Pacific call for Australia to halve emissions by 2030

Pacific environmental and humanitarian organisations are calling on Australia to commit to halving emissions ahead of US President Joe Biden’s climate summit this week.

More than 10 groups, including Greenpeace, Oxfam, Climate Action Network, Conference of Churches and the Edmund Rice Centre used a fullpage newspaper advertisement and open letter to urge Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to at least match the ambition of other large emitters such as the US, UK, EU and Canada.

The groups pleaded with Morrison to “substantially strengthen Australia’s emissions reduction target and contribute to the Paris Agreement”.

In the open letter, the groups called for Canberra to halve its emissions by 2030. “Global emissions must be cut in half by 2030 and Australia needs to play its part.”

Australia also needs to commit to net zero emissions well before midcentury, the letter stated.

The head of Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Steph Hodgins-May, said Australia must provide new funding to support climate action in the most vulnerable countries, including recommitting to the Green Climate Fund.

Hodgins-May said as a major global contributor to climate change and Pacific Islands Forum member, Australia had a responsibility to amplify Pacific voices that would not have a seat at Biden’s summit table.

“Pacific Leaders have been united and consistent in their calls for the world’s biggest emitters to take stronger action to address the climate crisis,” she said. “Halving Australia’s emissions will help safeguard the future of Australians and our Pacific family who are both on the front-lines of the climate crisis and are suffering the impacts of droughts, fires, floods and cyclones.”

Oxfam Australia’s chief executive Lyn Morgain said the impacts of climate change were generally felt first and hardest by those who had contributed least to the problem, particularly Pacific Island communities.

Morgain said recent Oxfam analysis found the energy consumption of Australians produced eight times as much carbon emissions each year as Pacific Islanders.

The Pacific’s Climate Action Network’s Lorenzo Raplili said that like Australia, the Pacific Islands had been experiencing deadly impacts of climate change for years and the damage would only get worse unless the biggest emitters, such as Australia, took immediate steps to reduce their carbon pollution.

Raplili said most Pacific leaders would not have a seat at the summit table, but as the biggest emitter in the region and a member of the Pacific Islands Forum, Australia had a responsibility to ensure strong Pacific voices calling for bold climate action were heard on the world stage.

Signatories to the open letter included Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Oxfam Australia, the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Australia Institute, the Climate Council, Climate Action Network Australia and the Edmund Rice Centre.