CLIMATE CHANGE

With the Australian Government promising a “gas-led recovery” to the economic downturn caused by COVID-19, is the country falling on the wrong side of the climate debate?

Is Australia in danger of falling on the wrong side of the climate debate?

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, images of wildlife returning to cities and reports of pollution dropping started popping up in the news. Amid the stress and uncertainty, we clung to the silver lining that ‘the Earth was healing’.

Unfortunately, that silver lining turned out to be a false dawn. The pollution levels that had dropped sprung up again as lockdowns eased and we returned to work. The ‘United in Science 2020’ report found that global lockdowns did signal a significant drop in greenhouse gas emissions – in April falling 17 per cent compared with 2019.

However, by June, when many countries had eased out of lockdowns, emissions bounced back and were within 5 per cent of the previous year. “2016-2020 is set to be the warmest five-year period on record. This report shows that whilst many aspects of our lives have been disrupted in 2020, climate change has continued unabated,” said World Meteorological Organisation Secretary-General, Professor Petteri Taalas. Despite our best wishes, the Earth has not healed.

Decisions made by the world’s major leaders have fuelled the climate crisis. On 4 November 2020, in the middle of its election, the US officially left the Paris Agreement. It was a decision one year in the making, and one of the many legacies of Donald Trump’s presidency. During his term, he rolled back more than 125 environmental rules.

“WITH JUST 1.1°C OF WARMING, AUSTRALIA HAS ALREADY EXPERIENCED UNIMAGINABLE LEVELS OF DESTRUCTION.”

DR JOËLLE GERGIS

Australia could warm up to 7°C above pre-industrial levels.

President-elect Joe Biden has promised to make climate change a priority during his presidency and rejoin the Paris Agreement on his first day in office. He has also pledged US$2 trillion to build a clean-energy economy and reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

While Biden will have in his power to reverse many of the rules Trump put in place, he may face roadblocks. Trump’s appointment of three conservative judges on the Supreme Court will be one of his most lasting legacies, says Jody Freeman, director of the Environmental and Energy Law Program at Harvard University, in an interview with Radio Times. “It will be challenging for the Biden Administration to shape their rules in a way that will make sure they don’t meet with legal challenges. That will be Trump’s negative climate legacy.” Biden will have the power to write executive orders to reverse Trump’s rules, however, Freeman says the ambition and scope of these changes may be limited due to the conservative Supreme Court justices.

While we are yet to see whether Biden will follow through with his climate policies, his actions will be looked at closely by the rest of the world. Michael Mann, director of Penn State’s Earth System Center, says that Biden’s promise to re-enter the Paris Agreement is a message to the rest of the world about where the US hopes to stand on climate change. “What is important about Biden signalling that, is that it conveys to the rest of the world that the US is ready to resume a position of leadership under this issue.”

‘LUCK’ RUNNING OUT

One country that will no doubt feel the ripples of the new US stance on climate change is Australia. According to Climate Action Tracker, Australia has failed to implement effective climate policy since signing the Paris Agreement in 2016 and seen a drop in renewable energy investment, leading the country to fall behind on its Paris Agreement targets. In the face of pressure to adopt a ‘green’ COVID-19 recovery, the Australian Government has promised a “gas-led recovery” with continued support for the industry.

“With just 1.1°C of warming, Australia has already experienced unimaginable levels of destruction of its marine and land ecosystems in the space of a single summer. More than 20 per cent of our country’s forests burnt in a single bushfire season,” writes Australian climate scientist Dr Joëlle Gergis in Fire Flood Plague. “But what really worries me is what our Black Summer signals about the conditions that are yet to come. As things stand, the latest research shows that Australia could warm up to 7°C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. The revised warming projections for Australia will render large parts of our country uninhabitable and the Australian way of life unliveable, as extreme heat and increasingly erratic rainfall establishes itself as the new normal.”

As the crisis grows, the Australian public is demanding more from its leaders. A recent poll by The Australian Institute found that 79 per cent of Australians are concerned about climate change. The report also found that only 12 per cent of Australians support Morrison’s “gas-led” COVID-19 recovery, while 59 per cent favour a renewable-energy focussed recovery.

This latest polling reflects a groundswell of Australians demanding better action from the Government when it comes to climate change, largely driven by grassroots movements and Indigenous activists. Bundjalung and South Sea Islander Amelia Telford is one of the young activists at the centre of the Indigenous climate movement in Australia. She is the national director of Seed Mob, Australia’s first Indigenous youth-led environmental organisation. Telford says the groundswell of Indigenous climate activists signals the reclamation of their responsibility to the land. “We were brought up to think about the world and the impact we could have to make it a better place,” she wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald. “The places we loved were being impacted by sand mining, increases in king tides and cyclones. When I saw those changes I thought, ‘What are the changes that my parents, grandparents and their parents have seen?’ It’s heartbreaking seeing places that are really special being washed away in front of your eyes.”

INDIGENOUS ACTION

Telford says Seed Mob’s 35,000-strong network will play a critical role in the ongoing climate justice movement. “We are building up the next generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to lead climate justice campaigns that protect our land, water and future.” Telford says Indigenous communities hold a wealth of knowledge and have vital solutions for the future of climate policy. “We have lived sustainably on this country for thousands and thousands of years. It makes complete sense that in Australia and around the world, Indigenous people hold solutions to climate issues,” she says. “When it comes to preventing bushfires, we know there are Indigenous methods of looking after country, like cool burns. That’s just one example – there is so much knowledge that’s not being utilised. We need to be empowered to manage our own land.”

With a new era of climate policy on the horizon for the US, countries around the world are beginning to shift in their responses. China, the largest emitter of CO2 in the world, has recently announced bold plans to be carbon neutral by 2060 and over 30 countries have now declared climate change emergencies. Industries, too, are following suit, with renewable energy predicted to overtake coal as the largest producer of global electricity by 2025. As it stands, Australia is the largest exporter of coal in the world, and with the Government standing by its “gas-led” recovery, this is unlikely to change. Amid mounting public anger, environmental disasters and pressure from world leaders, time will tell whether the country’s leaders will step up or become outliers in the climate fight.

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