Just three years after the defeat of the Morrison government, which saw numerous Liberal seats fall to the Teals who promised action on climate change, we are embarking on another election campaign. However, following steady declines from their peak in 2006, emissions reduction has completely stalled over the last 3 years under Labor.
Incredibly, this is still being blamed on COVID, and the increase in transport emissions generated by stir-crazy citizens jetting overseas.
Unsurprisingly, the official figures, released in the 2024 National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Update, do not include emissions from the burning of Australian coal and gas overseas. The figures also don’t include previously undetected methane leaking from oil and gas operations which the NASA Earth Observatory has revealed are 4 times larger than the amounts actually reported to the UN.
In fact, last year the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis released data obtained using the latest satellite technology, showing fugitive methane emissions from coal, oil, and gas mining in Australia have likely been grossly underestimated by about 80% for coal and 90% for oil and gas.
Perhaps these latest statistics are the reason why neither major party is talking about emissions reduction, but are focussing their campaigns on cost of living and housing availability, while seemingly ignoring the uncomfortable realities.
These include the fact that rising global temperatures are rendering large tracts across the tropics physically unliveable, which is leading to societal upheaval on an enormous scale.
You’d think the ever-escalating climate-related catastrophes such as the Californian bush fires, where more than 12,000 properties were burned, would be harder to ignore, but perhaps our leaders can follow the Trump lead and blame the destruction on political opponents for not providing enough water, rather than the effects of climate change.
Climate related catastrophes have reportedly cost $3.54 trillion since 2014, $795 billion more than the previous decade. Can we really ignore that, and the fact that many of our homes are now uninsurable as a result?
Action on climate change must be returned to the political agenda.
John Edwards