Phase out coal power

Morrison government rejects call ahead of UN session

GENEVA - A call from a Pacific island neighbour to phase out coal power is one of 55 recommendations the Morrison government has rejected ahead of a UN session focusing on Australia’s human rights record.

Australia rebuffed the Marshall Islands’ request to phase out coal-fired power in order to limit global heating to 1.5C, as the climate crisis is increasingly framed as a threat to human rights.

Analysis by Guardian Australia reveals it is one of 55 human rights-related recommendations that Australia has rejected, out of 344 put forward by other countries ahead of Thursday’s UN meeting.

The recommendations that Australia “will not consider further at this time” also include proposals from a range of countries to end the offshore processing of asylum seekers arriving by sea and to prohibit detaining children in immigration detention.

Calls from 30 countries for Australia to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14 – amid concerns about the over-incarceration of Indigenous children – have simply been “noted”, with the government pointing to the role of state and territory governments in legislating any such change.

The responses have prompted criticism from human rights groups, which have urged the Australian government to “accept responsibility for past wrongs and work towards being a global leader on human rights”.

Every five years each country’s record and policies on human rights are put under the spotlight as part of a UN process known as the universal periodic review.

The Marshall Islands – which, together with other Pacific nations, regards climate change as an existential threat – had recommended in an earlier session that Australia “work consistently towards its target in conformity with the Paris Agreement to keep global warming below 1.5°C, by phasing out the use of coal”.

In a formal response submitted ahead of Thursday’s hearing in Geneva, Australia noted the recommendation but said it would not consider it further – a stance that amounts to a formal rejection.

But Australia accepted three other climate and disaster-related recommendations, including a call from Haiti to “take tangible and sustainable steps to tackle the adverse effects of climate change, drawing on Australia’s potential to produce and export renewable energy”.