To walk the talk on climate, Labor must come clean about the future for coal and gas

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 10:23:08 +1000

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/to-walk-the-talk-on-climate-labor-must-come-clean-about-the-future-for-coal-and-gas-183641>

"Australia’s climate election has been won. Now comes the harder part. It’s now
entirely possible we could see a government committed to domestic climate
action, speeding up the exit of coal and gas from our grid and electrifying
transport –while still exporting vast quantities of fossil fuels for other
countries to burn.

In short, we could fall into what we can call the “Norway trap”: clean at home,
dirty abroad. Norway has vigorously pursued clean energy and electric transport
at home and is progressing well towards its goal of a 55% reduction in
emissions by the end of the decade – while doubling down on exporting its oil
and gas reserves, thereby undermining its domestic gains.

In Australia, Labor still believes in supporting and expanding our fossil fuel
exports, which are by far our largest contribution to heating the planet.
Backing fossil fuels no doubt helped the new government keep coal seats such as
Hunter in New South Wales.

To change this situation, we need to urgently reduce the influence of the
fossil fuel lobby – and include our exported emissions in the government’s net
zero plans."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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