The Guardian view on climate change: a global emergency

Climate change is an existential threat to the human race. This may seem an absurd or alarmist statement, since we have been conditioned by unparallelled growth to expect that there are no catastrophes that are insurmountable. Even apocalyptic science fiction deals with bands of survivors who have, by definition, survived. And we always imagine ourselves as among the survivors.

The Amazon rainforest in Brazil. ‘The deforestation of
tropical regions, is doubly dangerous, because
it converts carbon sinks into producers of carbon.’

But the threat is real. The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tells us that there are only a dozen or so years in which to change our economies radically if we are to keep the effects of the warming already under way to manageable proportions. That would require the countries of the world to live up to the most ambitious of the goals of the Paris climate change agreement, and keep the rise in average global temperatures to 1.5C above preindustrial levels. A rise of even half a degree above that, to 2C, will have effects that are very much worse. Already this seems much more likely. All corals will disappear, as will many insects and plants.

Read the Opinion piece from The Guardian - “The Guardian view on climate change: a global emergency.”

Frydenberg energy plan merits support

To this day, a statement by the first chancellor of Germany, Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), has resounded throughout the world: ‘‘Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable – the art of the next best.’’ This notion is also expressed in the more recent axioms that politics is the art of compromise, and indeed is more about art than science. Viewed through this powerful prism, Australia’s energy policy has until recent months reflected limited artistry and an insufficient regard for science.

Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg: a
 powerful man with a power plan is having trouble
getting colleagues to see the light.

In recent days, an update from the Coalition government on the National Energy Guarantee, a policy to establish a carbon emissions reduction guarantee in the electricity market alongside a reliability guarantee, has reignited internecine strife, with supporters of coal-generated power pushing, in effect, for a delay in the inevitable and economically and environmentally responsible transition to a low-carbon economy. Such ideological intransigence has generated a decade of policy failure; the biggest impediment to the transition has been the lack of certainty. The lack of a clear and consistent policy has shackled the necessary investment in renewable energy.

Read the Editorial from today’s Age - “Frydenberg energy plan merits support.”