DID YOU KNOW: Coal Plants Do $62 Billion of Damage a Year to the US Environment

Coal Plants Do $62 Billion of Damage a Year to the US Environment

A Message to Australian’s from Oxfam on Climate Change

Another round of UN climate change talks has just ended in Bangkok – and again we saw a lot of talk and not enough action.

Less than 50 days now remain until the UN climate change meeting in Copenhagen. Here we must get a safe and just global climate agreement. A solution is possible, but the leaders of rich industrialised countries like Australia need to find the political will. This is where you can help.

The Australian Government’s emissions reduction targets are far too low. Taking these targets to Copenhagen will not help to achieve the effective global climate agreement that’s needed.

We need to increase political pressure on our government if they are to improve their target.

What’s our government’s position on climate change?

Current Australian Government policy is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions between 4-24% below 1990 levels by 2020. The latest science indicates that developed countries, including Australia, must adopt emissions reduction targets of at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2020, if the world is to have any hope of avoiding dangerous climate change. Historically Australia has released huge amounts of greenhouse gases in to the atmosphere. Today we are still one of the world’s largest per capita greenhouse gas polluters. We have a responsibility to be part of the solution.

While climate change is an international issue, the real pressure on governments to take action comes from their domestic constituency ie. from public opinion, the media, but importantly from the parliamentary opposition. Whether or not the Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) is passed in the Senate, the emissions reduction targets are far too low. The Opposition needs to make this a key message.

Without the Federal Opposition pushing the Australian Government, there is little incentive for the Government to do better. This needs to change.

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What’s wrong with Australia’s targets?

The Government has said it will go to Copenhagen with a maximum emissions reduction target of 25% below 2000 levels by 2020. What’s wrong with that? A number of things:

• A target of 25% below 2000 levels correlates to about 24% below 1990 levels. This falls well short of the International Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 2007 recommended range for developed countries of 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020.
• This 25-40% range was the previous ‘gold standard’ and is now outdated. Even when it was considered to be the range to aim for, it was only expected to give the world a 50/50 chance of keeping warming to 2ºC or less above pre-industrial levels. An increase of 2ºC was previously thought to be the maximum safe limit.
• Since 2007, every indication from science is that things are worse than was previously thought. The latest science indicates we should be aiming to keep warming to below 1.5°C in order to avoid dangerous climate change. That means that the 25-40% reduction range for developed countries is far too low.
• Furthermore, despite all the scientific evidence, the conditions attached to the Government’s 25% target are so stringent that they are unlikely to be met, in which case the maximum target will become a mere 15% below 2000 levels by 2020.

Write to the Federal Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, and Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Water, Greg Hunt, showing your support for higher emissions reductions targets and ask them to put pressure on the government to commit to a 40% reduction target (by 2020) before Copenhagen.

Simon Turner

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