Michael McCormack.
The Australian government appears at odds with an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report warning that the world has 12 years to avoid climate change catastrophe.
Already known for lagging behind most of the world in electric vehicle uptake, Australia now looks set to buck the IPCC’s calls, especially around coal.
The report suggests phasing out coal power by 2050, but Australian deputy prime minister Michael McCormack says Australia will continue to use its coal reserves, The Guardian reports.
McCormack told Sky News on October 8 that coal mining provides 60% of Australia’s electricity, 50,000 jobs and is Australia’s largest export.
Prime minister Scott Morrison downplays the IPCC report, saying it doesn’t provide recommendations for Australia which accounts for only just over 1% of global emissions and that emissions per capita in Australia is the lowest for decades.
While Morrison has ruled out Australia leaving the Paris climate agreement he doesn’t agree with providing any more money to the global climate fund.
That’s despite the IPCC report saying global warming’s impact will be worse than initially expected unless immediate action is taken.
The report, co-authored by 91 scientists and academics from 40 countries, outlines what’s needed to combat the world’s carbon dioxide emissions to achieve the internationally-agreed global warming limit of 1.5 degrees centigrade.
The average global average temperature now is about one degree higher than in pre-industrial times.
Temperatures could keep rising, reaching 1.5 degrees by about 2040 based on present standards.
But more drastic action is needed, the IPCC report says.
Even with a 1.5 degree increase, sea levels will still rise, extreme weather events become more common, food security jeopardised and ice caps melt.
The world would need to meet net zero CO2 emissions by around 2050 to avoid catastrophe, the report says.
It suggests methods to limit CO2 emissions, which would require firmer commitments from governments.
As The New Daily shows, the Australian government has no policies to meet even the insufficient target of 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2030 – and is on track to miss them by a wide margin.
