‘All or nothing’ is not the right approach to climate policy, campaigner tells Bandt

A longstanding environmental campaigner and friend of Greens founder Bob Brown has urged the party to vote with Labor to pass a new law to cut greenhouse gas emissions amid growing fears of a rift that could doom the legislation.

Business leader Geoff Cousins urged Greens leader Adam Bandt to help pass the Safeguard Mechanism bill in parliament this week to achieve some action on climate change despite a dispute over whether the draft law went far enough to cut emissions.

Greens leader Adam Bandt.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

But another senior business figure who has backed the Greens over the years, Wotif founder Graeme Wood, said the mechanism only offered a “soft baseline” and did not do anything to stop new coal and gas projects.

The competing calls heighten the debate over a crucial decision for Bandt and the Greens when Brown has urged the party to take a hard line against the bill, but others fear a repeat of the 2009 clash that destroyed a Labor attempt to put a price on carbon.

“I’m very concerned that people like my good friend Bob Brown, who I regard as probably the greatest environmental warrior in the world, are standing by an all-or-nothing position – and I think that’s wrong,” said Cousins, a former president of the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF).

“The purist approach is correct in what it says and where it needs to go, but we don’t get there by saying all or nothing.

“It seems to me, the approach you have to take is you negotiate as hard as you possibly can in order to achieve the ideal, but you do not abandon significant steps forward.”

The comments came after Brown last week handed back his life membership of the ACF because it had supported the passage of the safeguard mechanism, a key issue to be put to the Senate this week after the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last week called for more action on climate change.

Cousins campaigned alongside Brown for several years against the Adani coal mine in Queensland after a long career in business and a period as president of the ACF from 2014 to 2017.

Geoff Cousins joined Bob Brown to protest against the Adani coal mine in 2017.Credit: Andrew Meares

Wood, who has donated to the Greens in the past after founding the Wotif online travel site, said the safeguard mechanism allowed big emitters to use unrestricted Australian carbon credit units when the majority of these ACCUs were “junk” and did not reduce emissions.

“The IPCC just clearly stated that there can be no more new coal and gas fields if the world is going to be able to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius,” he said.

“The safeguard mechanism not only doesn’t stop them, it allows them to come in with soft baselines that ensure only a portion of their emissions are subject to a carbon price.

“On a broader note, the efficacy of ‘net zero’ as a meaningful measure of progress towards de-carbonisation has been degraded in direct correlation to the rise of ‘junk’ credits as a financial instrument – not very dissimilar to subprime mortgage paper of a previous era.

Graeme Wood said the safeguard mechanism only offered a “soft baseline”.Credit: Louise Kennerley

“Personally, I don’t care if political careers are won or lost on this question. Science should lead policy, not politics. This looming failure in politics and policy will define our demise as a species.”

Bandt has called for changes to the safeguard mechanism that would halt all new coal mines and gas fields but has stopped short of vowing to veto the plan, which can only pass if it has Greens support because the Coalition is opposing the bill.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has turned down Bandt’s demand for a coal and gas ban and has also resisted calls to amend the draft law to restrict the way big companies could buy contracts to offset their emissions – for instance, by planting trees – rather than cutting their carbon output.

Another former Greens leader, Christine Milne, said it was Labor’s job as the party of government to gain an agreement with the Greens.

Brown and Milne led the Greens in voting against Labor’s emissions trading scheme in 2009 because they regarded the policy, known as the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, as inadequate. They joined Labor in putting a price on carbon after the 2020 election, but this law was overturned when the Coalition took power in 2013.

Cousins said last week’s updated warnings from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showed that Australia had not done enough to reduce emissions and this highlighted the need to get changes passed by the parliament.

“My message to Adam Bandt is that he should negotiate absolutely as hard as he can, but he should not impede any progress that can be achieved,” Cousins said.

“Absolutely the safeguard mechanism does need to be strengthened. There’s no doubt about that. And, of course, we’ve got to get to not approving any new coal or gas projects.

“But the government has made it absolutely clear that it’s not going to do that right at the minute. We at least finally have a government that is prepared to look at these things and debate them.”

Former independent senator Nick Xenophon, who voted against the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in 2009, said he did not regret that vote but believed the safeguard mechanism should be passed.

“Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good, it’s as simple as that,” he said.

“This is a chance to strengthen the safeguard mechanism, so my message is get on with it.”

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