The Australian Labor government is environmentally conscious, yet it refuses to split with the all-powerful coal business. Can a scandal now force a change of heart?
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| Workers working in a coal mine in Australia |
For many years, climate doubters dominated Australia. Leading politicians even shunned the worldwide campaign against climate change for a long period. For example, stolen papers two years ago revealed how Prime Minister Scott Morrison‘s former administration fought to weaken the UN climate report. Only recently, right before the Glasgow climate conference, did the country desire to catch up with the rest of the world and establish a zero-emissions objective by 2050. However, emissions should only be cut by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
Finally, the Australian voters was no longer ready to tolerate this passivity, and the centre-right alliance led by Morrison was defeated in the Australian legislative elections in May of last year. By then, practically every Australian had already been a “victim” of climate change’s consequences: massive bush fires ravaged the east of the nation in 2019/20, fueled by years of drought and high temperatures. The country subsequently faced the other extreme: numerous places fell beneath massive amounts of water, sometimes repeatedly. For years, the iconic Great Barrier Reef has been subjected to recurrent bleaching, and thousands of corals have already died as a result of heat waves.
As a result, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese‘s new social-democratic administration made a climate law a primary priority: just a few months after the election, the reduction of CO2 emissions by 43 percent by 2030 was enshrined in law. Australia is catching up to countries such as Canada (40 to 45 percent), South Korea (40 percent), and Japan with the new aim ( 46 percent ). This can be viewed as a win for a country that has been headed by climate change doubters for years and was already regarded an outcast globally.
However, much of what the new government is spreading turns out to be a nice picture. Because even the Social Democrats do not want to abandon the country’s all-powerful coal sector. Albanese, for example, opposed a halt on fossil fuel projects last July, claiming that it would have “devastating implications on the Australian economy.” In the same month, he perpetuated the idea that “quality coal” in Australia was comparatively clean, a belief shared by his liberal-conservative predecessors. If overseas consumers purchased coal from another country, global greenhouse gas emissions would rise; nevertheless, Australia’s coal is of higher quality and creates fewer emissions, according to the argument.
All of this, however, is a giant deception, according to independent MP Andrew Wilkie. Wilkie also informed the Australian Parliament about this in November. He was alluding to “thousands of documents” he allegedly acquired from a whistleblower, who was reportedly a coal industry official. His argument is that mining firms would use bogus test results to improve the grade of Australian coal. Bribes are reported to have been given to guarantee that individuals in charge overseas ignore inconsistencies and do not refuse shipments, according to Wilkie. Wilkie branded it a “fraud” and “environmental vandalism” that “undermines all notion of net-zero emissions by 2050.”
A number of significant firms, according to Wilkie, are implicated in the fraud charges. The legislator mentioned Macquarie Bank in Australia, as well as mining corporations Terracom, Anglo American, Peabody, and Glencore, all of whom dispute the claims. Tim Buckley, Director of the research group Climate Energy Finance, who has reviewed the materials filed to the court, believes the claims are well based. He was confident that “fraud, deceit, theft, and bribery” had occurred. The issue now is how far this goes. It’s all a “national shame” for Australia.
However, Buckley admitted that the violations are difficult to prove. The coal business has performed admirably. The data was only marginally altered “a percent here and there” and the money did not flow directly, but via various diversions, such as a “first-class vacation in New York”. Since Wilkie’s parliamentary address, the government has sought information from both regulator Asic and the Department of Industry. However, it is unlikely that the coal sector will face more than a reprimand and a punishment. Too many votes and too much government money are dependent on the sector, which employs around 50,000 people.
Although the new 43 percent aim and its legal grounding set a significant example, there are still implementation issues: There are “several methods of simply lowering emissions” for Australia, stated Frank Jotzo, a climate scientist at Australia’s National University in Canberra, in a technical piece published in the academic magazine The Conversation. For example, the transition from coal to renewable energy might be hastened. Because there are several renewable energy sources available: In addition to wind, tidal, wave, and geothermal energy, solar energy has a particularly great potential. There is certainly room for improvement in terms of energy efficiency, and the transition to electric vehicles may be advocated more aggressively. According to Jotzo, industry and agriculture could also achieve significant savings thanks to clean processes.
However, climate doubters repeatedly stymie progress by claiming that Australia’s contribution to the global system is insignificant. After all, the 26 million people are responsible for just more than 1% of world emissions. The latter argument, however, ignores the reality that Australia is equally responsible for emissions from the fossil fuels it exports. As a result, the figure has already grown to 3.6 percent.
According to Deloitte Access Economics analysts, transitioning to a low-carbon economy would also make financial sense for Australians. According to analysts, the change might result in AUD 680 billion in economic development and 250,000 additional employment by 2070. Nonetheless, renewable energy initiatives continue to struggle. According to media sources, one of the most publicized projects, Sun Cable, which was meant to provide solar electricity to Singapore via an underwater cable, is on the edge of failure. Whether the project, which was funded by two of Australia’s wealthiest entrepreneurs, can still be rescued is now in doubt.
The author Barbara Barkhausen is a journalist and television and radio producer.