PLEA Network

18 March 2021, Renew Economy: Stats of Convenience: Morrison selling his climate spin to rest of the world. Prime minister Scott Morrison appears set to use his marketing background to good use, as he works to convince the rest of the world that Australia is a global leader on climate action, despite opposing a faster clean energy transition at home. In an early test of his newly claimed ‘acceptance’ of the need for a global shift to zero net emissions, during a call with US special envoy for climate John Kerry, Morrison deployed his old rhetoric – a reliance on dodgy stats to maintain the façade that Australia is pulling its weight on climate change. While Morrison described the call with Kerry as “constructive”, it is clear the prime minister largely pushed the same lines he uses when speaking about climate change to domestic audiences in an attempt to convince the presidential special envoy for climate change that Australia was doing as much as its international peers to reduce emissions. Read more here