Climate talks are worth a miss

Greta Thunberg has given her verdict on the COP27 climate conference about to get under way in Egypt and won’t attend because she says it is a scam that facilitates “greenwashing, lying and cheating”. Anthony Albanese has made the right decision not to attend either, which may appear hypocritical given his attack on Scott Morrison for considering sitting out last year’s conference in Glasgow. But the Prime Minister must resist the sort of bullying that has been directed at British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to make him change his mind and join Boris Johnson at the Egypt gathering.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen will represent Australia at COP27, where we will find out how responsive the rest of the world really is towards the Albanese government’s change of rhetoric on the issue. Mr Albanese will be much better employed focusing on the G20 summit to be held in Bali on November 15 and 16. This will be a crucial test of how prepared world leaders are to keep up their response to the murderous rampage set loose by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.

In the meantime, Mr Albanese must find a solution to the diabolical situation that exists in the domestic gas market. Mr Albanese has staked his government’s fiscal reputation by putting himself between premiers, industry and gas producers with a promise to find a compromise solution. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission has been drafted to offer ideas, which may include a price cap on producers or a windfall profits tax. Joe Biden is considering similar action in the US but is being reminded of what happened when Jimmy Carter tried a super-profits tax on oil producers in the 1980s. The measure raised less than a quarter of what was expected and soon was dropped because it made the US more dependent on foreign oil. The US lesson that lifting production results in greater energy security and lower prices is one Australia must heed.

But herein lies the disconnect for leaders at COP27. Climate evangelists, notably the Greens, want to stop development of domestic gas supplies despite this being exactly what is needed to ease the discomfort and dislocation of the planned energy transition they champion. This puts them on the same page as Ms Thunberg, who says capitalism has given us the climate crisis through “colonialism, imperialism, oppression, genocide” and is “racist, oppressive extractionism”. Mr Albanese must keep a cool head and resist being dragged further into the politics of misery on an issue that is becoming increasingly divorced from the science on which it is supposed to be based.