9 December 2020 Renewal Economy At this weekend’s climate summit, no one will be perfect but Australia will be awful. Timing never really seems to work out for Australia’s government. This Saturday, there will be a relatively big “Climate Ambition Summit”, held on the fifth anniversary of the Paris climate agreement. It’s hosted by UK Prime minister Boris Johnson and UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and governments will be “invited to present more ambitious and high-quality climate plans, as well as COVID recovery plans, new finance commitments and measures to limit global warming to 1.5C”. On Monday, Germanwatch’s ‘Climate Change Performance Index’ (CCPI) released a new report, placing Australia a cool 54th out of 61 (with the first three spots left blank due to no country fitting the bill, and the US coming dead last). Australia came 52nd for greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energy (though Australia has a high install rate for renewables, it’s insufficient for 2030 1.5C targets), 51st in energy use and 60th (second last, behind the US) in the climate policy rankings (The Australian Conservation Foundation, Doctors for the Environment Australia and the Australia Institute were the contributors to the report, for Australia). Read more here
Category Archives: Australian Response
1 July 2020, The Conversation, Today, Australia’s Kyoto climate targets end and our Paris cop-out begins. That’s nothing to be proud of, Mr Taylor. Today marks the end of Australia’s commitments under the Kyoto climate deal as we move to its successor, … Continue reading →
24 September 2020, The Conversation, The good, the bad and the ugly’: here’s the lowdown on Australia’s low-emissions roadmap. “Picking winners” has been anathema to Australian policy-making for decades. The federal government’s technology investment roadmap bucks the trend, targeting public investments in … Continue reading →
21 September 2020, Renew Economy, Scott Morrison’s three hundred year climate plan is a dark moment for Australia. It’s always a nervous moment when, logging onto Twitter on Sunday morning Europe time, my notifications are filled with the #Insiders hashtag. … Continue reading →
