believes is now the future of the nation.
The low-lying nation of nine islands, 1000km north of Fiji, is under severe threat from rising sea levels caused by climate change.
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