The government's sudden passion for climate technology is newfound and insincere

If you’re committed to the Paris agreement – to keep the increase in global average temperature to well below two degrees above pre-industrial levels, and pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees – then at a minimum, logically, scientifically, you’re committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

‘With the technology available now
to begin deep decarbonisation,
it’s time to acknowledge that when
 it comes to achieving net-zero
emissions, failing to plan is planning to fail.’

So far, at least 77 countries have committed to the target, as has every state and territory in Australia. The fact that prime minister Scott Morrison is pushing back hard against the calls for such a target sends yet another strong signal that his government still denies the need to tackle climate change.

Sensing it must be seen to do something, but committed to doing nothing substantive, the government is arguing that investing in technology is the superior pathway to… to… to what? Are billions of dollars of public funds about to be allocated to a strategy that delivers on an unspoken goal?

This passion for technology is newfound and insincere. In truth, our government has a long history of undermining climate technologies.

Read the story from The Guardian by Simon Holmes à Court - “The government's sudden passion for climate technology is newfound and insincere.” 

‘It's been extreme': Australia's summer smashes seasonal heat records

Australia has posted its hottest summer and the first season in which temperatures exceeded two degrees above the long-term averages, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Australia will post its hottest ever summer and its
driest since 1982-83, preliminary data from the
Bureau of Meteorology says.CREDIT:

With one more day to round out the season, it is clear Australia has eclipsed the previous hottest summer set in 2012-13, David Jones, manager of the bureau's climate monitoring, told the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

"It's been extreme and certainly something we haven't seen before," Dr Jones said. "It's been dry and intensely hot right through summer.”

While final temperatures for February will be set on Thursday, maximum and mean temperatures will come in about two degrees above the 1961-90 period the bureau uses as its benchmark. While minimums were less extreme, they will eclipse the previous record for overnight temperatures set one year earlier.

Read the story from The Sydney Morning Herald by Peter Hannam - “‘It's been extreme': Australia's summer smashes seasonal heat records.”

'Weird winter': Climate change behind Australia's record hot and dry weather

Australia had its hottest winter on record with temperatures up by two degrees celsius on average and it is related to worsening climate change, according to a leading scientific group.

Australia has posted a record warm winter
- even if it didn't always feel that way.

Winter warm spells are lasting longer, occurring more often and becoming more intense, a report by not-for-profit group the Climate Council found.

In addition to the warmth, the nation experienced its second driest June on record and the driest winter since 2002, the Hot & Dry: Australia's Weird Winter report found.

Ecologist Professor Lesley Hughes said there were more than 260 heat and low rainfall records set throughout the season.

"Without any meaningful action to tackle climate change, we will continue to see many more hot winters, just like this, as global temperatures rise," Ms Hughes said.

Read the story in Melbourne Age by Marika Dobin Thomas - “'Weird winter': Climate change behind Australia's record hot and dry weather.”

Many confused about two degree limit, preferring the warmth to the cold

T

he idea of what is and isn’t a safe temperature for humans is confusing for most people who prefer the warmth rather than the cold.



PhD candidate, Australian
German Climate and Energy
 College at University of
Melbourne, Kate Dooley.

Talking recently with a friend about a particularly hot day he said, “Bring it on, I love it!”

Therein is the difficulty as most people make judgements on the basis of “now” and their historical experience of the weather and not connect what’s happening to the climate.

And so while many people are openly comfortable about a two degree increase, few understand what it means in the broader picture of a seriously disrupted climate that will equally seriously disrupt their lives.



Associate Professor
at University of Melbourne,
Peter Christoff.

To tell them that what they see as a marginal change in temperatures could unsettle much of their life is met with wonderment and quizzical thoughts about your sanity.

Associate Professor at University of Melbourne, Peter Christoff, and a PhD candidate, Australian German Climate and Energy College at University of Melbourne, Kate Dooley, have written about the two degree discussion on The Conversation.

Their story - “A matter of degrees: why 2C warming is officially unsafe” – argues for a tougher 1.5C warming limit in the new climate agreement expected in Paris in December this year.