The world running out of patience with our excuses on climate change
Sydney Morning Herald
April 19, 2021


If the Prime Minister thought 2021 was about to get a little easier, he should think again. 

At US President Joe Biden’s Climate Leaders Summit to be held next week, Australia will come under unprecedented pressure to join global efforts to stop global warming. So far though, the Prime Minister looks to be turning up to the summit empty-handed.   






As The Washington Post reported of preparation for the summit: “In far-flung corners of the federal government, staffers have been busy calculating how quickly the United States could embrace electric cars or phase out the last of the nation’s coal-fired power plants. They are estimating how fast the country can construct new battery-charging stations and wind turbines, as well as how farmers can store more carbon in the soil – and how much Congress might allocate to fund such efforts.”

The purpose of these calculations is to enable President Biden to rejoin the Paris Agreement with an ambitious new 2030 emissions reduction target that in turn pressures other nations to increase both their short-term and long-term climate commitments.   

The US is just the latest in a wave of countries to increase their climate pledges, with Japan, China, South Korea, Europe and Britain all committing to net zero emissions in recent months. Fourteen of Australia’s largest trading partners have now committed to net zero emissions. Given our reliance on exports of coal, gas, beef, petroleum and other carbon-intensive products, that’s a serious wake-up call for the federal government, and an existential threat to our export industries and the workers in them.

Clearly, we need to get serious about decarbonising our economy and supporting workers and industries in the transition to net zero emissions or we’ll suffer social and economic consequences in addition to the environmental impacts of a heating planet.

The Prime Minister has been inching towards a net zero by 2050 announcement.


It is also clear that we are now alone among our key allies in refusing to take decisive action. Biden gave a not-so-subtle hint of his agenda on his first day in office. His executive order was titled “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad” and promised to “centre the climate crisis in US foreign policy and national security considerations”.

After decades of obstruction and denial, the Prime Minister has been inching towards a net zero by 2050 announcement. At the National Press Club in February he said: “Our goal is to reach net zero emissions as soon as possible, and preferably by 2050” but then refused to set a date, saying, “When I can tell you how we get there, that’s when I’ll tell you when we’re going to get there.”



Under questioning in Parliament in March, both the Climate Change Authority and the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources confirmed they haven’t been asked to model any pathways to net zero emissions.

None of this is doing Australian workers any favours, whether they are helping communities recover from the latest climate disaster or losing their jobs as coal-fired power stations close. When the Hong Kong-based owners of power station Yallourn brought forward its closure date by four years the Victorian government acted to ensure the construction of a new energy storage project in the Latrobe Valley.

The Yallourn power station in Latrobe Valley will close in mid-2028.


The federal government, by contrast, had nothing to offer workers or the local community. Instead Energy Minister Angus Taylor warned power companies that they’d better invest in more generation or else. If the federal government was actually inclined to help, it would be investing now in creating new jobs and industries in the Latrobe Valley and other communities facing the impact of closures.

The Morrison government desperately needs a fresh approach and new ideas.
If allowed to speak at the upcoming conference, the Prime Minister could take inspiration from Canada, another long-time climate laggard now trying to catch up on lost time. In February, Canada established a Net Zero Advisory Committee with unions, business, environmental organisations, First Nations representatives and academics. This committee will operate and advise government for the next three decades overseeing the nation’s journey to net zero emissions, and building bipartisan support for action.


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Or he could replicate the German Coal Commission, established to plan the phaseout of the country’s coal power stations without a single worker being forced into unemployment. The German government also committed 2 billion euros a year to creating new jobs and industries in coal regions, ensuring their future prosperity.

There’s plenty of inspiration to be found globally where job creation and pollution reduction are working hand-in-hand.

whiteknight wrote on Apr 20^th, 2021 at 5:06am:



First you have to look at the following equation -

CO2 emissions from all sources minus any CO2 sequestration. That is the only way to achieve a figure to determine how to get to "net zero" emissions.

So we have a start gross anthro emissions of  534 Mt CO2e. Now we take off (or add) natural sequestration or (emissions).

Without knowing the latter we have no way of determining net zero.

I am sure that we are net negative which is below net zero. Therefore Australia needs to do nothing to meet the target. Whether we want to virtue signal is a different matter.

whiteknight wrote on Apr 20^th, 2021 at 5:06am:



Oh Puh-lease - Fossil fuels are accounted for in the jurisdiction in which they are used.

Beef are a natural resource; a part of the Carbon cycle. They eat grass. They emit methane (which rapidly decomposes to CO2).

whiteknight wrote on Apr 20^th, 2021 at 5:06am:



The article's illusteation shown The Yallourn power station in Latrobe Valley  - emmitting STEAM.