While the rest of the world's advanced economies are on track to meet just 30% of the UN's GHG emissions target, Australia incurs the wrath of developing nations such as China and Brazil for trying to get a 'free ride'. Dr Anthony M Horton reports on the dismal performance by the Abbott government.
AN AUSTRALIAN delegation was questioned for an hour at the latest United Nations climate meeting at Bonn in Germany last week. The Bonn meeting is essentially an assessment of nations’ climate change commitments in the lead up to Paris in December.
A number of countries including China and Brazil questioned Australia’s move to scrap the carbon tax introduced under the previous Labor Government, and whether the current Government’s $2.55 billion Direct Action Plan and its flagship Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) will be sufficient to meet its 5 per cent reduction by 2020.
In addition to Australia’s pledge is to reduce emissions by 5 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020. They have also committed to limit the average yearly emissions to 99.5 per cent of 1990 levels under the Kyoto Protocol’s second commitment period (2013-2020).
The carbon reduction pledges made by 31 economies will mean that by 2030, they will only achieve approximately 30 per cent of what is required. According to a Climate Action Tracker (CAT) initiative report which was issued on the sidelines of the Bonn meeting, much more work is needed in order to strengthen the commitments.
The CAT initiative assessment of Australia’s commitment revealed that Australia’s 2020 targets are inadequate, and that Australia is unlikely to meet its target. It noted that the current Abbott Government had repealed many of the instruments of the national climate policy and legislation which was introduced by the previous Labor Government’s Clean Energy Future package, including the carbon pricing initiative.
The assessment pointed to the substantial turnaround in Australian climate policy which implies a shift away from a targeted climate policy which is designed to meet set goals that are aligned to international climate policy targets and to meet the emissions reductions that climate scientists are calling for. Further, the CAT assessment highlighted Australia’s cumulative abatement challenge as 507 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents until 2020 (equivalent to one year of Australia’s emissions in the early 1990s). When the potential abatement from the ERF until 2020 was taken into account, the assessment found that there was a shortfall of 440 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents.
Australia singled out as a #climatechange 'free-rider' by international panel led by Kofi Annan http://t.co/BOEpga7C2I #Bonn #Paris #UNFCCC
— ACF (@AusConservation) June 5, 2015
The 195 nations that comprise the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are charged with sealing a deal to ensure that global warming is limited to 2°C. To date, finger pointing between rich and poor nations over the burden for reducing carbon emissions has been the dominant action.
See the CAT initiative findings on Australia’s commitments here
I can’t help thinking what other Governments would think and say about Australia’s commitments if they didn’t have to play the diplomatic game. I also can’t help wondering when the collective patience of these Governments is going to completely run out. I don’t think it will be very long if Australia continues down this path for much longer. After all, December is only six months away.
In recent blogs, I’ve highlighted potential actions that are being considered by some governments towards nations who are deemed not to be acting in the best interests of the rest of the world. For them to be considering this shows how serious they are in wanting to act on behalf of their constituents and that they won’t tolerate inaction any longer. The number of large corporations that are also wanting a seat around the table when it comes to climate change discussions and policy/decision making would suggest that these corporations also know that inaction can (or should) no longer be tolerated.
You can follow Anthony on Twitter as the Climate Change Guy @DrAnthonyHorton as well as his blog the Climate Change Guy.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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Australia cops grilling at UN climate conference in Bonn http://t.co/dt61zoJ0Sn pic.twitter.com/GcMn8RyMYX
— Primrose Riordan (@primroseriordan) June 4, 2015
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