Australia tells Pacific leaders: we won’t budge on coal – Australia’s “carbon loophole” is seven times larger than the annual emissions of its Pacific neighbors
By Rebecca Gredley
14 August 2019
TUVALU (AAP) – Prime Minister Scott Morrison is due to touch down in Tuvalu’s capital of Funafuti on Wednesday, joining Minister for the Pacific Alex Hawke.
Hawke says coal is a “red line issue” for Australia in negotiations with its smaller island neighbours.
“Australia’s position on coal is we won’t have a communique where coal and coal-fired generation, or phasing it out now, is a realistic proposition,” he told ABC’s Radio National.
“We wouldn’t want to see talks break down, but every country has their position, every country has the things that they need to stick with. Australia has a position that we need to stick with.”
The final communique will be drawn from the Nadi Bay Declaration, which was agreed to by the smaller island nations ahead of the leaders’ meeting.
It makes specific calls to rule out new coal mines and to phase out the resource, with Fiji’s leader Frank Bainimarama telling the islands to not let Australia water down such language.
Hawke on Tuesday defended the controversial Adani coalmine in Queensland, saying that Australia only had two new coal mines on the way, compared to hundreds across the globe. […]
Australia’s approach to reducing emissions and reliance on coal has been under the spotlight at the leaders’ forum, with the smaller islands reiterating the existential threat they face from climate change.
They want Australia to abandon its decision to use carryover credits towards the Paris agreement emissions reduction goal, but the federal government has stood firm against such calls.
Although the Tuvaluans welcomed an Australian commitment of $500 million over five years for climate resilience projects in the Pacific, Sopoaga said it didn’t give Morrison a free pass on other issues.
New analysis [How Australia is robbing the Pacific
of its climate change efforts] by left-leaning The Australia Institute has found that by using carryover credits, the federal government will save itself from reducing emissions by the equivalent of seven years of fossil fuels to that of its Pacific neighbours. [more]
Australia tells Pacific leaders: we won’t budge on coal
How Australia is robbing the Pacific of its climate change efforts
By Richie Merzian
15 August 2019
(TAI) – Australia’s insistence on using controversial carbon credits gamed from the Kyoto Protocol to cut its Paris Agreement target in half completely undermines efforts in the Pacific to increase regional climate ambition.
Key points
- Australia intends to use 367 Mt of carbon credits to avoid the majority of emission reductions pledged under its Paris Agreement target (see 2018 Department Emissions Projections)
- The entire annual emissions from the Pacific Island Forum members excluding Australia (New Zealand + 14 small island states) is about 45Mt
- Australia’s loophole is seven times larger than the annual emissions of its Pacific neighbours.
- As Secretary General calls on countries in increase NDCs, which New Zealand, Fiji, Marshall Islands and others have committed to do, it is completely undermined by their heavily polluting neighbour.
- Countries such as UK, Germany have ruled out using KP carbon credits – not in the spirit of the Paris Agreement.
- The KP loophole could be considered through the introduction of a new rule at COP25 in Chile in December 2019.
- Australia should be prepared to double its efforts in anticipation of actually meeting its Paris Agreement target by reducing its emissions going forward, rather than relying on its dodgy deals from the past.
How Australia is robbing the Pacific of its climate change efforts15 August 2019
