Australia’s conservative government fiddles on climate policy while the country burns

Malcolm Turnbull is given a jersey by Brisban
 Heat cricket captain Kirby Short. The PM says
Australia will 'meet and beat' carbon 
 emissions targets.

‘When Malcolm Turnbull deposed Tony Abbott as prime minister, serious action on global warming was hoped for – but almost nothing has changed’

Australia’s January news has been full of official reports of record-breaking extreme weather devastating our ecosystems on land and in the sea and government ministers suggesting we build new coal-fired power stations, provide billion-dollar subsidised loans to rail lines for new coal mega-mines, increase coal exports to reduce temperature rises and reduce our ambitions for renewable power.

The disconnect is glaring but perhaps dimmed in the eyes of some readers because Australian politicians have been dissembling on climate change for decades, pretending it will be possible to do what we must without any impact on our position as the world’s largest coal exporter or our domestic reliance on brown coal-fired power, or without incurring any costs.

The Coalition government – which boasts as one of its proudest achievements the repeal of the former government’s emissions trading scheme – has a particular need for doublespeak.

Read Lenore Taylor’s story on The Guardian - “Australia’s conservative government fiddles on climate policy while the country burns.”