Time for honesty on climate and energy policy

Ian Dunlop - we need honesty
from our national political
leaders on Australian climate
and energy policy.

Recent weeks have seen unsurpassed dishonesty and irresponsibility from national political leaders on Australian climate and energy policy – the biggest issue we now face.

The mantra trotted out continually by federal government and opposition alike is that "coal is part of the national and international energy mix and will be so for decades to come", parroting coal industry leaders and lobbyists.

Strictly true, but it is a rapidly declining part if we are to meet the requirements of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, which Australia ratified on November 10. The International Energy Agency's latest analysis indicates global coal demand falling 50 per cent by 2040. But facts are irrelevant as this mantra is used to spruik rapid expansion of our own coal production, to maintain "energy security" domestically for example in SA, and to "alleviate poverty" with international exports by developing numerous new coal mines including Adani's megamine in the Queensland Galilee Basin.

The essential point ignored in this posturing is that we now face risks from global warming far beyond anything acknowledged officially here or overseas.

Read Ian Dunlop’s thoughts in The Sydney Morning Herald - “Time for honesty on climate and energy policy.”