Business dominates climate
Rudd and Turnbull only listens to big business on climate change
by Geoff Lazarus , CLIMATE ACTION CANBERRA.
It’s only a month to go before the Copenhagen Climate Conference yet the signs are poor for the achieving of a global map for a safe climate, and Rudd’s not helping.
The global community is supposed to be negotiating an agreement to contain greenhouse gas emissions to safe levels, but a great divide has occurred between developed nations like Australia and the US, and developing nations that is making a satisfactory Copenhagen agreement highly unlikely.
Climate scientists say we must reduce CO2 in the atmosphere to less than 350ppm.
The United States and Australia governments ignore this, and in the final session of the Bali Conference last year forced a ‘compromise’ that sought excluded deep cuts in global emissions, and with no specific figures.
Many industrialized economies countries including Australia are still supporting positions far below 40 per cent which is the minimum requirement needed to reach a safe climate.
The European Union is doing better than some with 30 per cent, but even this position is not supported by the United States.
The developing nations G77 bloc of 145 countries insists that targets of 40 per cent or more must be adopted at Copenhagen. Many of these nations are already suffering very badly from the combined impact of climate change and the GFC.
Too many of the developed nations including Australia are on about targets aimed at preventing global warming exceeding 2 degrees Celsius. But a 2 degrees target is wide of the mark from what the best climate scientists such as NASAs James Hansen are telling us.
Impacts are likely to include large-scale disintegration of major ice-sheets; sea-level rises; the extinction of plant and animal species; increased acid levels in the ocean and widespread severe drying in Africa, Australia, Mediterranean Europe, and the western USA.
It’s complete nonsense to therefore argue that 2 degrees and 450ppm (also enshrined in Rudd’s CPRS bill) is a reasonable target, but it is a view that continues to heavily permeate Copenhagen negotiations.
This is despite 29 of the world’s leading scientists (including Prof Will Steffen of the ANU, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Rudd Government) have publically stated less than 350 ppm CO2 as a safe climate for the planet.
According to pioneering climate change scientist, James Lovelock, failure by the major developed nations to drastically reduce emissions is likely to result in catastrophic global warming within two or three decades.
Politicians need to be on notice that it’s not just about balance or lobbying for emission targets, or exemptions and subsidies with far greater weight being given to the views of industry associations than anyone else. You can’t negotiate with the laws of physics.
For many months, Rudd and Wong have attacked the Coalition Parties for not being fair dinkum on climate change.
While absolutely guilty as charged, it’s been a hypocritical political charade more to do with outmaneuvering the Coalition Parties with voters as well as placating the mining industry and major industry associations, than meeting the challenge of potentially devastating global warming.
Worse still, Rudd and Turnbull are very likely to negotiate a deal that will take a very bad piece of legislation which can’t possibly meet appropriate targets, and then make it even worse.
The failures of Rudd and other politicians of developed nations in recent years to take a positive role on climate change is truly breathe taking.
Already the United Nations is estimating that more than 300,000 people a year are dying from climate change impacts- a figure which will massively increase even within this decade.
Loss of water from the Himalayan dependent rivers that flow through countries from Pakistan to China will impact on 1.3 billion people. This will surely cause a national security problem of enormous proportions as huge numbers of climate change refugees seek new homelands that include Australia.
Rudd claims his legislation will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, but ignores the prospect of initial massive job losses in agriculture and tourism, and eventually the certainty of a collapsing economy.
The CPRS will give billions of dollars to the polluters who won’t have to reduce their emissions. Treasury modeling shows that our emissions won’t reduce till 2030.
He forgets that ultimately there are no jobs on a dead planet.
In this context, thousands of climate action groups and organizations took concerted action around the globe in 4000 events on 24 October and will continue to do so till a safe climate plan is in place.
We are supporting global targets of less than 350ppml of carbon in the atmosphere and keeping temperature rises to less than two degrees.
But are politicians of developed nations listening to what climate scientists, environmental groups and developing nations around the world are saying? Particularly in Australia, it seems not.
It is not in the interests of working people to give any support to Rudd or Turnbull’s plans. Both of their policies amount to a suicide pact for the planet.
right to strike on the environment
