Our part in climate change
Without serious action on climate change we risk a flight of capital
Businesspeople and financiers operating in global markets get it. A glance at his speech to the Australian Industry Group last week confirms that Treasurer Frydenberg gets it. But does the Morrison government get it?
In an op-ed originally published in The Australian on Wednesday, Travers McLeod and Toby Phillips of the Centre for Policy Development warn that our government’s half-hearted approach to climate change is putting us at risk of isolation from international financial and capital markets, and will impose costs on our export industries. They call on the Australian Government to engage in good faith with other governments at the Glasgow climate summit next month: Time to respond to the climate for investment.
Don’t wait until 2050: rural Australia needs action on climate change now
Surely a concrete plan to bring billions of new investment and create thousands of new jobs in non-metropolitan regions would enjoy strong support from the National Party?
In fact the New South Wales Government plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 from the energy sector does enjoy support from the state branch of the National Party, as state Energy and Environment Minister, Matt Keane, explains on the ABC Breakfast program. (10 minutes.) It’s a different matter for the federal branch of the party however: most of their senior spokespeople are in a battle to thwart even a bare minimum net zero by 2050.
The latest update of the state’s Net Zero Plan, announced by then Premier Berejiklian on Wednesday, is designed to slash emissions by 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. That’s much more ambitious than the present federal 26-28 per cent target for 2030 and more ambitious than the 45 per cent cut Labor proposed in the 2019 election, which Morrison ridiculed because of its cost. As Michael Mazengarb writes in Renew Economy, “the contrast with the federal Coalition could not be more stark. It is torn between climate denialists who want to protect the coal industry, and inner-city Liberals urging some small gestures to help preserve their seats in parliament”.
Lest anyone believes that the New South Wales scheme is just another exercise in writing press releases – the Commonwealth’s approach to public policy – details are in the New South Wales Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap.
Belching cattle
If Australia is to meet any realistic short-term (2030) and medium-term (2050) emission reductions targets it cannot rely on the electricity generation sector alone. Agriculture must be one of the other sectors. According to research published by the Grattan Institute – Towards net zero: practical policies to reduce agricultural emissions – it will still be a significant source of emissions by 2050, but it can reduce its net contribution by removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in trees, soils, minerals or underground. Methane emissions from animals’ guts (mainly cattle) and from manure account for most of the sector’s emissions. Mitigation of animal emissions will be a long-term project involving changes in animals’ diets and breeding animals with lower methane contributions.