A fire burned for two months on the Australian island of Fraser, a world natural heritage. Although a sudden downpour recently brought the blaze under control, heavy rains in turn caused flooding in the Australian east coast region.
The frequent extreme weather events could be explained by global warming, but also by the short-term vision of Australian decision-makers, including Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who was deprived of his speech during the summit on climate ambition on December 13. Summit seats are only available to leaders who set emission reduction targets for the next decade, announce zero emissions, provide funding to developing countries, or make plans and policies, according to the Guardian, a British newspaper. ambitious. Australia is not clearly one of them.
Five years ago, Australia pledged at the Paris Climate Change Conference to reduce its carbon emissions to between 26% and 28% by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. projections at the end of 2019 showed that by 2030 Australia’s carbon emissions will be only 16%, lower than 2005 levels. The September 2019 fire, which lasted more than four months, has burned 115,000 square kilometers of land, killing nearly three billion animals. Scott Morrison’s inability to deal with the fire has come under heavy criticism both at home and internationally.
Last December, with Australians worried about the spread of mountain fires, Morrison was on vacation in Hawaii, a move that sparked public outcry. Simon Holmes à Court, senior advisor at the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Energy, wrote to the Guardian earlier this year, noting “Mr Morrison says we are only responsible for 1.3% of global CO2 emissions, as if we had nothing to do with it. In fact, Australia, with only 0.3% of the world’s population, is one of the countries that emit the most greenhouse gases per capita ”, we read in his article.
Australia has been passive on the climate change file for a long time. It was among the two industrialized countries, along with the United States, to refuse to sign the Kyoto protocol. Although Australia signed the Paris Agreement, it also moved away from it when the United States announced its withdrawal from the agreement. As a developed country, it is unjustifiable for Australia to be hesitant and complacent on the issue of climate change.
The indifference of Australian leaders to climate change is also evident in the country’s industrial policy. Under the influence of the miners, the various governments which have succeeded have refused to legislate on the emission reduction targets promised at the Paris Conference. As transport emissions account for 19% of total Australian emissions, Australians should have implemented the reduction in the production and sale of fuel-hungry models or introduced vehicle fuel efficiency standards. But as local news channel ABC recently reported, models such as SUVs are still popular in Australia, despite being the only industrialized country not to have introduced fuel efficiency standards.
On the eve of the climate ambition summit, Mr Morrison, faced with questions about Australia’s commitment to cut emissions, used the tongue-in-cheek, saying: “I’m only here to answer to the Australian people and our government will be of service to the Australian people. These empty words completely disappointed the international community!
The fight against climate change is the common responsibility of all humanity. It is in the best interests of the Australian people. Morrison’s blahs cannot hide his indifference to the interests of the Australian people and his attachment to interest groups. How can we believe in the decision maker who let the fires spread in his country? Could he serve the Australian people as he claims? And when will Morrison’s calculations on the climate issue end?
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